Trisections of a 3-rotationally symmetric planar convex body minimizing the maximum relative diameter

In this work we study the fencing problem consisting of finnding a trisection of a 3-rotationally symmetric planar convex body which minimizes the maximum relative diameter. We prove that an optimal solution is given by the so-called standard trisection. We also determine the optimal set giving the minimum value for this functional and study the corresponding universal lower bound.Comment: Preliminary version, 20 pages, 15 figure

Multiple coverings with closed polygons

A planar set $P$ is said to be cover-decomposable if there is a constant $k=k(P)$ such that every $k$-fold covering of the plane with translates of $P$ can be decomposed into two coverings. It is known that open convex polygons are cover-decomposable. Here we show that closed, centrally symmetric convex polygons are also cover-decomposable. We also show that an infinite-fold covering of the plane with translates of $P$ can be decomposed into two infinite-fold coverings. Both results hold for coverings of any subset of the plane.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1009.4641 by other author

Cubic Partial Cubes from Simplicial Arrangements

We show how to construct a cubic partial cube from any simplicial arrangement of lines or pseudolines in the projective plane. As a consequence, we find nine new infinite families of cubic partial cubes as well as many sporadic examples.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

Statistical hyperbolicity in groups

In this paper, we introduce a geometric statistic called the "sprawl" of a group with respect to a generating set, based on the average distance in the word metric between pairs of words of equal length. The sprawl quantifies a certain obstruction to hyperbolicity. Group presentations with maximum sprawl (i.e., without this obstruction) are called statistically hyperbolic. We first relate sprawl to curvature and show that nonelementary hyperbolic groups are statistically hyperbolic, then give some results for products, for Diestel-Leader graphs and lamplighter groups. In free abelian groups, the word metrics asymptotically approach norms induced by convex polytopes, causing the study of sprawl to reduce to a problem in convex geometry. We present an algorithm that computes sprawl exactly for any generating set, thus quantifying the failure of various presentations of Z^d to be hyperbolic. This leads to a conjecture about the extreme values, with a connection to the classic Mahler conjecture.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. This is split off from the paper "The geometry of spheres in free abelian groups.

On the average number of normals through points of a convex body

In 1944, Santal\'o asked about the average number of normals through a point of a given convex body. Since then, numerous results appeared in the literature about this problem. The aim of this paper is to give a concise summary of these results, with some new, recent developments. We point out connections of this problem to static equilibria of rigid bodies as well as to geometric partial differential equations of surface evolution.Comment: 15 page

Decompositions of a polygon into centrally symmetric pieces

In this paper we deal with edge-to-edge, irreducible decompositions of a centrally symmetric convex $(2k)$-gon into centrally symmetric convex pieces. We prove an upper bound on the number of these decompositions for any value of $k$, and characterize them for octagons.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure

Shortest closed billiard orbits on convex tables

Given a planar compact convex billiard table $T$, we give an algorithm to find the shortest generalised closed billiard orbits on $T$. (Generalised billiard orbits are usual billiard orbits if $T$ has smooth boundary.) This algorithm is finite if $T$ is a polygon and provides an approximation scheme in general. As an illustration, we show that the shortest generalised closed billiard orbit in a regular $n$-gon $R_n$ is 2-bounce for $n \ge 4$, with length twice the width of $R_n$. As an application we obtain an algorithm computing the Ekeland-Hofer-Zehnder capacity of the four-dimensional domain $T \times B^2$ in the standard symplectic vector space $\mathbb{R}^4$. Our method is based on the work of Bezdek-Bezdek and on the uniqueness of the Fagnano triangle in acute triangles. It works, more generally, for planar Minkowski billiards.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure