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8 votes
1 answer
314 views

Longest induced cycles in random geometric graphs near criticality

We make a random geometric graph $X(n;r)$ as follows. Choose $n$ points uniformly, independently, in the unit square $[0,1]^2$, for vertices, and then connect a pair of vertices $\{ p,q \}$ by an edge ...
Matthew Kahle's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
571 views

Spearing rolling hula hoops

Or: Stabbing rolling disks. Imagine there are $n$ unit-diameter disks rolling between $x=0$ and $x=d$, reflecting off either end. The disk centers start at a random location within $[\frac{1}{2}, d-\...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

Probability distribution or the distance between two points in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space after a random perturbation of one point

Take two points, $p_0$ and $p_k$, in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space, where $d(p_0,p_k)$ is the distance between the points. Now, draw an $n$-sphere of radius $r$ centered on $p_0$ and uniformly ...
Sauer's user avatar
  • 55
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Distance measure for noisy $SE(3)$ transforms

I have a transformation $T \in SE(3)$ parameterized by a mean quaternion $q$ with covariance matrix $\Sigma_q \in R^{4\times4}$ and a mean translation $t \in R^3$ with covariance matrix $\Sigma_t \in ...
rcv's user avatar
  • 21
0 votes
1 answer
136 views

What is the area of the piece of an $n$-sphere within a given angle of a vector? [closed]

Let $x$ be the unit vector $(1,0,0,\ldots,0)$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, and let $A(\theta)$ be the subset of $\mathcal{S}^{n-1}$ whose angle to $x$ is less than $\theta$, i.e. $$ A(\theta) = \left\{ y \in \...
petrelharp's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

What kind of probability distribution maximizes the average distance between two points?

If $f$ is a probability distribution on the unit disk in $\mathbb{R}^2$, and $X_1$ and $X_2$ are two independent samples from $f$, then what is the distribution $f^*$ that maximizes the average ...
Shirley Leong's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
404 views

When is the median closest nearest-neighbor distance larger than the mean closest nearest-neighbor distance?

Consider a random Poisson process in an $d$-dimensional cube of arbitrary size (alternatively, consider an arbitrarily large $(d-1)$-dimensional sphere in an $d$-dimensional space). If we have a ...
user42734's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
104 views

Minimum distance larger than a fraction $f$ of the closest nearest-neighbor distances for points placed by a random Poisson process?

Consider a random Poisson process on arbitrarily large volume in $R^d$ enclosed by an $R^{(d-1)}$ dimensional sphere. The process terminates when a density of points $\rho$ is achieved (letting $N$ ...
SMellon's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
331 views

what's the best way to characterise the distribution of prime elements in simple perfect squared squares

DEFINITIONS: A squared rectangle is a rectangle dissected into a finite number, two or more, of squares, called the elements of the dissection. If no two of these squares have the same size the ...
Stuart Anderson's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
376 views

Probability of disc-disc overlap for discs placed with uniform probability on a surface until a density $\rho$ is achieved

Imagine I place discs of radius $r$ on a two-dimensional plane, selecting their positions with uniform probability across the surface of the plane, and stop when I reach a disc density $\rho$. As a ...
Shuki's user avatar
  • 13
9 votes
1 answer
784 views

Width of a random convex polygon

Consider a planar (2D) random walk comprised of N steps. Consider the minimum convex polygon enclosing the N points visited by the random walker. Assume the definition of the width of a convex polygon ...
toni's user avatar
  • 91
6 votes
1 answer
330 views

Best and worst centrally symmetric convex covering shapes

Suppose you have a centrally symmetric convex 2D shape $C$ of area $A$, and you randomly throw down copies of $C$ on the plane so that each $C$-center lies within a given unit square $S$, until $S$ is ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
60 votes
1 answer
7k views

Probability that a stick randomly broken in five places can form a tetrahedron

Edit (June 2015): Addressing this problem is a brief project report from the Illinois Geometry Lab (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), dated May 2015, that appears here along with a foot-...
Benjamin Dickman's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
1k views

Probability that a convex shape contains the unit ball

This probability problem seems interesting and I don't know if it has been solved before. If you pick $n$ points uniformly at random from the surface of a $d$ dimensional sphere of radius $r>1$ ...
Simd's user avatar
  • 3,377
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

Is a $CD(K,\infty)$ space a length space?

Let $(X,d)$ be a complete and separable metric space endowed with a nonnegative Borel measure $\mu$ with support $X$ and satisfying \begin{eqnarray} \mu(B(x,r))<\infty,\quad\mbox{for every }x\in X\...
Leovlee's user avatar
  • 11
6 votes
1 answer
273 views

Proof of a statement from Steele's "Probability theory and combinatorial optimization"

I am reading "Probability theory and combinatorial optimization" by J.M. Steele and am hung up on a statement made in Section 2.2 of Chapter 2, "Easy size bounds", in which it is stated (paraphrasing ...
Rosalie Dávila Perea's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
121 views

Expected length of a certain kind of nearest-neighbor graph

Suppose I have sets of points $Z_1,\dots,Z_N$, such that $|Z_i|=m$ for all $i$, and where all $m\times N$ points are independently distributed uniformly at random in the unit square. Can someone give ...
Rosalie Dávila Perea's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
642 views

Twisted random walks

Suppose the points of two random walks in $\mathbb{R}^2$ are given the step number (or time) as a third coordinate, so that they become paths in $\mathbb{R}^3$. Here are several pairs of walks of $n=...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
396 views

Does a metric refine the weak-* topology on a dual space?

