We present an affine-invariant random walk for drawing uniform random samples from a convex body $\mathcal{K} \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ that uses maximum-volume inscribed ellipsoids, known as John’s ellipsoids, for the proposal distribution. Our algorithm makes steps using uniform sampling from the John’s ellipsoid of the symmetrization of $\mathcal{K}$ at the current point. We show that from a warm start, the random walk mixes in ${\widetilde{O}}\!\left(n^7\right)$ steps, where the log factors hidden in the ${\widetilde{O}}$ depend only on constants associated with the warm start and desired total variation distance to uniformity. We also prove polynomial mixing bounds starting from any fixed point x such that for any chord pq of $\mathcal{K}$ containing x, $\left|\log \frac{|p-x|}{|q-x|}\right|$ is bounded above by a polynomial in n.

We shall prove a convergence result relative to sequences of Minkowski symmetrals of general compact sets. In particular, we investigate the case when this process is induced by sequences of subspaces whose elements belong to a finite family, following the path marked by Klain in Klain (2012, Advances in Applied Mathematics 48, 340–353), and the generalizations in Bianchi et al. (2019, Convergence of symmetrization processes, preprint) and Bianchi et al. (2012, Indiana University Mathematics Journal 61, 1695–1710). We prove an analogous result for fiber symmetrization of a specific class of compact sets. The idempotency for symmetrizations of this family of sets is investigated, leading to a simple generalization of a result from Klartag (2004, Geometric and Functional Analysis 14, 1322–1338) regarding the approximation of a ball through a finite number of symmetrizations, and generalizing an approximation result in Fradelizi, Làngi and Zvavitch (2020, Volume of the Minkowski sums of star-shaped sets, preprint).

Given a stationary and isotropic Poisson hyperplane process and a convex body K in ${\mathbb R}^d$ , we consider the random polytope defined by the intersection of all closed half-spaces containing K that are bounded by hyperplanes of the process not intersecting K. We investigate how well the expected mean width of this random polytope approximates the mean width of K if the intensity of the hyperplane process tends to infinity.

We provide general inequalities that compare the surface area $S(K)$ of a convex body $K$ in ${{\mathbb{R}}^{n}}$ to the minimal, average, or maximal surface area of its hyperplane or lower dimensional projections. We discuss the same questions for all the quermassintegrals of $K$. We examine separately the dependence of the constants on the dimension in the case where $K$ is in some of the classical positions or $K$ is a projection body. Our results are in the spirit of the hyperplane problem, with sections replaced by projections and volume by surface area.

We establish some inequalities for the second moment

$$\frac{1}{\left| K \right|}\,{{\int }_{K}}\left| x \right|_{2}^{2}dx$$

of a convex body $K$ under various assumptions on the position of $K$.

Let K be a d-dimensional convex body with a twice continuously differentiable boundary and everywhere positive Gauss-Kronecker curvature. Denote by Kn the convex hull of n points chosen randomly and independently from K according to the uniform distribution. Matching lower and upper bounds are obtained for the orders of magnitude of the variances of the sth intrinsic volumes Vs(Kn) of Kn for s ∈ {1,…,d}. Furthermore, strong laws of large numbers are proved for the intrinsic volumes of Kn. The essential tools are the economic cap covering theorem of Bárány and Larman, and the Efron-Stein jackknife inequality.

A set in a metric space is called a Čebyšev set if it has a unique “nearest neighbour” to each point of the space. In this paper we generalize this notion, defining a set to be Čebyšev relative to another set if every point in the second set has a unique “nearest neighbour” in the first. We are interested in Čebyšev sets in some hyperspaces over ${{\text{R}}^{n}}$, endowed with the Hausdorff metric, mainly the hyperspaces of compact sets, compact convex sets, and strictly convex compact sets.

We present some new classes of Čebyšev and relatively Čebyšev sets in various hyperspaces. In particular, we show that certain nested families of sets are Čebyšev. As these families are characterized purely in terms of containment,without reference to the semi-linear structure of the underlyingmetric space, their properties differ markedly from those of known Čebyšev sets.

