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10 votes
2 answers
847 views

Minimum separation among $m$ random points on an $n$-dimensional unit sphere

Consider $m$ points $v_1, \ldots, v_m \in R^{n}$, which are uniformly distributed on the $n$-dimensional unit sphere $S^{n-1} = \{v:\|v\|_2 = 1\}$. Let the minimum separation be $$ \rho = \min_{i,j\in{...
5 votes
0 answers
266 views

Throwing darts at a barn and putting a bullseye around them in higher dimensions

Let $X \in \mathbb R^d$ be a large domain (a ball of radius $r$ for $r$ large should suffice) Let $B$ be a ball of radius $1$. Consider the ratio $$ \frac{ \left| \left\{ x_1,\dots,x_n \in X \mid ...
2 votes
2 answers
810 views

Terrain Generation: Infinite 2D space filled with Diffusion-limited aggregation clusters?

Disclaimer: I don't have a deep understanding of fractals or any higher math, I'm just personally interested in it, so please excuse me if I'm using wrong terms or if I'm being inaccurate. Making ...
14 votes
2 answers
319 views

Shortest path through $n^{1/3}$ points out of $n$

Say I sample $n$ points uniformly at random in the unit cube in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and then I look for the shortest path through $n^{1/3}$ of those points (rounding up, say). What happens to the length ...
3 votes
1 answer
187 views

Moment matching on the standard simplex

Let $\vec{\mu}_1, \vec{\mu}_2,\ldots, \vec{\mu}_k \in \Delta^{d-1}$ be $k\ (k\geq 2)$ distinct vectors on the standard simplex, where $$\Delta^{d-1} = \{\vec{\mu}\in R^{d}:\| \vec{\mu}\|_1 = 1,\mu_j \...
4 votes
0 answers
94 views

Finding closest set of K disjoint hyperspheres to a point in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with uniform radius

I am interested in the following problem: in $\mathbb{R}^n$, we have $N$ overlapping hyperspheres all with the same radius. Given a point $p$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, the objective is to find the $K$ non ...
1 vote
1 answer
524 views

Convergence in the Wasserstein metric and the square root function

Let $f$ be a smooth probability distribution on the unit square $S$ such that $f(x)>0$ on $S$. Let $\{g_i\}$ be a sequence of smooth probability distributions such that $g_i(x)>0$ on $S$ as ...
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

Pairwise distance distribution for point clouds (normal distribution) [closed]

I have a point cloud (2D for now) of $N$ normally distributed points (with a certain $\sigma$). My first question would be how the pairwise distance distribution looks (just by chance I discovered a ...
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

A probability distribution in n dimensional space which its projection on any line is a uniform distribution?

Does there exist, for any natural $n$, a probability distribution in $\mathbb{R}^n$ whose projection on any line is a uniform distribution?
7 votes
1 answer
757 views

Length of nearest neighbor path in travel salesman problem

Given $n$ nodes uniformly distributed in $[0,1]^2$, consider the nearest neighbor algorithm to solve traveling salesman problem, i.e., each time I select the nearest neighbor not visited so far as the ...
6 votes
1 answer
718 views

What is the distribution of the maximum nearest-neighbor distance of a point cloud sampled from a solid body like?

Let $\mathcal{B} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ be an $n$-dimensional solid body. Assume that we sample $N$ points, say $S = \{ x_1, ..., x_N \}$, from $\mathcal{B}$ uniformly at random. Consider the ...
9 votes
4 answers
371 views

Diameter of random segment intersection graph?

I have an even number of points $n$ randomly distributed (uniformly) in a disk. Then the points are randomly connected to form $n/2$ segments, a perfect matching. Finally, I form the intersection ...
0 votes
0 answers
320 views

Gromov-Hausdorff distance measure between minimum spanning trees

I am trying to compare minimum spanning trees through time. I have two questions: 1-Is it possible to measure the similarity between two minimum spanning trees with Gromov-Hausdorff distance measure ...
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 ...
21 votes
2 answers
3k views

A measure on the space of probability measures

This question was originaly posted in the stackexchange https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1226701/a-measure-on-the-space-of-probability-measures but since it only got a comment I decided to ...
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 ...
8 votes
0 answers
183 views

Can the GUE be thought of as a uniform point in a high-dimensional polytope

I have thought about this question for a long time and could only find partial answers. The Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (or GUE) is the eigenvalues of a random Hermitian matrix with complex Gaussian ...
3 votes
1 answer
197 views

