Skip to main content

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

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
4 votes
1 answer
290 views

Intrinsic definition of a cone in a normal fan

Let $P\subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be a full dimensional polytope. Let us assume that $P$ has a facet description with the following inequalities: $$ \left<x,u_F\right> \geq -a_F$$ where $u_F\in \...
Luis Ferroni's user avatar
  • 1,889
10 votes
3 answers
500 views

Given the skeleton of an inscribed polytope. If I move the vertices so that no edge increases in length, can the circumradius still get larger?

Let $P\subset \Bbb R^n$ be an inscribed convex polytope, that is, all its vertices are on a common sphere of radius $r$. Let $G$ be the edge-graph of $P$. For convenience, assume $V(G)=\{1,\dotsc,s\}$....
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
2 votes
1 answer
308 views

Intersection of the simplex with a linear subspace of codimension $2$

The sets are defined in $\mathbb{R}_+^n$ $(n\geq 1)$. The relative interior of a convex set $C$ is denoted $\mathring C$. Let $S$ be the $n$-simplex: $$S=\left\{x\in\mathbb{R}_+^n,\,\sum_{i=1}^n x_i=1\...
G. Panel's user avatar
  • 449
63 votes
8 answers
14k views

Fair but irregular polyhedral dice

I am interested in determining a collection of geometric conditions that will guarantee that a convex polyhedron of $n$ faces is a fair die in the sense that, upon random rolling, it has an equal $1/n$...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
224 views

Characterization of curves contained in the boundary of convex bodies

Given a continuous closed curve $\gamma$ in $\mathbb R^n$ does there exist a convex body $K$ (convex set with non-empty interior) such that $\gamma\subset \partial K$? I am looking for a reference to ...
Vadim Semenov's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
187 views

Approximating any $d$-dimensional convex shape that occupies a constant fraction of its bounding box with a polytope having $\mathrm{poly}(d)$ facets

Given any convex set $A\in\mathbb{R}^d$, we denote by $V(A)$ its $d$-volume. Furthermore, given any two convex sets $A_1,A_2\in\mathbb{R}^d$, we denote by $V_{A_1,A_2}$ the $d$-volume of the symmetric ...
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
136 views

Which vector configurations generate as zonotope the regular $2n$-gon?

For $X=(x_1,\dots,x_n) \in (\mathbb{R}^2)^n$, the generated zonotope (zonogon in 2D) is defined by $ Z(X) := \{\sum_{k=1}^n \sigma_k x_k : \sigma_1,\dots,\sigma_n \in [0,1] \}. $ Which $X$ ...
BerndM's user avatar
  • 101
10 votes
3 answers
322 views

Integer decomposition property with a partial order

Let $\mathcal{P}$ be a convex lattice polytope in $\mathbb{R}^n$. We say that $\mathcal{P}$ has the integer decomposition property (or "is IDP") if for all $k\in \mathbb{N}$ and $\alpha \in ...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
  • 24.2k
0 votes
1 answer
101 views

Maximum number of vectors with bounds on inner products (follow up question)

This is a follow-up question from my previous question. Suppose there are (2n+1) vectors $\{m_1,m_2,...,m_n\}$, $\{p_1,p_2,...,p_n\}$ and $p^*$ in $R^{k+1}$. $m_i$ are weakly positive vectors. $p_i$ ...
TanG's user avatar
  • 23
11 votes
0 answers
329 views

How many ways to flatten a Tesseract onto a table?

