The Voronoi functional is maximized by the Delaunay triangulation in the plane (Q722309)

For a set of points \(x_1\), \(x_2\), \dots, \(x_n\) in \(n\)-dimensional Euclidean space, the Voronoi domain of a point \(x_i\) is the set of all points of the space whose distance to \(x_i\) is not greater than their distance to other points of the set. The decomposition of the space into Voronoi domains is a Voronoi diagram. If points are in general position, the geometrically realized nerve decomposes the convex hull of the points into simplices, called the Delaunay triangulation. In the paper under review, the authors introduce the Voronoi functional of a triangulation of a finite set of points in Euclidean plane. In particular, for a triangle with acute angles, the Voronoi functional is equal to the volume below the standard paraboloid and above the tangent planes that touch the paraboloid in the lifted vertices of triangle, restricted to the vertical prism above the triangle. It is proved that among all the geometric triangulations of a finite point set, the Delaunay triangulation maximizes the Voronoi functional. It is shown by counterexamples that this result neither extends to topological triangulations in the plane nor to geometric triangulations in three and higher dimensions.