Non-central sections of the simplex, the cross-polytope and the cube

DOI10.1016/J.AIM.2020.107458MaRDI QIDQ2214100zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Hermann König

Publication date 4 December 2020

Published in Advances in Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.10743

zbMATH Keywords

cross-polytopehypercubenon-central sectionsimplexvolume

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Polyhedra and polytopes; regular figures, division of spaces (51M20) Length, area, volume and convex sets (aspects of convex geometry) (52A38) (n)-dimensional polytopes (52B11)

Abstract: We determine the maximal hyperplane sections of the regular $n$-simplex, if the distance of the hyperplane to the centroid is fairly large, i.e. larger than the distance of the centroid to the midpoint of edges. Similar results for the n-cube and the l_1-ball were obtained by Moody, Stone, Zach and Zvavitch and by Liu and Tkocz. The maximal hyperplanes in these three cases are perpendicular to the vectors from the centroid to the vertices. For smaller distances -- in a well-defined range -- we show that these hyperplane sections are at least locally maximal. We also determine the hyperplane sections of the simplex, the cross-polytope and the cube which have maximal perimeter, i.e. maximal volume intersection with the boundary of the convex body.

Review text

Despite the fact that a wealth of different \((n-1)\)-dimensional polytopes can be obtained by intersecting the \(n\)-dimensional unit hypercube \([-1/2,1/2]^n\) with an (arbitrary) hyperplane, there exists an elegant general formula, due to \textit{K. Ball} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 97, 465--473 (1986; Zbl 0601.52005)] for their volume (see also [\textit{R. Frank} and \textit{H. Riede}, Am. Math. Mon. 119, No. 10, 868--872 (2012; Zbl 1264.51015)]). Keith Ball used this formula in order to determine the maximal possible value of this volume over all the hyperplanes that intersect the hypercube. A related question asks about the maximal possible volume of the intersection of \([-1/2,1/2]^n\) with a hyperplane \(H\) whose distance \(t\) to the origin is fixed. This question has been partially solved, in the case when \(t\) is greater than the distance to the origin of the midpoints of the edges of \([-1/2,1/2]^n\). For these values of \(t\), one of the half-spaces bounded by \(H\) contains no more than one vertex of the hypercube, which makes the computation tractable. It is shown in [\textit{J. Moody} et al., Fields Inst. Commun. 68, 211--228 (2013; Zbl 1270.52008)] that, in this case, the maximal volume is achieved when \(H\) is orthogonal to the diagonals of the hypercube. If one replaces the hypercube by its polar cross-polytope, the same question has been solved in [\textit{R. Liu} and \textit{T. Tkocz}, Adv. Appl. Math. 118, Article ID 102031, 16 p. (2020; Zbl 1440.52015)], also when \(t\) is greater than the distance between the origin and the midpoint of the edges of the cross-polytope: in that case, maximality occurs when \(H\) is orthogonal to the line between opposite vertices of the cross-polytope. This article considers the same problem in the case of the \(n\)-dimensional regular simplex \(\Delta^n\). Here, the distance \(t\) is measured between the hyperplane \(H\) and the centroid \(c\) of the simplex. It is shown that, when \(t\) is greater than the distance between \(c\) and the midpoints of the edges of \(\Delta^n\), the maximal volume of the intersection of \(\Delta^n\) with \(H\) is achieved when \(H\) is orthogonal to the line through \(c\) and a vertex of \(\Delta^n\). The article also shows that, in ranges of smaller values for \(t\), the volume of the intersection of \(\Delta^n\) with the hyperplanes orthogonal to the lines through the centroid of \(\Delta^n\) and its vertices is sometimes locally maximal, sometimes locally minimal. Similar local extremality results are given in the cases of the hypercube and the cross-polytope, in ranges where \(t\) is smaller than what was previously considered in the literature. Other extremality results are given, in particular regarding the volume of the boundary of the intersection of all three polytopes with \(H\) for well-defined ranges for \(t\).

Recommendations

• A note on the extremal non-central sections of the cross-polytope
• Non-central sections of convex bodies
• Central diagonal sections of the n-cube
• On a convexity property of sections of the cross-polytope
• Sections of simplices
• Hyperplane Sections of the <em>n</em>-Dimensional Cube
• Unique determination of convex polytopes by non-central sections
• On the volume of non-central sections of a cube
• Central slices of the regular simplex

Cites work

• A note on the extremal non-central sections of the cross-polytope
• A remark on the extremal non-central sections of the unit cube
• Central slices of the regular simplex
• Cube Slicing in R n
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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2177236 (Why is no real title available?)
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Cited in

(13)

• On the maximal perimeter of sections of the cube
• Central slices of the regular simplex
• An extremal problem of regular simplices: the five-dimensional case
• Slicing \(\ell_p\)-balls reloaded: stability, planar sections in \(\ell_1\)
• A note on the extremal non-central sections of the cross-polytope
• Sections of the regular simplex – Volume formulas and estimates
• Quantitative form of Ball's cube slicing in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and equality cases in the min-entropy power inequality
• Critical central sections of the cube
• Shallow sections of the hypercube
• Local extrema for hypercube sections
• Simplex slicing: an asymptotically-sharp lower bound
• Non-central sections of the \(l_1\)-ball
• The best ways to slice a polytope

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