Minkowski valuations intertwining the special linear group (Q713958)

In the theory of valuations several characterizations have been discovered since they appeared in Dehn's solution of Hilbert's Third Problem. In particular, M. Ludwig developed a theory of body-valued valuations which allowed her to obtain simple characterizations of basic geometric operators, and, recently, her results led to strengthenings and generalizations of several affine isoperimetric and Sobolev inequalities. All proofs of the above characterizations heavily rely on the assumption of homogeneity. The aim of this paper is to get characterizations without such an assumption. Denoting by \(\mathcal{K}^n_0\) the class of convex bodies containing the origin, all continuous Minkowski valuations \(Z: \mathcal{K}^n_0\to\mathcal{K}^n_0\) which are compatible with the special linear group are completely classified, according as these are contravariant or covariant. A map \(Z: \mathcal{K}^n_0\to\mathcal{K}^n_0\) is said to be \(SL(n)\) contravariant if \(Z(\phi K)=\phi^{-t}Z K\) for every \(\phi\in SL(n)\) and \(K\in\mathcal{K}^n_0\), where \(\phi^{-t}\) is the inverse of the transpose of \(\phi\). The map \(Z\) is said to be \(SL(n)\) covariant if \(Z(\phi K)=\phi Z K\) for every \(\phi\in SL(n)\) and \(K\in\mathcal{K}^n_0\). The author proves that (up to scalar multiples) the unique continuous \(SL(n)\) contravariant Minkowski valuation is represented by the projection body. Further, \(Z\) is a continuous \(SL(n)\) covariant Minkowski valuation if and only if there exist non-negative constants \(c_1,c_2,c_3,c_4\) such that \(Z K=c_1K+c_2(-K)+c_3\Gamma_+K+c_4\Gamma_+(-K)\), for every \(K\in\mathcal{K}_0^n\). Here \(\Gamma_+K\) is the asymmetric centroid body of \(K\), defined to be the convex body whose support function is given by \[ h_{\Gamma_+K}(u)=\int_K(u\cdot x)_+dx, \] where integration is with respect to Lebesgue measure, \(u\in S^{n-1}\), and \((u\cdot x)_+\) denotes the positive part of the standard Euclidean product of \(u\) and \(x\). In fact, more general results are obtained concerning Minkowski valuations which are either defined on polytopes and are not necessarily continuous on the whole domain, or their images do not have to contain the origin. A useful reference section is also provided.