Rotational Crofton formulae with a fixed subspace (Q6144414)

The classical Crofton formula of integral geometry expresses an intrinsic volume \(V_m\) (\(m\in\{1,\dots,n\}\)) of a convex body in \({\mathbb R}^n\) (\(n\ge 3\)) as an average over a suitable intrinsic volume of the intersections of the body with a moving affine subspace of fixed dimension, with respect to a motion invariant measure. Motivated by stereological requirements, the present paper develops a formula where the moving subspaces contain a fixed subspace of lower dimension. More precisely, for a fixed \(r\)-dimensional linear subspace \(L_0\subset{\mathbb R}^n\) (\(r\in \{0,\dots,n-1\}\)) and a convex body \(K\subset{\mathbb R}^n\), the authors prove that \[ \int_{G(L_0,k)} \varphi_L^{L_0}(K\cap L)\,\nu_k^{L_0}(dL) = V_m(K) \] for \(k\in \{r+1,\dots,n\}\) and \(m\in\{n+r-k+1,\dots,n\}\), where \(G(L_0,k)\) is the set of \(k\)-dimensional linear subspaces containing \(L_0\) and \(\nu_k^{L_0}\) is the probability measure on \(G(L_0,k)\) that is invariant under the rotations fixing \(L_0\). The measurement function \(\varphi_L^{L_0}(K\cap L)\) in the integrand is explicitly given by an integral over \(q\)-dimensional affine planes, where \(q\) can be chosen to a certain extent. The measurement functions are independent of \(q\) and are investigated in greater detail. The proof of the main result makes use of Blaschke-Petkantschin and Crofton formulas. An appendix proves an integral-geometric formula for intrinsic volumes where averages are taken over affine planes of given dimension that are parallel to a fixed subspace.