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Liviu Nicolaescu
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Perhaps instead of finite sets one should work with effective divisors, i.e., formal linear combibinations of the form $\newcommand{\bZ}{\mathbb{Z}}$ $\newcommand{\bR}{\mathbb{R}}$ $\newcommand{\bp}{\boldsymbol{p}}$

$$ D= \sum_{\bp\in\bR^N} m_D(\bp) \bp, $$

where $m_D:\bR^N\to\bZ_{\geq 0}$ is a function with finite support. Denote by $\newcommand{\Div}{\mathrm{Div}}$ $\Div_{\geq 0}(\bR^N)$ the space of effective divisors in $\bR^N$. $\Div_{\ge 0}$ has an obvious semigroup structure. Think of the center of mass as a map $\newcommand{\eC}{\mathscr{C}}$

$$ \eC: \Div_{\geq 0}(\bR^N)\to \Div_{\geq 0}(\bR^N), $$

with the following properties.

1. For any divisor $D$, the support of the center of mass $\eC(D)$ consists of a single point.

2. For any divisors $D_1,D_2\in\Div_{\geq 0}(\bR^N)$ we have

$$ \eC(D_1+D_1) =\eC\Bigl(\; \eC(D_1)+\eC(D_2)\; \Bigr).$$

3. For any point $\bp\in \bR^N$

$$\eC(\delta_{\bp})=\delta_{\bp}, $$

where $\delta_{\bp}$ denotes the Dirac divisor of mass $1$ supported at $\bp$.

4. $\eC$ is continuous with respect to the obvious topology on $\Div_{\geq 0}(\bR^N)$, where supports of divisors converge in the Hausdorff metric and in the limit the total mass is conserved.

Claim. I believe that these properties uniquely determine $\eC$.

Weaker Claim. The map $\eC$ is uniquely determined if besides 1,...4 we assume

5. if the Support of $D$ is contained in an affine subspace $V\subset \bR^N$, then the support of $eC(D)$ is contained in the same affine subspace.

Liviu Nicolaescu
  • 34.7k
  • 2
  • 91
  • 165