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Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
ISSN 1088-9485(e) ISSN 0273-0979(p)
     

Random points and lattice points in convex bodies

Author(s): Imre Bárány
Journal: Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 45 (2008), 339-365.
MSC (2000): Primary 52A22, 52B20
Posted: April 25, 2008
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Abstract: Assume $ K \subset \mathbf{R}^d$ is a convex body and $ X$ is a (large) finite subset of $ K$. How many convex polytopes are there whose vertices belong to $ X$? Is there a typical shape of such polytopes? How well does the maximal such polytope (which is actually the convex hull of $ X$) approximate $ K$? We are interested in these questions mainly in two cases. The first is when $ X$ is a random sample of $ n$ uniform, independent points from $ K$. In this case motivation comes from Sylvester's famous four-point problem and from the theory of random polytopes. The second case is when $ X=K \cap \mathbf{Z}^d$ where $ \mathbf{Z}^d$ is the lattice of integer points in $ \mathbf{R}^d$ and the questions come from integer programming and geometry of numbers. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly), the answers in the two cases are rather similar.


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Additional Information:

Imre Bárány
Affiliation: Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 127, 1364 Budapest, Hungary; and Department of Mathematics, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, England
Email: barany@renyi.hu, barany@math.ucl.ac.uk

DOI: 10.1090/S0273-0979-08-01210-X
PII: S 0273-0979(08)01210-X
Received by editor(s): November 2, 2007
Posted: April 25, 2008
Copyright of article: Copyright 2008, American Mathematical Society
The copyright for this article reverts to public domain after 28 years from publication.


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