scientific article; zbMATH DE number 176913

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0755.00003.] The Helly dimension him \(\Sigma\) of a family \(\Sigma\) of convex sets in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) is the largest integer \(m\) for which there are \(m+1\) members of \(\Sigma\) with empty intersection while every \(m\) of these \(m+1\) sets have nonempty intersection. For a compact convex set \(M\), let \(T(M)\) denote the set of all translates of \(M\); \(\text{him} T(M) \leq 1\) if and only if \(M\) is a parallelepiped [\textit{B. Sz.-Nagy}, Acta Sci. Math. 15, 169-177 (1954; Zbl 0057.145)]. The Sz.-Nagy problem is to characterize, for \(k=2,3,\ldots,n\), those compact convex bodies in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) for which \(\text{him} T(M) \leq k\). The last two authors solved this for \(k=2\) [Sov. Math. Dokl. 30, 755-757 (1984); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 279, 1033-1035 (1984; Zbl 0586.52006)]. The first author proved that if \(M\) is a zonohedron in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) then \(\text{him} T(M) \leq k\) if and only if \(M\) is the direct sum of zonohedra each of which has dimension \(\leq k\). In the paper under review the authors generalize this to the larger class of belt polyhedra (convex polyhedra with the property that for any 2-dimensional face \(Q\) and for any 1-dimensional face \(P \subset Q\) there exists another 1-dimensional face \(P' \subset Q\) parallell to \(P)\), giving a geometric proof that: If \(M\) is a belt zonohedron then \(\text{him} T (M) \leq k\) if and only if \(M\) is the direct sum of polyhedra each of which has dimension \(\leq k\). The proof is a geometric tour de force. (The reviewer wonders why the paper by the first author reviewed in Soobshch. Akad. Nauk Cruz. SSR 142, No. 3, 469-472 (1991; Zbl 0756.52008) is not in the list of references).

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