Questions tagged [convex-polytopes]
Convex polytopes are the convex hulls of a finite set of points in Euclidean spaces. They have rich combinatorial, arithmetic, and metrical theory, and are related to toric varieties and to linear programming
942 questions
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Catalan sequences vs composition sequences
In the paper, A polytope related to empirical distributions, plane trees, parking functions, and the associahedron, Pitman and Stanley studied the $n$-dimensional polytope
$$\Pi_n(\mathbf x)=\{y\in\...
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Information inequalities
What are the feasible $2^n$-tuples of entropies $h(S) := H(X_{i_1},\dots,X_{i_{|S|}})$ where $X_1,\dots,X_n$ are discrete random variables with some (unknown) joint probability distribution as $S=\{...
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Given a group action on a simplex, can I always find a fundamental region that is a simplex?
Let $\Delta\subset\Bbb R^n$ be a simplex with $n+1$ vertices. Let $G\subset\mathrm{GL}(\Bbb R^n)$ be a finite group of linear symmetries of $\Delta$, i.e. linear transformations that fix the simplex ...
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The convex hull of Schur polynomial evaluations
Let $r\leq n$ and $d$ be positive integers. A probability vector is a vector of non-negative entries that sum to 1. For each probability vector $\lambda$ of length $n$, let
$$s(\lambda)=(\dim[\pi] \...
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Does this construct Platonic solids?
Consider $\mathrm{O}(3)\curvearrowright\mathbb{R}^3$. Let $\Gamma\subseteq\mathrm{O}(3)$ be a finite group. Let $x\in \mathbb{R}^3\setminus\{0\}$ be a point such that $\mathrm{Stab}_\Gamma(x)$ has ...
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Do this polyhedron and other set have names?
Updated: My first post had a mistake because I confused in my mind two different but related sets. Hopefully the description below is correct now.
Let $\Lambda$ be a finite set. Let $\Lambda^{(2)}$ be ...
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Volume of all Voronoi cells in n-dimensional bounded space
How can one find the volume of all Voronoi cells (bounded and unbounded) in an $n$-dimensional bounded space? For instance, consider an $N$-dimensional space (hypercube) with bounds on each dimension ...
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Determining whether a lattice is the face lattice of a polytope - NP hard or undecidable?
According to this source (p. 10), determining whether a simplicial complex is a simplicial sphere (the sphere recognition problem) is undecidable.
According to this source, determining whether a ...
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Covering the unit sphere in $\mathbf{R}^n$ with $2n$ congruent disks
Let $v_i$ be $2n$ points in $\mathbf{R}^n$, with equal distance $|v_i|$ from the origin. Suppose that the convex hull of these points contains the unit ball. Is it known that $|v_i|\geq\sqrt{n}$? ...
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Combinatorics for the action of Virasoro / Kac–Schwarz operators: partition polynomials of free probability theory
In the background sections below, I establish the relations among characterizations of the action of Virasoro / Kac–Schwarz operators of 2D gravity models presented in terms of Laurent series by ...
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Does a matroid base polytope contain its circumcenter?
Let $(X,\mathcal B)$ be a matroid on the ground set $X=(x_1,...,x_n)$ and with set of bases $\mathcal B$, and let $P\subset\Bbb R^n$ be its matroid base polytope (i.e. the convex hull of the ...
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Unusual symmetries of the Cayley-Menger determinant for the volume of tetrahedra
Suppose you have a tetrahedron $T$ in Euclidean space with edge lengths $\ell_{01}$, $\ell_{02}$, $\ell_{03}$, $\ell_{12}$, $\ell_{13}$, and $\ell_{23}$. Now consider the tetrahedron $T'$ with edge ...
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Known configurations maximizing the volume of the convex hull of n points on the unit sphere
For $n\geq 4$, let $V_n$ be the maximum volume of the convex hull of $n$ points on the unit sphere (in $\mathbb{R}^3$, although information on higher dimensions is welcome as well). I'm sure the ...
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Is the problem of vertex enumeration from an H-representation of a polytope NP-hard?
According to the Wikipedia page on the issue, the vertex enumeration problem is NP-hard.
However, double description and reverse linear search are algorithms listed to solve the problem. Moreover, ...
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Membership test of convex set
Let $K$ be a compact convex subset of $R^n$ which has some positive gaussian measure, say at least 1/2. For each nonzero vector $u \in R^n$, we
define another compact convex set $K * u$ in the ...
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On the extreme points of two convex sets
Let $A$ and $B$ be two compact convex sets (which may be assumed to be polytopes) in $\mathbb R^n$ such that $A\cap B\ne\emptyset$. Is it then always true that either $A\cap\text{ext}B\ne\emptyset$ ...
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Does the edge-graph of a centrally symmetric polytope determine which vertices are antipodal?
Given two origin symmetric convex polytopes $P_1$ and $P_2$ (that is $P_i=-P_i$) with the same edge-graph, but potentially of different dimensions and combinatorial types.
Let $\phi: G_{P_1}\to G_{P_2}...
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Which polytopes can be folded to an edge?
While playing with bar-and-joint linkages, I noticed that the skeleton of a regular 3-dimensional cube can be folded to a single edge (this can be achieved by first flexing the cube to bring it to a ...
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Approximation of convex bodies by polytopes corresponding to smooth toric varieties
Let $P\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be an $n$-dimensional polytope with rational vertices. There is a well known construction which produces an $n$-dimensional algebraic variety $X_P$ called toric variety. In ...
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Inscribed $n$-polytope with $2^n$ vertices of maximal volume
The question is in the title:
Question: Which inscribed $n$-dimensional polytope (inscribed in the unit sphere) with $2^n$ vertices has the largest possible volume?
Is it the $n$-dimensional cube? ...
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How to correctly state Cauchy's rigidity theorem?
Cauchy's rigidity theorem is often stated briefly as
Any two (convex, 3-dimensional) polyhedra with pairwise congruent faces are themselves congruent.
As a more formal generalization to general ...
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A rational polytope that is not a 01-polytope?
A 01-polytope is the convex hull of some points $S\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$. I wonder, which polytopes can be represented (combinatorially) as 01-polytopes? There are polytopes that cannot have rational ...
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The view from inside of a mirrored tetrahedron
Suppose you were standing inside a regular tetrahedron $T$ whose
internal face surfaces were perfect mirrors.
Let's assume $T$'s height is $3{\times}$ yours, so that your
eye is roughly at the ...
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How many ways can you inscribe five 24-cells in a 600-cell, hitting all its vertices?
You can inscribe five tetrahedra in a dodecahedron so that each vertex of the dodecahedron is the vertex of just one tetrahedron, as drawn here by Greg Egan:
Warmup question: How many ways can you do ...
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How can we prove this combinatorial identity?
This is a follow up on my earlier MO post. Let's recall the sets
$$\mathbf{K}_n=\{\mathbf{k}\in\mathbb{Z}^n: k_i\geq0, k_1+\cdots+ k_n=n, k_1+\cdots k_i\leq i, \text{for all $1\leq i\leq n$}\}$$
and $\...
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A converse question about the polyhedrality under linear mapping
It is quite well known that for any polyhedral set $K$ and any linear mapping $A$, the set $AK$ is polyhedral and hence closed. I am more curious about the converse problem, namely:
Suppose $K$ is a ...
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Proof of Lemma 37.5 in Pak's Lectures on Discrete and Polyhedral Geometry
I am staring at the proof of Lemma 37.5 in Lectures on Discrete and Polyhedral Geometry, see page 331.
I cannot understand why the required triangulation exists.
In the first paragraph it says "...
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Generalizations of the Birkhoff-von Neumann Theorem
The famous Birkhoff-von Neumann theorem asserts that every doubly stochastic matrix can be written as a convex combination of permutation matrices.
The question is to point out different ...
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Algorithm for finding the volume of a convex polytope
It's easy to find the area of a convex polygon by division into triangles, but what is the optimal way of finding the volume of higher-dimensional convex bodies? I tried a few methods for dividing ...
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How can I find the hyperplane passing through a 600-cell
I have a 600-cell, whose coordinates are given by
$$\begin{array}{ccc}
\text{8 vertices} & \left(0,0,0,\pm1\right) & \text{all permutations,}\\
\text{16 vertices} & \frac{1}{2}\left(\pm1,\...
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Minimal data required to determine a convex polytope
Let $P\subset \Bbb R^d$ be a convex polytope.
Suppose that I know
its combinatorial type (aka. the face-lattice),
the length $\ell_i$ of each edge, and
the distance $r_i$ of each vertex from the ...
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Secondary polytope
Given a polytope $P$, what do the points of the secondary polytope correspond to?
I know that the vertices of the secondary polytope correspond to regular triangulations of $P$.
But what do the ...
- 43.2k
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539
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Algorithm to find a facet of a polyhedron given the vertices?
I have a set of points $X=\{x_1,\ldots,x_N\}$ on the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^d$ ($N>d\ge 3$). What is an algorithm to find any facet of the polyhedron whose vertices are $X$?
The set $X$ has ...
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Topology of a union of facets of a convex polytope
The following question arose from a survey paper I am writing on
combinatorial reciprocity. Let $\mathcal{P}$ be a $d$-dimensional
convex polytope. Let $\mathcal{Q}$ be a union of facets (codimension
...
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$\psi_2$ marginals of the permutahedron?
Let $K$ be a convex body.
I in particular care about the permutahedron.
I will view this as being the convex hull of all coordinate-wise permutations of the vector
$$v = \frac{1}{2n+2}(-n, -n+2,\dots, ...
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Estimating the Hausdorff distance of parallel facets of convex polytopes
Background
Let $\mathcal{K}_P^n$ denote the class of open, convex, $n$-dimensional polytopes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ containing the origin. For each $K\in \mathcal{K}_P^n$, its gauge function $f_*:\mathbb{R}...
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Maximum number of vectors with bounds on inner products
Suppose there are 2n vectors $\{m_1,m_2,...,m_n\}$ and $\{\mu_1,\mu_2,...,\mu_n\}$. All vectors are in k-dimensional Euclid space $R^k$. The vectors satisfy:
$$m_i \mu_j \leq 0, \quad \forall i\neq j $...
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In a set of n points on $R^d$, each point can be "well separated" from the rest by a linear functional. Is the dimension necessarily $\Omega(n)$?
For $x\in\mathbb{R}^d$ and $A\subset\mathbb{R}^d$, we say that $x$ is well separated from $A$ if there is a linear functional $f:\mathbb{R}^d\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ such that $f(A)\subseteq [0,1]$ and $...
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Factorising a multivariate polynomial, in terms of products of linear polynomials, using blowups
I am considering multivariate polynomials of the form
$$f(x,y)=x^a\,y^b\,p(x,y)^c$$
(and similarly for higher dimensions). I am trying to transform these polynomials into the generic form
$$\widetilde{...
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Sampling theorems for partition polynomials (associahedra, noncrossing partitions / parking functions)
Define the associahedra partition polynomial
$$
\begin{split}
A(x) &= 1 + A_1(u_1) z + A_2(u_1,u_2) z^2 + A_3(u_1,u_2,u_3) z^3 + \cdots\\
& \qquad\qquad = 1 + \sum_{n \geq 1} A_n(u_1,...,u_n) ...
- 10.5k
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Example of worst case distributions for 4D convex hull
My understanding is that convex hull of n points in 4D could have O(n²) edges in the worst case. Source: https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~suri/cs235/ConvexHull.pdf
This same source writes
In 4D, there are ...
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Is the dodecahedron flexible (as a polytope with fixed edge-lengths)?
Consider the (regular) dodecahedron $D\subset\Bbb R^3$. I want to continuously deform it so that throughout the deformation
it stays a convex polytope,
it stays a combinatorial dodecahedron (i.e. its ...
- 13.6k
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Polytope where each vertex belongs to all but two facets
Let $P$ be a (convex, bounded) polytope with the following property: for every vertex $v$, there are exactly two facets which do not contain $v$. Does it follow that $P$ is (combinatorially) a ...
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Are there centrally-symmetric self-dual polytopes in dimension $d> 4$?
A convex polytope $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ is centrally symmetric if $-P=P$. It is self-dual (or better, self-polar?) if its polar dual $P^\circ$ is congruent to $P$, that is, there is a map $X\in\mathrm O(\...
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Can a convex polytope with $f$ facets have more than $f$ facets when projected into $\mathbb{R}^2$?
Let $P$ be a convex polytope in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with $n$ vertices and $f$ facets.
Let $\text{Proj}(P)$ denote the projection of $P$ into $\mathbb{R}^2$.
Can $\text{Proj}(P)$ have more than $f$ facets?
...
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References/applications/context for certain polytopes
First, let's consider an almost trivial notion. With any subspace $V\subset \mathbb R^n$ we associate a convex polytope $P(V)\subset V^*$ as follows. Each of the $n$ coordinates in $\mathbb R^n$ is a ...
- 3,513
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200
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Toric decomposition of multipartitions
Fix $k \in \mathbb Z_{>0}$. By a $k$-multipartition $\lambda=(\lambda_1,\dots,\lambda_k)$ of $N$, I mean that each $\lambda_i$ is a partition of some $N_i$ and $\sum N_i = N$.
Let's call $\lambda$ ...
- 111
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Can a polytopal graph be "centrally symmetric" in more than one way?
Let $P,Q$ be two centrally symmetric convex polytopes, potentially of different dimensions and combinatorial type, but with the same edge-graph $G$.
The central symmetry of $P$ induces an involutory ...
- 13.6k
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4
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Can I build infinitely many polytopes from only finitely many prescribed facets?
Given a finite set of convex $d$-dimensional polytopes $\mathcal P$, for some $d\ge 2$.
Question: Is it true that there are only finitely many different convex $(d+1)$-dimensional polytopes whose ...
- 13.6k
15
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2
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481
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Ehrhart period collapse for $123\ldots k$-avoiding Birkhoff polytope?
For $1 \leq r \leq n$, let $\mathcal{B}^n_r$ denote the polytope of all real matrices
$$ \pi = \begin{pmatrix} \pi_{1,1} & \pi_{1,2} & \cdots & \pi_{1,n} \\
\pi_{2,1} & \ddots & \...
- 24.2k