The covariogram gK(x) of a convex body K ⊆ Ed is the function which associates to each x ∈ Ed the volume of the intersection of K with K + x, where Ed denotes the Euclidean d-dimensional space. Matheron (1986) asked whether gK determines K, up to translations and reflections in a point. Positive answers to Matheron's question have been obtained for large classes of planar convex bodies, while for d ≥ 3 there are both positive and negative results. One of the purposes of this paper is to sharpen some of the known results on Matheron's conjecture indicating how much of the covariogram information is needed to get the uniqueness of determination. We indicate some subsets of the support of the covariogram, with arbitrarily small Lebesgue measure, such that the covariogram, restricted to those subsets, identifies certain geometric properties of the body. These results are more precise in the planar case, but some of them, both positive and negative ones, are proved for bodies of any dimension. Moreover some results regard most convex bodies, in the Baire category sense. Another purpose is to extend the class of convex bodies for which Matheron's conjecture is confirmed by including all planar convex bodies possessing two nondegenerate boundary arcs being reflections of each other.

Given a centrally symmetric convex body $B$ in ${{\mathbb{E}}^{d}}$, we denote by ${{\mathcal{M}}^{d}}\left( B \right)$ the Minkowski space (i.e., finite dimensional Banach space) with unit ball $B$. Let $K$ be an arbitrary convex body in ${{\mathcal{M}}^{d}}\left( B \right)$. The relationship between volume $V\left( K \right)$ and the Minkowskian thickness (= minimal width) ${{\Delta }_{B}}\left( K \right)$ of $K$ can naturally be given by the sharp geometric inequality $V\left( K \right)\ge \alpha \left( B \right)\cdot {{\Delta }_{B}}{{\left( K \right)}^{d}}$, where $\alpha \left( B \right)>0$. As a simple corollary of the Rogers-Shephard inequality we obtain that ${{\left( _{d}^{2d} \right)}^{-1}}\le \alpha \left( B \right)/V\left( B \right)\le {{2}^{-d}}$ with equality on the left attained if and only if $B$ is the difference body of a simplex and on the right if $B$ is a cross-polytope. The main result of this paper is that for $d=2$ the equality on the right implies that $B$ is a parallelogram. The obtained results yield the sharp upper bound for the modified Banach–Mazur distance to the regular hexagon.

In a convex domain K in ℝd, a transmitter and a receiver are placed at random according to the uniform distribution. The statistics of the power received by the receiver is an important quantity for the design of wireless communication systems. Bounds for the moments of the received power are given, which depend only on the volume and the surface area of the convex domain.

Knowing the (geometric) covariogram of a convex body is equivalent to knowing, for each direction u, the distribution of the lengths of the chords of that body which are parallel to u. We prove that the covariogram determines convex polygons, among all convex bodies, up to translation and reflection. This gives a partial answer to a problem posed by Matheron.

Intrinsic volumes are key functionals in convex geometry and have also appeared in several stochastic settings. Here we relate them to questions of regularity in Gaussian processes with regard to Itô–Nisio oscillation and metrization of GB/GC indexing sets. Various bounds and estimates are presented, and questions for further investigation are suggested. From alternate points of view, much of the discussion can be interpreted in terms of (i) random sets and (ii) properties of (deterministic) infinite-dimensional convex bodies.

In this paper, we give a sufficient condition (Theorem) in order that one domain D1 bounded by a C2-smooth boundary can be enclosed in, or enclose, another domain D0 bounded by the same kind of boundary. A same kind of sufficient condition for convex bodies (Corollary) is also obtained.

For any convex body C in ℝd we introduce the notion of the convex shell and we prove that there exists a unique "minimal" convex shell, extending the notion of the minimal spherical shell of C. Then we prove that a "typical" convex body touches the boundary of its minimal convex shell in precisely d + 2 points.