Abstract
It is conjectured since long that for any convex body P⊂Rn there exists a point in its interior which belongs to at least 2n normals from different points on the boundary of P. The conjecture is known to be true for n=2,3,4. We treat the same problem for convex polytopes in R3. It turns out that the PL concurrent normals problem differs a lot from the smooth one. One almost immediately proves that a convex polytope in R3 has 8 normals to its boundary emanating from some point in its interior. Moreover, we conjecture that each simple polytope in R3 has a point in its interior with 10 normals to the boundary. We confirm the conjecture for all tetrahedra and triangular prisms and give a sufficient condition for a simple polytope to have a point with 10 normals. Other related topics (average number of normals, minimal number of normals from an interior point, other dimensions) are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Acta Mathematica Hungarica |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 6 Nov 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2024.
Funding
This work was done under support of the grant No. 075-15-2022-289 for creation and development of Euler International Mathematical Institute.
Funders | Funder number |
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Euler International Mathematical Institute | 075-15-2022-289 |
Keywords
- 52B70
- bifurcation
- Morse theory
- polyhedra