Let $X$ be a topological affine space over $\mathbb C$, with no additional assumptions. Let $X^*$ denote its dual space of continuous affine functionals $X \to \mathbb C$, equipped with the weak-$*$ ...
Tom LaGatta's user avatar
  • 8,512
4 votes
0 answers
173 views

On understanding Discrete-Valued Stochastic Processes( time series, panel data )

It seems to me that a significant proportion of work in probability theory, statistics and machine learning are on understanding continuous-valued, relatively weakly dependent, or linear dependent ...
user2551507's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
569 views

Repeated random two-steps in $\mathbb{R}^3$: unbounded?

I created a random isometry $T$ of $\mathbb{R}^3$ by generating a random orthogonal matrix $M$, uniformly distributed among all such, and a random displacement $v$, whose coordinates are drawn from a ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
32 votes
5 answers
6k views

What is a good method to find random points on the n-sphere when n is large?

As part of a more complex algorithm, I need a fast method to find random points of the n-sphere, $S^n$, starting with a RNG (random number generator). A simple way to do this (in low dimensions at ...
Dick Palais's user avatar
  • 15.3k
0 votes
1 answer
197 views

Area on the unit sphere swept out by big circles corresponding to a curve

For a point on the unit sphere, we know the plane perpendicular to the line through the origin and the point cuts the sphere with a big circle. When the point moves along a sphere curve, the ...
Jiange Li's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
128 views

Metrized categories

Motivation: Let $\Gamma = (V,E)$ be a directed graph. To each edge $e \in E$, choose a value $\kappa^e \in \mathbb R$, representing the cost of transporting one unit of "stuff" through the edge. Let $\...
Tom LaGatta's user avatar
  • 8,512
20 votes
3 answers
1k views

How can I randomly draw an ensemble of unit vectors that sum to zero?

Inspired by this question, I would like to determine the probability that a random knot of 6 unit sticks is a trefoil. This naturally leads to the following question: Is there a way to sample ...
Dustin G. Mixon's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
406 views

Random rings linked into one component?

Let $S$ be a sphere of unit radius. Let $C_n$ be a collection of unit-radius circles/rings whose centers are (uniformly distributed) random points in $S$, and which are oriented (tilted) randomly (...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
248 views

"Trapping" of discs after random sequential adsorption

Imagine I perform Random Sequential Adsorption (RSA) of discs of some radius $r$ on $[0, 1]^2$, eventually covering the surface to some density $Q \leq 0.543$ with $N$ total discs (where $\approx 0....
A.T.'s user avatar
  • 73
4 votes
2 answers
124 views

Simulating random sequential adsorption in reverse

Please consider two processes: Process 1 - I simulate random sequential adsorption of discs on the unit square in the continuum limit, randomly selecting real number coordinates and rejecting the ...
A.T.'s user avatar
  • 73
4 votes
2 answers
882 views

The probability distribution for vertex degree in a unit disc graph generated from random points on a plane

Imagine I cover an arbitrarily large plane with randomly placed points at some density $\rho$ s.t. the number of points in any randomly sampled area $A$ (of arbitrary shape and size) is $\approx A*\...
FloatingLantern's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
275 views

Nontrivial lower bounds on Cheeger inequalities for Markov chains

For a reversible Markov chain $X_{t}$ on $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ with transition kernel $K$ and stationary distribution $\pi$, it is well-known that the `spectral gap' (basically, the size of $K$ when ...
qams3's user avatar
  • 51
9 votes
2 answers
519 views

The fraction of the sphere a fixed distance from a subspace

The following problem has a beautiful geometric interpretation in terms of the proportion of points on the Euclidean sphere in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that lie at least a certain distance away from a $k$-...
jat's user avatar
  • 91
2 votes
1 answer
715 views

The largest circle that encloses no points on a plane with points placed at $N$ random coordinates

I randomly scatter $N$ points on a bounded rectangular plane $P$ with dimensions $A \times B$. To be more specific, for $N$ iterations, I choose a real number $x \in [0, A]$ and a real number $y \in [...
ayas's user avatar
  • 75
3 votes
1 answer
443 views

What is the expected value for this

If there are $8$ random points in the plane whose horizontal coordinate and vertical coordinate are uniformly distributed on the open interval $\left(0,1\right)$, what is the expected largest size of ...
user0o's user avatar
  • 31
6 votes
1 answer
333 views

Trasportation metric (AKA Earth-Mover's, Wasserstein, etc.) as "natural" / "induced"?

