Helly type theorems for the sum of vectors in a normed plane (Q486197)

Let \(\|\cdot\|\) be a fixed norm in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) whose unit ball is \(B\). The authors establish first the following theorem: Theorem 1. Assume \(n \geq 3\) is an odd integer and \(V = \{v_1, v_2, \dots, v_n\}\subset \mathbb{R}^2\) is a set of unit vectors. If \(\langle u , v_i\rangle \geq 0\) for every index \(i\), with a suitable non-zero vector \(u \in \mathbb{R}^2\), then \(\|v_1 + v_2 + \dots + v_n\| \geq 1\). The main results of the paper are the following two unusual Helly type theorems, whose proofs use Theorem 1: Theorem 2. Assume \(n \geq 3\) is an odd integer and \(V = \{v_1, v_2, \dots, v_n\}\subset \mathbb{R}^2\) is a set of unit vectors. If the sum of any three of them has norm at least 1, then \(\|v_1 + v_2 + \dots + v_n\| \geq 1\). Theorem 3. Assume \(n \geq 3\) is an odd integer and \(V = \{v_1, v_2, \dots, v_n\}\subset B\). If the sum of any three elements of V has norm larger than 1, then \(\|v_1 + v_2 + \dots + v_n\| > 1\). Finally, a new characterization of centrally symmetric convex sets in the plane is given.