Typical Geometry, Second-Order Properties and Central Limit Theory for Iteration Stable Tessellations

Since the seminal work of Mecke, Nagel and Weiss, the iteration stable (STIT) tessellations have attracted considerable interest in stochastic geometry as a natural and flexible yet analytically tractable model for hierarchical spatial cell-splitting and crack-formation processes. The purpose of this paper is to describe large scale asymptotic geometry of STIT tessellations in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and more generally that of non-stationary iteration infinitely divisible tessellations. We study several aspects of the typical first-order geometry of such tessellations resorting to martingale techniques as providing a direct link between the typical characteristics of STIT tessellations and those of suitable mixtures of Poisson hyperplane tessellations. Further, we also consider second-order properties of STIT and iteration infinitely divisible tessellations, such as the variance of the total surface area of cell boundaries inside a convex observation window. Our techniques, relying on martingale theory and tools from integral geometry, allow us to give explicit and asymptotic formulae. Based on these results, we establish a functional central limit theorem for the length/surface increment processes induced by STIT tessellations. We conclude a central limit theorem for total edge length/facet surface, with normal limit distribution in the planar case and non-normal ones in all higher dimensions.Comment: 51 page

Cell shape analysis of random tessellations based on Minkowski tensors

To which degree are shape indices of individual cells of a tessellation characteristic for the stochastic process that generates them? Within the context of stochastic geometry and the physics of disordered materials, this corresponds to the question of relationships between different stochastic models. In the context of image analysis of synthetic and biological materials, this question is central to the problem of inferring information about formation processes from spatial measurements of resulting random structures. We address this question by a theory-based simulation study of shape indices derived from Minkowski tensors for a variety of tessellation models. We focus on the relationship between two indices: an isoperimetric ratio of the empirical averages of cell volume and area and the cell elongation quantified by eigenvalue ratios of interfacial Minkowski tensors. Simulation data for these quantities, as well as for distributions thereof and for correlations of cell shape and volume, are presented for Voronoi mosaics of the Poisson point process, determinantal and permanental point processes, and Gibbs hard-core and random sequential absorption processes as well as for Laguerre tessellations of polydisperse spheres and STIT- and Poisson hyperplane tessellations. These data are complemented by mechanically stable crystalline sphere and disordered ellipsoid packings and area-minimising foam models. We find that shape indices of individual cells are not sufficient to unambiguously identify the generating process even amongst this limited set of processes. However, we identify significant differences of the shape indices between many of these tessellation models. Given a realization of a tessellation, these shape indices can narrow the choice of possible generating processes, providing a powerful tool which can be further strengthened by density-resolved volume-shape correlations.Comment: Chapter of the forthcoming book "Tensor Valuations and their Applications in Stochastic Geometry and Imaging" in Lecture Notes in Mathematics edited by Markus Kiderlen and Eva B. Vedel Jense

Geometry of iteration stable tessellations: Connection with Poisson hyperplanes

Since the seminal work by Nagel and Weiss, the iteration stable (STIT) tessellations have attracted considerable interest in stochastic geometry as a natural and flexible, yet analytically tractable model for hierarchical spatial cell-splitting and crack-formation processes. We provide in this paper a fundamental link between typical characteristics of STIT tessellations and those of suitable mixtures of Poisson hyperplane tessellations using martingale techniques and general theory of piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMPs). As applications, new mean values and new distributional results for the STIT model are obtained.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/12-BEJ424 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1001.099

Shape-Driven Nested Markov Tessellations

A new and rather broad class of stationary (i.e. stochastically translation invariant) random tessellations of the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space is introduced, which are called shape-driven nested Markov tessellations. Locally, these tessellations are constructed by means of a spatio-temporal random recursive split dynamics governed by a family of Markovian split kernel, generalizing thereby the -- by now classical -- construction of iteration stable random tessellations. By providing an explicit global construction of the tessellations, it is shown that under suitable assumptions on the split kernels (shape-driven), there exists a unique time-consistent whole-space tessellation-valued Markov process of stationary random tessellations compatible with the given split kernels. Beside the existence and uniqueness result, the typical cell and some aspects of the first-order geometry of these tessellations are in the focus of our discussion

Intrinsic Volumes of the Maximal Polytope Process in Higher Dimensional STIT Tessellations

Stationary and isotropic iteration stable random tessellations are considered, which can be constructed by a random process of cell division. The collection of maximal polytopes at a fixed time $t$ within a convex window $W\subset{\Bbb R}^d$ is regarded and formulas for mean values, variances, as well as a characterization of certain covariance measures are proved. The focus is on the case $d\geq 3$, which is different from the planar one, treated separately in \cite{ST2}. Moreover, a multivariate limit theorem for the vector of suitably rescaled intrinsic volumes is established, leading in each component -- in sharp contrast to the situation in the plane -- to a non-Gaussian limit.Comment: 27 page