A cube can be cut and flattened out onto a table in a way that the faces stay connected and none of them overlap. There are $384$ ways to make the cuts and $11$ distinct meshes emerge (see here). And ...
ryu576's user avatar
  • 171
1 vote
0 answers
73 views

Polytope of a projected toric variety

I was looking for such a result in the book by Cox, Little and Schenck but I'm not able to find a proper reference. All of the following requirements are tacitly assumed to be in the projective ...
gigi's user avatar
  • 1,343
7 votes
0 answers
162 views

Approximating any convex shape in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with a polytope having $\mathrm{poly}(d)$ facets

We denote by $V(A)$ the $d$-volume of any convex set $A$. Furthermore, given any two convex sets $A,B\in\mathbb{R}^d$, we denote by $V_{A,B}$ the $d$-volume of the symmetric difference $V\left(A \...
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
218 views

Bounding the number of facets of a polytope to approximate a given convex shape in higher dimensions

We are given a convex shape $S$ lying inside the hypercube $[0,1]^d$ in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space. Let the volume $V(S)$ of $S$ be $\tfrac12$ (I guess nothing changes for any other fixed ...
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
304 views

Do combinatorially equivalent polytopes have the same triangulations?

A triangulation of a convex polytope $P\subset\Bbb R^n$ is a partition of $P$ into $n$-simplices $\{\Delta_1,...,\Delta_m\}$ each of which has all its vertices among the vertices of $P$. A polytope ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
16 votes
1 answer
508 views

Can solutions to Thomson's problem have pentagons?

Thomson's problem asks for the minimum-energy configuration for $N$ electrons on a sphere (refs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_problem, https://sites.google.com/site/adilmmughal/...
Alex Meiburg's user avatar
  • 1,203
4 votes
0 answers
52 views

Quantifying error in the reconstruction of convex polytopes from moments

The problem of reconstructing a geometric object from its moments is of interest in a variety of fields. In the paper The Inverse Moment Problem for Convex Polytopes, the authors show that a convex ...
Lucas Blakeslee's user avatar
27 votes
3 answers
13k views

Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile 3-space: How to check for isometric space-fillers?

Recently Mark McClure constructed and displayed the 261 unfoldings of the hypercube (tesseract) in response to the question, "3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?": The first 9 unfoldings ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
19 votes
1 answer
928 views

Can every simple polytope be inscribed in a sphere?

It is known that not every convex polytope (even polyhedron, e.g. this one) can be made inscribed, that is, we cannot always move its vertices so that all vertices end up on a common sphere, and the ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
1 vote
0 answers
110 views

Upper bound on the diameter of a convex lattice n-gon with a given area

Given the area $A$ of ​​a strictly convex polygon with $n$ vertices with integer Cartesian coordinates, there are usually several non-equivalent polygons. The relationship between the area, the number ...
Hugo Pfoertner's user avatar
24 votes
1 answer
1k views

Which unfoldings of the $d$-dimensional hypercube tile $(d{-}1)$-space?

A six year old question, Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile $3$-space?, has just been answered by Moritz Firsching: All $261$ unfoldings tile space! So now we know: For $d=2$, the unfolding of ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
94 views

Is it possible to deduce Poincaré duality from duality of polytopes?

I'm having trouble understanding Poincaré duality, as it seems unmotivated. Here for instance: https://math.stackexchange.com/a/14469/454016 Poincaré duality is explained through a duality of ...
Alexander Praehauser's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
137 views

What does the boundary of convex hulls look like in matrix Lie groups?

Let $G$ be a compact matrix Lie group under the Killing form metric $\langle \xi, \eta \rangle_g = -\frac{1}{2}\text{tr}((g^{-1}\xi)^T(g^{-1}\eta))$ for $g \in G$ and $\xi,\eta \in T_gG$. Let $C \...
Spencer Kraisler's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
67 views

maximizing number of lattice points with bounded diameter

Suppose I have a lattice $L$ that's just $\mathbb{Z}^k$ but scaled in every coordinate by some (potentially different) real numbers. Now I want to construct a finite set of lattice points $S \subset L$...
Yan X Zhang's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
277 views

Realizing spherical complexes as convex polytope

A spherical polytope is the intersection of some closed hemispheres which is non-empty and does not contain a pair of antipodal points. A spherical complex is a tiling of the whole (d−1)-dimensional ...
hyyyyy's user avatar
  • 305
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

About the number of faces of the conification of a polytope

Let $P\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be a polytope of dimension $(n-1)$ such that the origin $\vec{0}\not\in\text{Aff}(P)$, where $\text{Aff}(P)$ denotes the affine hull of $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Now, we ...
ElliptCg's user avatar
  • 131
8 votes
4 answers
1k views

What is the probability distribution of the $k$th largest coordinate chosen over a simplex?

Suppose we're selecting points uniformly at random from the $N$-simplex $S_N = \{x \in \mathbb R^{N+1}: $ all $ x_i \ge 0$ and $x_1 + \ldots x_N = 1\}$. One way to do this in practice is choose $N-...
Daron's user avatar
  • 1,955
15 votes
4 answers
856 views

Convex bodies have more volume on the outside near the boundary

I am looking for a reference for a result from convex geometry that I suspect has already been proven. The result seems geometrically obvious, but I couldn't find a similar result in Peter Gruber's ...
Harry Crimmins's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
100 views

All 3-dimensional symmetric reflexive polytopes

$\DeclareMathOperator\Conv{Conv}$I am finding all 3-dimensional symmetric reflexive polytopes. To do so, first, we know that all 2 dim symmetric reflexive polytopes are $X_3=\Conv((-1,-1),(1,0),(0,1))$...
King 's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote
0 answers
61 views

Fitting a convex polytope with 𝑛 facets between two nested spheres

This is related to a research problem that is interested in approximation of spheres by convex polytopes. Let $C_r$ and $C_R$ be two spheres in $\mathbb R^d$ of radius $r$ and $R$, respectively, where ...
pyridoxal_trigeminus's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
75 views

Fixed points of rational continuous piecewise affine maps

Say that a compact convex polytope is rational if is the intersection of half-spaces whose bounding hyperplanes are the zero-sets of affine functions of the coordinates with rational coefficients. Say ...
James Propp's user avatar
  • 19.7k
4 votes
1 answer
117 views

Given a polytope $P$ with bipartite edge-graph, if the bipartition classes are equal in size and lie on spheres, is $P$ inscribed?

Suppose that $P\subset\Bbb R^n, n\ge 3$ is a (full-dimensional) convex polytope with a bipartite edge-graph $G=(V_1\cup V_2,E)$ (for example, a zonotope). Suppose further that there are concentric ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
4 votes
1 answer
194 views

How to solve this minimax matrix optimization problem?

Recently, I want to know how well can a $\ell_1$ ball be approximated by the image of a $\ell_2$ ball under a linear transform. I formulate this problem as the following optimization problem. \begin{...
RyanChan's user avatar
  • 550
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Two questions on the permutohedron

The $n$-dimensional permutohedron $P_n$ is the polytope given by the convex hull of all the possible permutations of the vector $(1,2,\dots,n+1)\in\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$. So it has $(n+1)!$ vertexes. I ...
user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
4k views

3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?

There are (apparently) 261 distinct unfoldings of the 4D hypercube, a.k.a., the tesseract, into 3D.1 These unfoldings (or "nets") are analogous to the 11 unfoldings of the 3D cube into the plane.2 ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
72 votes
2 answers
9k views

The amplituhedron minus the physics

Is it possible to appreciate the geometric/polytopal properties of the amplituhedron without delving into the physics that gave rise to it? All the descriptions I've so far encountered assume ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
345 views

Is my open set a ball?

Let $P$ be a polytope of dimension $n$, and let $\mathcal{C}$ be a polyhedral subdivision of $P$. That means that $\mathcal{C}$ is a finite collection of polytopes whose union is $P$, such that the ...
Nicholas Proudfoot's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
573 views

Can the graph of a symmetric polytope have more symmetries than the polytope itself?

I consider convex polytopes $P\subseteq\Bbb R^d$ (convex hull of finitely many points) which are arc-transitive, i.e. where the automorphism group acts transitively on the 1-flags (incident vertex-...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
3 votes
2 answers
438 views

If a polytope is centrally symmetric and combinatorially equivalent to a zonotope, is it a zonotope?

A zonotope is a polytope whose 2-faces are centrally symmetric. Question: If a polytope $P$ is centrally symmetric and combinatorially equivalent to a zonotope, is it itself a zonotope?
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
21 votes
2 answers
8k views

How many vertices can a convex polytope have?

