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Geometric interpretation of a Grammian-like function

Let $\mathbf{v}, \mathbf{w} \in \mathbb{R}^n$ and consider the following function $f : \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}^n \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$: $$ f(\mathbf{v},\mathbf{w}) = \|\mathbf{v}\|\|\mathbf{w}...
Nathaniel Johnston's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
312 views

Question on a vector inequality

Is it true that $$ \min\left( \begin{aligned} &\|\mathbf{u}\| + \|\mathbf{v}\| - \|\mathbf{u} + \mathbf{v}\|, \\ &\|\mathbf{u}\| + \|\mathbf{w}\| - \|\mathbf{u} + \mathbf{w}\|, \\ &\|\...
Venus's user avatar
  • 171
2 votes
0 answers
38 views

Constructing an $n$-simplex at the border of a $n$-ball by orthogonal hyperplanes

I want to construct an $n$-simplex the following way: Choose $n$ vectors in the boundary of an $n$ dimensional ball, which are forming an $(n-1)$-simplex together. Place the orthogonal affine $n-1$-...
weierstrass181's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
27 views

Seeking Help with Classifying Polygons: Waterholes and Airpockets in 2D Space

I am currently in the process of writing software and have encountered a mathematical problem. Perhaps there are some experts here who are familiar with this. It involves the classification of ...
J. Mann's user avatar
  • 11
1 vote
1 answer
132 views

Can I find $n$ points on the boundary of an $n$-dimensional ball with certain properties?

My problem is the following: I want to construct $n$ rays all starting at a point $v$ that is not in the $n$-dimensional ball around $0$ such that the following is true: The $n$-dimensional ball is a ...
limes_inferior's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
96 views

When can a point be reconstructed from relative angle measurements?

Given a set of points $p_1,\dots,p_n$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and a target point $x\in\mathbb{R}^d$, I measure all the angles between all pairs of points and the target point. In other words, I have the ...
Laurent Lessard's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
237 views

Geometric interpretation of trace of a linear operator

This question is really an addendum to Geometric interpretation of trace There is a nice account of the trace in Chris Doran's thesis here: http://geometry.mrao.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/...
Bijou Smith's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
28 views

Example of a matrix -HDH that is not PSD (with non-euclidean distances D)

It's widely known that, given a matrix of squared Euclidean distances, $\mathbf{D}_{ij} = \| \mathbf{X}_i - \mathbf{X}_j \|^2$, and the centering matrix $\mathbf{H} = \mathbf{I} - \dfrac{1}{n}11^T$, ...
adityar's user avatar
  • 101
5 votes
0 answers
137 views

Given a collection of vectors $x_1,\ldots,x_k$, which inner products $\langle x_i,x_j\rangle$ are needed to uniquely determine all inner products

Given a collection of vectors $x_1,\ldots,x_k$, which inner products $\langle x_i,x_j\rangle$ need to be known to uniquely determine all inner products? I'll begin with the specific case I am ...
RandomTensor's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
43 views

Intersection of unit-norm vectors with a large sum in high dimensions with a spherical cap

Let $d$ and $n$ be integers. For $i \in \lbrace 1,\dots,n \rbrace$ let $x_i \in \mathbb{R}^d$ be a vector such that $\lVert x \rVert=1 $. For a fixed $1/2 < \alpha \leq 1$, assume we have $\lVert \...
MMH's user avatar
  • 139
1 vote
1 answer
184 views

Average distance between points of lower dimensional simplices in $\mathbb R^n$

Notation: By a simplex, we mean the convex hull of a finite set of distinct points in $\mathbb R^n$, which are called the vertices of the simplex. $\mathcal H^n$ will denote the $n$-dimensional ...
Nate River's user avatar
  • 6,205
6 votes
2 answers
539 views

Conditions for including cones

Consider $N$ $n$-dimensional vectors, where the angle between any two vectors is acute and their starting point is at the origin. Can we rotate these vectors together so that the coordinate components ...
dzk's user avatar
  • 61
5 votes
1 answer
167 views

What structure is preserved by pseudo-homeomorphisms of pseudo-Euclidean spaces?

