Normal bundles of convex bodies (Q2445951)

Let \( C \subset {\mathbb E}^n \) be a convex body symmetric with respect to the origin, and \({\mathrm {bd}} C \) be its boundary. The author defines its \textit{normal bundle cone} \( {\mathcal N}_C \subset {\mathbb E}^{n^2} \) as the positive hull of the set \( \{x \otimes n_C (x); \, x \in {\mathrm {bd}} C \}\), and its \textit{polar cone} \( {\mathcal N}_C^* \) as \( \{ Y \in {\mathrm {lin}} \,{\mathcal N}_C : \, X \cdot Y \geq 0, \, X \in {\mathcal N}_C \} \). Here \({\mathrm {lin}} \) denotes the linear hull and \( n_C(x) \) is the exterior normal vector to \({\mathrm {bd}} C \) at \( x\). The main results of the paper are devoted to: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[-]Detailed description of general properties of the normal bundle cone of a convex set, in particular relations of the type \({\mathcal N}_{C + D} \subseteq {\mathcal N}_C + {\mathcal N}_D \) (Theorem~1); \item[-] Description of the space of normal bundle cones as the subset of all convex cones in \( {\mathbb E}^{n^2} \) (Theorem~2); \item[-] Estimates of dimensions of the normal bundle cones, in particular \( \frac{1}{2} d(d+1) \leq { \mathrm {dim}} {\mathcal N}_C \leq d^2 \). Studies of sharpness of these estimates (Theorem 3); \item[-] Polarity and transposition properties of the normal bundle cones, such as the relations of the type \({\mathcal N}_C \subseteq {\mathcal N}_C^* \) and analysis of their sharpness (Theorem~4). \item[-] Theorem 5. There is one-to-one correspondence between the family of all rank one faces of the cone \( {\mathcal N}_C \) and the family of all planar shadow boundaries of the body \( C \) with respect to parallel illumination. \end{itemize}} The author formulates three natural conjectures concerning dimensions of the normal bundle cones; relations of isometries (and linear automorphisms) of \( {\mathcal N}_C \) to those of \( C \); and possibility of generalizations of the Theorem~5 to higher codimensions.