One has an $n$-dimensional convex polytope $P$ represented by an intersection of half-spaces: \begin{equation}H_i = \{ (x_1,x_2, \ldots,x_n) \in \mathbb{R}^n \mid \sum_{j=1}^n a_{ij} x_j \ge a_{i0}, \...
Francis's user avatar
  • 251
5 votes
2 answers
134 views

Is there a non-orthogonal linear deformation of a polytope that preserves edge-lengths and vertex-origin-distances?

Is there a polytope $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ (convex hull of finitely many points, not contained in a proper affine subspace), and a linear, but non-orthogonal transformation $T\in\mathrm{GL}(\Bbb R^d)\...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
7 votes
0 answers
227 views

Tiling space with supertile of hypercube unfoldings

Two students in my class asked and answered what might be a novel question. It is well known that the cube has exactly $11$ edge-unfoldings (or "nets"), as shown below:         (Image from ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

Does Hoffman constant keep the same after a very tiny perturbation on the polyhedron such that the bases are even unchanegd?

Suppose that $P$ is a polyhedron represented by $$P:=\{x \in \mathbb{R}^n: A x \le b \} \text{ for }A \in \mathbb{R}^{m\times n},\ b \in \mathbb{R}^m,$$ and $P$ contains interior points. Moreover, the ...
ZZZZZZ's user avatar
  • 33
2 votes
1 answer
137 views

Optimal number of half-spaces in the $H$-representation of the convex hull of $n$ points in $\mathbb R^d$

Let $P$ be the polytope obtained as the convex hull of $n$ points in $\mathbb R^d$. This is the $V$-representation of $P$. Note that $P$ can also be represented as an intersection of closed half-...
dohmatob's user avatar
  • 6,853
36 votes
2 answers
2k views

Bodies of constant width?

In two-dimensional case one can generalize figures of constant width as figures which can rotate in a convex polygon. Here is one example which can be used to drill triangular holes: I would like to ...
Anton Petrunin's user avatar
55 votes
5 answers
2k views

Do unit quaternions at vertices of a regular 4-simplex, one being 1, generate a free group?

Choose unit quaternions $q_0, q_1, q_2, q_3, q_4$ that form the vertices of a regular 4-simplex in the quaternions. Assume $q_0 = 1$. Let the other four generate a group via quaternion ...
John Baez's user avatar
  • 22.3k
0 votes
4 answers
457 views

Confining a polytope to one side of an affine hyperplane

Judging whether one convex polytope is inside of another when both are expressed as a system of linear inequalities seems not to be an easy problem. This answer on math.stackexchange.com claims the ...
Hans's user avatar
  • 2,239
4 votes
1 answer
172 views

Forbidden minor characterization of polytope skeletons

Say that a graph is "$d$-dimensional" if it is the node-disjoint union of $1$-skeletons of closed convex polytopes in $d$ dimensions, or a subgraph thereof. So the $2$-dimensional graphs are exactly ...
GMB's user avatar
  • 1,389
3 votes
0 answers
151 views

Permutahedra Euler characteristic polynomials from cumulant-moment relation, a combinatorial proof?

Given the formal Taylor series, or e.g.f., $f(x) = 1 + \sum_{n \geq 1} m_n \; \frac{x^n}{n!}$, the classical formal cumulants $c_n$ are generated from the formal moments $m_n$ via $ \sum_{n \geq 1} ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
  • 10.5k
4 votes
2 answers
415 views

Selecting vertices in a convex polygon

Given $n$ vertices of a convex polygon in $\mathbb{R}^2$, selecting two points that are furthest apart is done by finding the diameter in a convex polygon. But how can one select three vertices such ...
maths123456's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
1k views

Classification of Platonic solids

My question is very basic: where can I find a complete (and hopefully self-contained) proof of the classification of Platonic solids? In all the references that I found, they use Euler's formula $v-e+...
Valerie's user avatar
  • 955

1 2
3
4 5
19