Let us recall that for integer numbers $t,s\ge 0$ the pseudo-Euclidean space $\mathbb R^{t,s}$ is the vector space $\mathbb R^{t+s}$ endowed with the quadratic form $q_{t,s}:\mathbb R^{t+s}\to\mathbb ...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 41.8k
4 votes
1 answer
232 views

Is the affine geometry a geometry of proportions?

Given any linear space $L$ over an ordered field $F$, consider the equiproportion relation $${\sim}=\{((x,y,z),(a,b,c))\in L^3\times L^3: \exists t\in[0,1]\subseteq F\;(y{-}x=t(z{-}x)\wedge b{-}a=t(c{-...
Taras Banakh's user avatar
  • 41.8k
2 votes
0 answers
233 views

Do you know this formula for the scalar product in barycentric coordinates?

I've found a formula for a scalar product in barycentric coordinates which I think is pretty cool. I hope that it's new. Is it? Suppose that you have points $x_1,\dots,x_n$ sitting in general position ...
Vladimir Zolotov's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
34 views

Maximum number of concurrencies for $J\cdot L$ hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^{J-1}$

I have $J\cdot L$ hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^{J-1}$ and want to prove that there cannot be more than $L$ points where $J$ hyperplanes intersect simultaneously (aka. concurrencies). I suspect that the ...
marvinschmitt's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
109 views

Relation between the dimension of vector spaces and dimension of the space [closed]

Let $A \in \mathrm{GL}(d, \mathbb{R})$ be an irreducible matrix. Assume that $\{V_{n}\}_{n\in \mathbb{N}}$ is a non-zero proper subspace $\mathbb{R}^d$ with dimension $t<d,$ such that $AV_{n}=V_{n+...
David's user avatar
  • 133
1 vote
1 answer
81 views

Generate an ordered set of mostly orthogonal vectors $\{x_i\}$ where $x_i \cdot x_j =0$ iff $\lvert i-j\rvert >m$

I am wondering if there is a way to formulate or generate a matrix $X \in R^{n\times n}$ whose column vectors $\{x_1,\dotsc,x_i,\dotsc,x_n\}$ are such that $x_i$ and $x_j$ are orthogonal iff $\lvert i-...
CWC's user avatar
  • 433
1 vote
1 answer
137 views

Relationships among lattices U14, C2xG23, A15+ and their Delaunay polytopes

Do you have any references explaining the relationships among the lattices U14, C2xG23 aka Q14, and A15+? Do you have any references explaining the relationships among these lattices and the 7D ...
Dan Haxton's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
445 views

Standard Gram matrices for lattices

I would like to define standard Gram matrices, and use them to help me understand the symmetries of lattices. I define "standard Gram matrix" as the Gram matrix g that minimizes the ...
Dan Haxton's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
248 views

On an angle distribution of a random linear subspace of a given dimension

$\newcommand\R{\mathbb R}$ Let $u$ be a fixed unit vector in $\R^n$, and let $\Pi_u$ be the hyperplane in $\R^n$ with normal vector $u$. Let $B$ be the (say open) unit ball in $\R^n$ centered at the ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
70 views

Distance to set defined as subzero level set of a continuous function

I am searching for strategies on how to prove/disprove that scalar functions "capture" the distance to the subzero level set of the same function. (Or what topics to study to become better ...
AppliedMathMan's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
428 views

Covering number in the space of symmetric matrices

Let $S_n(\mathbb{R})$ be the set of symmetric matrices of size $n \times n$. Note $\|\Theta\|_{0}$ the number of nonzero elements of a matrix $\Theta$ and $\|\cdot\|_F$ the Froebenius norm. Consider ...
Titouan Vayer's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
319 views

Are there any applications of linear algebra over the complex numbers, where the role of complex conjugation is replaced with the trivial involution?

The complex inner product $\langle u, v \rangle$ is a special case of a sesquilinear form over a field. Its definition is $\langle u, v \rangle = \sum_{i} u_i \overline{v_i}$. There is clearly the ...
wlad's user avatar
  • 4,943
4 votes
3 answers
246 views

When does a finite metric induce a matrix norm?

