The area of ideal triangles in Hilbert geometry (Q2565958)

This paper concerns with the so-called Hilbert geometry in \({\mathbb R}^n\), i.e., a couple \(({\mathcal C},d_{\mathcal C})\), where \({\mathcal C}\subset{\mathbb R}^n\) is a bounded convex domain of \({\mathbb R}^n\) and \(d_{\mathcal C}\) is a suitable metric (Hilbert metric). Then \(({\mathcal C},d_{\mathcal C})\) is a geodesic metric space with topology coinciding with that induced by the canonical topology of \({\mathbb R}^n\). Furthermore, the Hausdorff measure of the metric space \(({\mathcal C},d_{\mathcal C})\) coincides with a Borel measure induced by the Finsler metric \(F_{\mathcal C}\) of the convex domain \({\mathcal C}\subset{\mathbb R}^n\). The Hilbert measure \(\mu_{\mathcal C}\) of \({\mathcal C}\) is a measure related to \(F_{\mathcal C}\). If \({\mathcal C}\) is an ellipsoid, \(({\mathcal C},d_{\mathcal C})\) is a projective model (Klein model) for the hyperbolic geometry. The main result of this paper concerns the area of ideal triangles in the Hilbert geometry. An ideal triangle is a triangle \(T=abc\), contained in \({\mathcal C}\), with vertices \(a\), \(b\), \(c\), belonging to the boundary \(\partial{\mathcal C}\) of \({\mathcal C}\). Then the authors prove that ideal triangles have constant area \(A=\pi\) iff \({\mathcal C}\) is an ellipsoid; otherwise there are ideal triangles with areas \(A\leq\pi\), or \(A>\pi\). They are also able to fix the following estimate \(A\geq\pi^3/24\). Under some geometric conditions a superior boundary is found. Reviewer's remark: The mathematical techniques used are standard tools of functional analysis.