Context: Given a discrete finite metric space $X$ (in my case X={0,1}$^n$ with the Hamming/L$_1$ distance), I need to define the natural or canonical metric on the set of all probability distributions ...
Matteo Mainetti's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
516 views

Properties of the minimum circumscribing circle for points sequentially placed within a circle of radius $r$ of previously placed points on a 2D plane

Imagine I perform the following procedure: [1] At time point $t_1$, I place a single point on a two-dimensional plane at the coordinate $(x, y) = (0, 0)$. [2] At time point $t_2$, I center a ...
user27203's user avatar
  • 197
1 vote
0 answers
50 views

Volume estimates of rooted embedded tree containing certain subtrees.

Consider a rooted embedded tree of $n+1$ vertices. It is known that around the root for small $r$, volume of the ball of radius $r$ grows like $r^2$. Now suppose we are given that a certain subtree is ...
gmath's user avatar
  • 141
5 votes
2 answers
472 views

Product of random diagonals on the unit circle

Let $P_1, P_2, ..., P_n$ be points randomly placed on a unit circle from a uniform distribution. Consider the product $D$ of all pairwise distances: $D=\displaystyle \prod_{1\leq i < j \leq n} \...
jwellens's user avatar
  • 413
1 vote
1 answer
554 views

The probability a self-avoiding random walk (SAW) on a rectangular or hexagonal lattice takes more than $N$ steps before trapping itself

What is the probability that a self-avoiding random walk (SAW) on a rectangular or hexagonal lattice is able to take more than $N$ steps, i.e. able to take more than $N$ steps before trapping itself ...
CKura's user avatar
  • 55
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Expected distance between two points in the plane

Let $f(x)$ be a continuous probability distribution in the plane. It is obvious that if $X$ and $X'$ are two independent random samples from $f$, then $\mathbf{E}(\|X - X'\|) \leq 2 \mathbf{E}(\|X\|)$...
Charlie's user avatar
  • 83
10 votes
5 answers
509 views

Path length of ball on tilted, perforated plane

Imagine that an $\epsilon$-radius hole is punched in the plane centered on every integer-coordinate point. Now a point "ball" is dropped on the plane at a random spot $p$. If $p$ has not already ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
235 views

The distance between the centroid of $P$ points and the centroid of a subset of the points

Imagine I have an $(p_1, ..., p_N) \in P$ points, on a two-dimensional plane, patterned in a rectangular or hexagonal lattice arrangement in a circle of radius $R_c$, with a spacing between the points ...
CKura's user avatar
  • 55
2 votes
1 answer
350 views

The equilibrium position for the body of a spider-like spring system after randomly perturbing the anchor positions of its legs

Take $N$ springs, $(s_1, ..., s_N) \in S$ of length $(l_1, ..., l_N)$, and for each spring, label one end "A" and one end "B". Connect the "A" ends of the $N$ springs to a point-like particle on a ...
CKura's user avatar
  • 55
6 votes
2 answers
568 views

Number of neigbour Voronoi cells for a random set of points on S^k or cube [-1, 1]^k?

Consider $S^k \subset R^{k+1} $. Sample $N$ points by say uniform distribution. (Example k=120, N=2^24, i.e. N>>k ). Consider Voronoi cell around each point. How many neighbours would a cell have ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
0 votes
5 answers
1k views

Generate points of a (n-2)-sphere on a n-hyperplane [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Efficiently sampling points uniformly from the surface of an n-sphere I'm trying to generate random points of a (n-2)-sphere on a n-hyperplane so basically the intersection of ...
David's user avatar
  • 11
11 votes
0 answers
601 views

High-dimensional geometry: Top-down Vs. Bottom-up

There are several ways to leverage one's intuition from low-dimensional geometry to understand high-dimensional phenomena. For example, one can get a clearer picture of the behaviour of high-...
Simon Lyons's user avatar
  • 1,666
17 votes
3 answers
922 views

Random permutations from Brownian motion

Let $B(t)$ be a Brownian motion. The ordering of $(0, B(1), ..., B(n-1)) $ is a random permutation in $S_n$. This is not uniform for $n>2$ since the probabilities of the identity permutation $[123.....
Douglas Zare's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
289 views

Dither in Leech lattice quantization!

Can you please help me how to generate a dither signal $\mathbf{U}$, where $\mathbf{U}$ is a random vector of length 24 that is uniformly distributed over the Voronoi region of the Leech lattice. Best,...
Farzad's user avatar
  • 197
3 votes
0 answers
146 views

The mean number of vertices in small connected components of random geometric graphs

I place $N$ points on a circular plane of radius $R$, and draw edges to connect points that are less than or equal to some distance $D$ to form a set of graphs or cliques $G_i$. As a function of $N$, ...
EclipseInterlude's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
377 views

Expected minimum face angle of random convex polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$

Let $P_n$ be a "random convex polyhedron" in $\mathbb{R}^3$ of $n$ vertices, where "random" could follow any one of a number of models: (1) the convex hull of $n$ points randomly and uniformly ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar