Description of translation invariant valuations on convex sets with solution of P. McMullen's conjecture (Q5943669)

The author gives a spectacular proof for a conjecture of P. McMullen from 1980. Let \(X\) denote the real vector space of all translation invariant, continuous real valuations on the space of convex bodies (with the Hausdorff metric) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). An example for an element of \(X\) is given by \(\psi(K)= V(K,\dots, K,A_1)\), where \(V\) denotes the mixed volume in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), the argument \(K\) appears \(n-j\) times \((j\in \{0,\dots,n\})\), and \(A_1, \dots, A_j\) are fixed convex bodies. \(X\) is topologized by the sequence of semi-norms given by \(\|\varphi \|_N:= \sup_{K\subset NB} |\varphi (K) |\), where \(NB\) is the Euclidean ball of radius \(N\). McMullen had conjectured that the linear combinations of mixed volumes (i.e., functions \(\psi\) as above) are dense in \(X\). To prove this, the author uses the natural continuous representation \(\pi\) of the general linear group \(GL(n, \mathbb{R})\) on \(X\) defined by \((\pi(g) \varphi)(K): =\varphi(g^{-1} K)\). Theorem: The natural representation of \(GL(n,\mathbb{R}\)) on the space of even (resp. odd) translation invariant continuous valuations of given degree of homogeneity is irreducible. From this, the truth of McMullen's conjecture follows immediately. The proof of the theorem goes deep into representation theory and uses, for example, \({\mathcal D}\)-modules.