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Continuous Maps from Spheres Converging to Boundaries of Convex Hulls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Joseph Malkoun
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences, Notre Dame University-Louaize, Zouk Mosbeh, P.O. Box 72, Zouk Mikael, Lebanon; E-mail: joseph.malkoun@ndu.edu.lb
Peter J. Olver
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; E-mail: olver@umn.edu

Abstract

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Given n distinct points $\mathbf {x}_1, \ldots , \mathbf {x}_n$ in $\mathbb {R}^d$ , let K denote their convex hull, which we assume to be d-dimensional, and $B = \partial K $ its $(d-1)$ -dimensional boundary. We construct an explicit, easily computable one-parameter family of continuous maps $\mathbf {f}_{\varepsilon } \colon \mathbb {S}^{d-1} \to K$ which, for $\varepsilon> 0$ , are defined on the $(d-1)$ -dimensional sphere, and whose images $\mathbf {f}_{\varepsilon }({\mathbb {S}^{d-1}})$ are codimension $1$ submanifolds contained in the interior of K. Moreover, as the parameter $\varepsilon $ goes to $0^+$ , the images $\mathbf {f}_{\varepsilon } ({\mathbb {S}^{d-1}})$ converge, as sets, to the boundary B of the convex hull. We prove this theorem using techniques from convex geometry of (spherical) polytopes and set-valued homology. We further establish an interesting relationship with the Gauss map of the polytope B, appropriately defined. Several computer plots illustrating these results are included.

Type
Discrete Mathematics
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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