If I have a metric $d(\cdot,\cdot)$ on the set $\{1,\dots,n\}$, are there well-known necessary or sufficient conditions for the existence of a matrix norm $Q$ that induces that metric on the unit ...
Tom Solberg's user avatar
  • 4,049
7 votes
0 answers
254 views

Set of unit vectors such that among any three there is an orthogonal pair

I was fascinated by the solutions of Problem 8 of the IMC 2021 contest, which can be summarized as: Theorem 1. Let $v_1,\dotsc,v_N$ be distinct unit vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n$ such that among any three ...
GH from MO's user avatar
  • 105k
1 vote
0 answers
152 views

Reference request: a class of matrices leading to interesting metric geometry

For $0 \le A \in GL(n,\mathbb{R})$, let $Aw = \Delta(A)$, where $\Delta$ denotes the map taking a matrix to a vector of its diagonal entries and/or forming a diagonal matrix from a vector, according ...
Steve Huntsman's user avatar
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
16 votes
1 answer
537 views

Balls in Hilbert space

I recently noticed an interesting fact which leads to a perhaps difficult question. If $n$ is a natural number, let $k_n$ be the smallest number $k$ such that an open ball of radius $k$ in a real ...
Bruce Blackadar's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
144 views

Do products of distance functions separate points?

Let $(X,d)$ be a metric space without isolated points and of diameter $1$. Let $Y=\{y_m\}_{m=1}^{\infty}$ be a dense subset of $X$. Define $g_0\equiv 1$, and for $m>0$ let $g_m=d(\cdot,y_1)\dotsm d(...
erz's user avatar
  • 5,529
2 votes
0 answers
46 views

signatures of quasi-gram matrices

Suppose I have a finite subset $\mathcal{M}$ of a Banach space $B$ $\mathcal{M}=p_1, \dots, p_n,$ and I create the following ``Gram'' matrix $G_{\mathcal{M}}:$ $$g_{ij} = \frac{\|p_i\|^2 + \|p_j\|^2 ...
Igor Rivin's user avatar
  • 96.4k
4 votes
0 answers
223 views

$\epsilon$-net under Hausdorff distance

Consider linear subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^n$. For two subspaces $X$ and $Y$, we define their Hausdorff distance as $$ {\displaystyle d_{\mathrm {H} }(X,Y)=\max \left\{\,\sup _{x\in X, |x|_2=1}\inf ...
gondolf's user avatar
  • 1,503
4 votes
0 answers
144 views

A Pythagorian inequality characterization of inner-product spaces

Let $(X,\|\cdot\|)$ be a real normed space. For any points $A$ and $B$ in $X$, let $AB:=\|A-B\|$. Suppose that for any points $A$ and $B$ in $X$ and any straight line $\ell\subseteq X$ such that $B\...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
51 views

Find Line through the origin which minimizes the squared perpendicular distances to given points [closed]

Given a set of Points $p_i\in \Re^d$, I'm looking for the vector $x\in\Re^d$ with $\| x \|=1$ along a line so that minimizes $$\sum_{i}(\|p_i\|^2 - \langle p_i, x\rangle^2)$$ According to the first ...
Theo Seidel's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
1k views

How to project a matrix to a unitary matrix?

Given a nonzero vector $v \in \mathbb{R}^n$, we all know that it's projection onto the unit $\ell_2$ ball is just $\frac{v}{\|v\|}$. Let $X$ be some nonzero $n \times n$ matrix. What is the projection ...
Gautam's user avatar
  • 1,703
6 votes
0 answers
217 views

Is this function embeddable in Euclidean space?

Let $X = \{v_1,\ldots,v_n\}$ be a set of vectors non-zero vectors $v_i \ge 0$ and such that the vectors are pairwise linear independent. Define a function on this set $X$: $$d(v,w) = 1-\frac{2 \...
user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
350 views

How to calculate the volume of a parallelepiped in a normed space?

Let $E$ be a real normed space, and let $v_1,...,v_n\in E$ be linearly independent. The parallelepiped defined by these vectors is $P=\{\sum_{i=1}^{n}\alpha_i v_i|~0\le\alpha_i\le 1\}$. Since $E$ is a ...
erz's user avatar
  • 5,529
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the average area of the shadow of a convex shape taken over all possible orientations?