Three-dimensional Apollonian spirals

Given mutually (externally) tangent spheres $S_1$, $S_2$, $S_3$, $S_4$, let $S_n$ be the unique sphere externally tangent to $S_{n-1}$, $S_{n-2}$, $S_{n-3}$, and $S_{n-4}$ for $n \geq 5$. Let $P_{\...
3 votes
0 answers
119 views

Probability that a random projection doesn't reduce the distance of a point from a subspace too much

Consider the natural uniform measure (is it called the Haar measure?) on the set of $(n-k)$-dimensional subspaces of $R^n$. We are given a $d$-dimensional affine subspace $U$ (think of $d, k \ll n$; ...
2 votes
0 answers
157 views

Better Sobolev inequality holds in this case when assuming doubling and Poincare inequality?

Let $X$ be a Polish space and let $m$ be a locally finite Borel measure on $X$. Let $\epsilon$ be a strongly local, regular Dirichlet form on $L^2(X,m)$ with Domain $V :=\{f\in L^2(X,m):\epsilon(f)&...
3 votes
1 answer
492 views

Random non-intersecting circles in the plane

If I give a finite region of $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ and place $k$ circles of radius $r(k)$ uniformly at random inside, are there any known results for the probability that the circles do not overlap? ...
5 votes
0 answers
275 views

Is there a connection between |roots| $\rightarrow$ 1 and Gromov's waist theorem?

Recent questions showed that roots of a random polynomial tend to lie on the unit circle ("Why do roots of polynomials tend to have absolute value close to 1?"; "Distribution of roots of complex ...
1 vote
1 answer
337 views

Estimating the volume of a union of balls

Let $\{ B_i \}_{i=1}^n$ be a set of $n$ ball in the unit cube $C$ of dimension $d$. If I want to estimate $$ \frac{ \lambda \left( \cup B_i \right) }{\lambda\left( C \right) }, \tag{1} $$ where $\...
1 vote
0 answers
211 views

Quadrilaterals from a Unit Stick

This question could be seen as a coordinate-free variant of Sylvester's Four Point Problem (cf e.g. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SylvestersFour-PointProblem.html): Suppose one are given an ...
18 votes
0 answers
667 views

The lonely molecule

Suppose $n$ air molecules (infinitesimal points) are bouncing around in a unit $d$-dimensional cube, with perfectly elastic wall collisions. Let $k=n^{\frac{1}{d}}$. For example, in 3D, $d=3$, with $n=...
30 votes
2 answers
1k views

Shortest path through $\sqrt{n}$ points out of $n$

Say I sample $n$ points uniformly at random in the unit square, and then I look for the shortest path through $\sqrt{n}$ of those points (rounding up, say). What happens to the length of this path as ...
3 votes
2 answers
207 views

Connectivity of points sampled in a grid

Suppose that I partition an $n\times n$ square into $n^2$ squares $S_1 ,\dots, S_{n^2}$ each of area $1$, and then I sample a point $X_i$ uniformly at random in each $S_{i}$. Now fix a radius $r$ and ...
3 votes
1 answer
202 views

Diameter of $n$-unit-vector closed scribble

Suppose one creates a random, closed, likely self-crossing polygon from $n$ unit-length vectors arranged head-to-tail, randomly oriented except for the requirement that their sum is zero (so the ...
12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Limit of distance between two random points in a unit-radius $n$-sphere

This is a companion contrast to the earlier analogous question for unit $n$-cubes, where the answer (provided by several respondents) is $\infty$ . What is the limit, as $n \to \infty$, of the ...
11 votes
2 answers
3k views

Limit of distance between two random points in a unit $n$-cube

What is the limit, as $n \to \infty$, of the expected distance between two points chosen uniformly at random within a unit edge-length hypercube in $\mathbb{R}^n$? For $n=1$, the average distance ...
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-\...
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 ...
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Expected Degree of a vertex in Delaunay Triangulations

Assume you have a Poisson point process of constant intensity $\lambda$ in the Euclidean plane. From this point process we construct the Delaunay triangulation (or the Voronoi tessellation for that ...
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 \...
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 ...
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 ...
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 $N$ ...
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 $r>1$ ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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\...
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 ...
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 ...
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=...
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-$*$ ...
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*\...
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 ...
4 votes
0 answers
129 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 $\...
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 $k$-...