On the extendability by continuity of angular valuations on polytopes

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Publication:2192341



Abstract: A classical theorem of P. McMullen describes all valuations on polytopes that are invariant under translations and weakly continuous, i.e., continuous with respect to parallel displacements of the facets of a polytope. While it is typically not difficult to check that a valuation is weakly continuous, it is not clear how to decide whether it admits a continuous extension to convex bodies. In a special case of McMullen's construction a simple necessary and sufficient condition on the initial data of such an extension is obtained.


A valuation on the space of convex bodies in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) is a function \(\mu\) that satisfies \[ \mu(K \cup L) + \mu(K \cap L) = \mu(K) + \mu(L) \] whenever \(K,L\) are such that \(K \cup L\) is also convex. On polytopes, the reviewer [Arch. Math. 41, 555--564 (1983; Zbl 0526.52003)] showed that for polytopes a weakly continuous (that is, continuous under parallel displacement of facets) translation-invariant valuation admits a certain geometric expression. One case of this is \[ \mu_{\pi^*f}(P) = \sum \, f(\overline F)\gamma(F,P)\mathop{\mathrm{vol}}\nolimits_k(F), \] where \(\overline F \in \mathrm{Gr}_k\) is the linear subspace parallel to the \(k\)-face \(F\) of \(P\), \(\gamma(F,P)\) is the (normalized) outer angle to \(P\) at \(F\), and \(f\colon \mathrm{Gr}_k \to \mathbb{C}\). In this paper, the author answers the following question: when does \(\mu_{\pi^*f}\) admit a continuous extension to all convex bodies? The answer is surprisingly straightforward: this is so if and only if \(f\) is the restriction of a \(2\)-homogeneous polynomial to the image of the Plücker embedding \(\psi\colon \widetilde{\mathrm{Gr}}_k \to \bigwedge^k\mathbb{R}^n\) of the oriented Grassmannian, which is given by \[ \psi(E) = u_1 \wedge \cdots \wedge u_k, \] with \(u_1,\dots,u_k\) a positively oriented basis of \(E \in \mathrm{Gr}_k\).



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