On pairs of vectors achieving the maximal angle of a convex cone (Q2576733)

Let \(K\) be a closed convex cone in \(\mathbb R^{d}\) and denote the unit sphere of \(\mathbb R^{d}\) by \(S_{d}\). Two points \(u\) and \(v\) of \(K\cap S_{d}\) are called antipodal points of \(K\) if their distance is maximal. The angle of \(u\) and \(v \) is then called the maximal angle of \(K\). The authors first consider some general aspects of antipodal points and antipodal faces. For instance, it is shown that the antipodal map, which associates to each cone \(K\) its set of pairs of antipodal points, is upper semicontinuous. A greater part of the paper is devoted to the study of ``critical'' pairs of points which satisfy a certain necessary condition for antipodality. They might also be called ``stationary'' pairs. The angles formed by critical pairs of points are called critical angles. These angles are investigated in particular for polyhedral cones. For instance, it is shown that a polyhedral cone admits only a finite number of critical angles. Several results refer to the question what pairs of generators of a polyhedral cone yield a critical or maximal angle.