Exterior algebra and projection of polytopes (Q912187)

The principal object of study is the Grassmann manifold G(k,n) of all k- dimensional subspaces of \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\). Let Q be a convex polytope in \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\) and let V(Q:L) be the k-dimensional volume of the orthogonal projection of Q into a k-plane \(L\in G(k,n)\). The basis of the results of the paper is Theorem I: The function V(Q:L) is piecewise linear on G(k,n). This fact is not new [\textit{H. Busemann}, \textit{G. Ewald} and \textit{G. C. Shephard}, Convex bodies and convexity on Grassmann cones, Math. Ann. 151, 1-41 (1963; Zbl 0112.373)], but its proof in Section 2 contains an alternative construction of V(Q:L) which yields some interesting new corollaries. As an application of Theorem I, the author proves in Section 3 that the transform of a polytope also gives its volume. A special case of the above occurs when Q is an n-dimensional simplex. Then the decomposition of G(k,n) induced by V(Q:L) corresponds to the combinatorial equivalence of polytopes with at most \(n+1\) (labeled) vertices. This decomposition refines to the decomposition induced by chirotopes. The final section deals with the problem of maximizing V(Q:L), \(L\in G(k,n)\). Section 4 relates the largest projections of the regular simplex, cross polytope, and cube to the solutions of other extremum problems and gives some necessary conditions. Section 5 contains a unique result for the problem above. Theorem II: There is at most one maximal projection in each open region of G(k,n), \(k=2\) or n-2, on which V(Q:L) is linear.