The reverse Hlawka inequality in a Minkowski space (Q2352224)

Let \(E\) be a Euclidean space. If \(l(x)\) denotes the norm of \(x\in E\) induced by the Euclidean metric, then \[ l(x+y)+l(y+z)+l(z+x)\leq l(x)+l(y)+l(z)+l(x+y+z) \] for every \(x\), \(y\), \(z\in E\). This is the Hlawka inequality and it is sharp. The author studies the Hlawka inequality when the Minkowski metric is considered in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), namely, when \(l(x)=\sqrt{|q(x,x)|}\) and \(q\) is a quadratic form on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with signature \((1,n-1)\). This metric is fundamental in the theory of relativity, where the set of vectors such that \(q(x,x)=0\) is the boundary of two cones, the future cone and the past cone. The main result is that the reverse Hlawka inequality \[ l(x+y)+l(y+z)+l(z+x)\geq l(x)+l(y)+l(z)+l(x+y+z) \] is true for every \(x,y,z\) in the future cone, and the equality holds if and only if either one element among \(x\), \(y\), or \(z\) is 0, or \(x\), \(y\) and \(z\) are collinear.