Mixed volume
In mathematics, more specifically, in convex geometry, the mixed volume is a way to associate a non-negative number to an -tuple of convex bodies in -dimensional space. This number depends on the size and shape of the bodies and on their relative orientation to each other.
Definition
Let be convex bodies in and consider the function
where stands for the -dimensional volume and its argument is the Minkowski sum of the scaled convex bodies . One can show that is a homogeneous polynomial of degree , therefore it can be written as
where the functions are symmetric. For a particular index function , the coefficient is called the mixed volume of .
Properties
- The mixed volume is uniquely determined by the following three properties:
- ;
- is symmetric in its arguments;
- is multilinear: for .
- The mixed volume is non-negative and monotonically increasing in each variable: for .
- The Alexandrov–Fenchel inequality, discovered by Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov and Werner Fenchel:
- Numerous geometric inequalities, such as the Brunn–Minkowski inequality for convex bodies and Minkowski's first inequality, are special cases of the Alexandrov–Fenchel inequality.
Quermassintegrals
Let be a convex body and let be the Euclidean ball of unit radius. The mixed volume
is called the j-th quermassintegral of .[1]
The definition of mixed volume yields the Steiner formula (named after Jakob Steiner):
Intrinsic volumes
The j-th intrinsic volume of is a different normalization of the quermassintegral, defined by
- or in other words
where is the volume of the -dimensional unit ball.
Notes
- McMullen, P. (1991). "Inequalities between intrinsic volumes". Monatsh. Math. 111 (1): 47–53. doi:10.1007/bf01299276. MR 1089383.
- Klain, D.A. (1995). "A short proof of Hadwiger's characterization theorem". Mathematika. 42 (2): 329–339. doi:10.1112/s0025579300014625. MR 1376731.
External links
Burago, Yu.D. (2001) [1994], "Mixed volume theory", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press