Centro-affine tensor valuations (Q2012510)

A valuation on the set \(\mathcal{P}^n_o\) of convex polytopes in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) containing the origin in the interior is a map \(\mu\) from \(\mathcal{P}^n_o\) into some abelian semigroup that satisfies \(\mu(P\cup Q)+\mu(P\cap Q)=\mu(P)+\mu(Q)\) whenever \(P,Q,P\cup Q\in \mathcal{P}^n_o\). In the present paper, the image space is the vector space \(\mathrm{Sym}^p(\mathbb{R}^n)\) of symmetric tensors of rank \(p\geq 2\) on \(\mathbb{R}^n\). The special linear group \(\mathrm{SL}(n)\) acts on \((\mathbb{R}^n)^{\otimes p}\) by \(\phi\cdot x = \phi^{\otimes p}(x)\) for \(\phi\in\mathrm{SL}(n)\) and \(x\in (\mathbb{R}^n)^{\otimes p}\). The map \(\mu\) is called \(\mathrm{SL}(n)\)-covariant if \(\mu(\phi P)=\phi\cdot\mu(P)\) for all \(\phi\in\mathrm{SL}(n)\) and all \(P\in\mathcal{P}^n_o\). Examples of such maps are given by \[ M^{p,0}(P) = (n+p) \int_P x^{\odot p}\,d\lambda(x),\qquad M^{0,p}(P) =\int_{S^{n-1}} u^{\odot p}\,d S_p(P,u), \] where \(\odot\) indicates the symmetric tensor product, \(\lambda\) is Lebesgue measure, \(S^{n-1}\) is the unit sphere, and \(S_p(P,\cdot)\) is the \(L_p\) surface area measure of \(P\). The authors prove the following classification theorem. If \(p \geq 2\) and \(n\geq 3\), then a map \(\mu:\mathcal{P}^n_o\to \mathrm{Sym}^p(\mathbb{R}^n)\) is a (Borel) measurable \(\mathrm{SL}(n)\)-covariant valuation if and only if there exist constants \(c_1,c_2\in\mathbb{R}\) such that \[ \mu(P) = c_1 M^{p,0}(P) +c_2 M^{0,p}(P^*) \] for all \(P\in\mathcal{P}^n_o\). Here \(^*\) denotes the polar mapping. Together with previous results, this allows the authors to present bases for the vector spaces of all measurable \(\mathrm{SL}(n)\)-covariant valuations \(\mu:\mathcal{P}^n_o\to \mathrm{Sym}^p(\mathbb{R}^n)\), for \(n\geq 3\). Modifications of these results for \(n=2\) are also proved.