Cannons at sparrows
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Cannons at sparrows
zbMATH Open document ID: 1329.00021
published in: European Mathematical Society Newsletter
publication date: 2015-07-06T00:00:00Z
review text: This fascinating and entertaining article begins with an apparently simple problem in convex geometry, due to R. Nandakumar and R. Ramana Rao: given a convex shape, can it be partitioned into \(N\) pieces so that all pieces have equal area and perimeter? (This is different, except when \(N=2\), from the ``cake and icing problem'' of dividing the region into pieces that each have the same area and the same portion of the original body's perimeter.) The \(N=2\) case can be solved easily (if unsportingly) by the use of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem. This paper summarizes further progress on the problem, which involves even more diverse heavy artillery. To even represent the topological space of equal-area partitions requires ideas from the theory of \textit{optimal transport}, and particularly a 1938 theorem of Kantorovich on weighted Voronoi diagrams. Once posed in this way, the problem can be converted into a problem in equivariant algebraic topology via the ``configuration space / test map scheme''. If there is \textit{no} solution to the original problem, then there is an equivariant map from a certain (\(n-1\))-dimensional cell complex to the (\(n-2\))-sphere. The existence or nonexistence of this map can be determined using equivariant obstruction theory. This in turn leads, via permutahedra, to a question (solved over a hundred years ago) about prime factors of entries in Pascal's triangle, and the final result of the paper, due to the author and Blagojević: if \(N\) is a prime power, the desired dissection exists. The paper is clear and well-written, though I was puzzled to find ``equivariant obstruction theory'' abbreviated as ``EOS'' twice. This appears to be a typo: it's ``EOT'' on two other occasions.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 00A08
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 52A38
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 55P91
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 55R80
zbMATH DE Number: 6455890
zbMATH Keywords: dissection
zbMATH Keywords: perimeter
zbMATH Keywords: area
zbMATH Keywords: Voronoi diagram
zbMATH Keywords: configuration space
zbMATH Keywords: test map
zbMATH Keywords: obstruction
zbMATH Keywords: equivariant obstruction theory
zbMATH Keywords: permutahedron
zbMATH Keywords: Pascal's triangle
author: Günter M. Ziegler
reviewed by: Robert Dawson
MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 6455890