If we take a sphere, its surface area is exactly 4 times the area of its shadow. How can it be generalised for any convex shape?
Betydlig's user avatar
  • 343
1 vote
1 answer
95 views

A question on a special "metric"

Suppose we have a function $F: [a,b]^n \to \mathcal{M}_{n \times n }(\mathbb{R})$ where $\mathcal{M}_{n \times n }(\mathbb{R})$ is the space of $n \times n$ real matrices, a compact set $B \subset \...
Nen's user avatar
  • 113
8 votes
0 answers
194 views

Geometric mean of three or more positive definite matrices

The geometric mean of two positive definite (Hermitian) matrices of same size is defined by $$A\natural B := A^{1/2}(A^{-1/2}BA^{-1/2})^{1/2}A^{1/2},$$equivalently, $$A\natural B =(BA^{-1})^{1/2}A=A(A^...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.4k
8 votes
0 answers
233 views

A conjecture on simplex

Let $A_0A_1...A_n$ be a simplex in $\Bbb E^n.$ Let $B_{ij}$ be a point on the edge $A_iA_j,\ 0\le i\not=j\le n.$ Denote by $\beta_i$ the hyperplane passing through the points $B_{i0},$ $B_{i1},$ $B_{...
Tran Quang Hung's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
273 views

Johnson-Lindenstrauss Lemma on $S^{d-1}$

Consider the Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma in the case where we can assume the $n$ input points $x_i$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ are actually located on the sphere $$S^{d-1}(r):=\{u=(u_1,\ldots,u_{d}): u_1^2+\...
kodlu's user avatar
  • 10.4k
19 votes
3 answers
6k views

What are the matrices preserving the $\ell^1$-norm?

So I am inspired by unitary matrices which preserve the $\ell^2$-norm of all vectors, so in particular the unit norm vectors. But then I saw that the $\ell^1$-norm of probability vectors is preserved ...
D. Rusin's user avatar
  • 391
2 votes
0 answers
48 views

Minimization of the volume of the image of space-filling convex polytopes under similarities

Suppose $A:\mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^n$ is a similarity, given by $A(x) = \lambda Ox$, where $\lambda > 1$ and $O$ is an orthogonal matrix (i.e., $A$ is a particular loxodromic repelling ...
blfld23's user avatar
  • 21
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Maximum average Euclidean distance between $n$ points in $[-1,1]^n$

For my research I have designed a metric that is based on the average Euclidean distance between $n$ points in the $n$-dimensional hypercube $[-1,1]^n$. However, I have a hard time finding the maximal ...
Simon's user avatar
  • 71
4 votes
2 answers
492 views

The Aleksandrov-Fenchel inequality of mixed discriminants for Hermitian matrices

Suppose $A,A_1,\ldots,A_{n-2}$ (resp. $B$) are (resp. is) real positive-definite (resp. arbitrary) symmetric $n\times n$ matrices and denote by $D(\cdot,\ldots,\cdot)$ the mixed discriminant. We have ...
Kevin's user avatar
  • 593
3 votes
0 answers
81 views

Iterated crossproducts

Let $S_0$ be a set of vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Now iteratively define $S_{j+1}$ by taking all possible crossproducts of vectors in $S_j$ and normalizing such that the vector of maximum norm has unit ...
Felix's user avatar
  • 101
4 votes
2 answers
209 views

Geometrical interpretation of pictures transforms and other "high dimensional everyday objects"

During the preparation of a general audience talk on why mathematicians use dimensions higher than three (or four) even for concrete applications, I came up with the following enjoyable observation : ...
Adrien Hardy's user avatar
  • 2,135
13 votes
2 answers
795 views

Distance of vectors versus distance of their difference vectors

For any given $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$, let $\nabla{x} \in \mathbb{R}^{n \choose 2}$ be the vector whose $\{i,j\}$-th entry is $|x_i-x_j|$. I think the following claim is true. Claim. If $f, g \in \...
j.s.'s user avatar
  • 519
2 votes
0 answers
92 views

Estimating the size of a subset of $\mathbb{R}^N$

This concrete geometric question has arisen out of the problem of counting arithmetic functions with a particular property. The details of the relationship between the counting procedure and this ...
Kevin Smith's user avatar
  • 2,480