Starshaped sets (Q2216442)

A subset \(S\) of \(\mathbb{R}^d\) (say) is called starshaped if there exists a point \(x\in S\) such that for each \(y\in S\) the segment with endpoints \(x\) and \(y\) belongs to \(S\). In the words of the authors, this is an expository paper ``emphasizing the geometric, analytical, combinatorial, and topological properties of starshaped sets and their broad applicability in many mathematical fields''. The authors have meticulously combed the existent literature and have documented and described a huge number of appearances of starshaped sets (563 references). It seems safe to predict that every interested reader will find something that is new for him/her and of value. The first part of the survey deals with structural properties of starshaped sets, relations between starshaped sets, variants and generalizations. The wealth of the presented material can here only be illuminated by quoting the section headings. 1. Introduction, 2. Basic notions and definitions, 3. Cones, 4. Starshaped sets and visibility, 5. Star generators. Representations of the kernel, 6. Krasnosel'skii-type theorems, 7. Asymptotic structure of starshaped sets, 8. Support cones, 9. Separation of starshaped sets, 10. Extremal structure of starshaped sets, 11. Dimension of the kernel of a starshaped set, 12. Admissible kernels of starshaped sets, 13. Radial functions of starshaped sets, 14. Sums, unions, and intersections of starshaped sets, 15. Spaces of starshaped sets, 16. Selectors for star bodies, 17. Star duality, intersection bodies, and related topics, 18. Extensions and generalizations. Already in the first part, instances are mentioned where generalizations of classical theories from convexity necessitate the use of starshaped sets and radial functions. So Sections 14 and 17 discuss, for example, the dual Brunn-Minkowski inequality, the Orlicz-Brunn-Minkowski theory and its dual, intersection bodies, valuations on star bodies, and several other topics. The second part of this survey gives a broad picture of the use of starshaped sets in various fields from pure and applied mathematics. A quotation of the section headings may give a picture of the diversity of these applications. 19.1. Discrete and computational geometry, 19.2. Inequalities, 19.3. Starshapedness in differential geometry, 19.4. Starshaped sets and PDE, 19.5. Starshapedness in fixed point theory, 19.6. Starshaped sets in approximation theory, 19.7. Applications of starshapedness in optimization. This overwhelming picture of the numerous appearances of starshaped sets in various different surroundings concludes with 19.8. Further topics. This section considers, for example, fractal star bodies, starshaped Kakeya sets, random starshaped sets, typical starshaped sets in the Baire category sense. We mentioned these here to emphasize the extremely wide range of the topic of starshaped sets.