Moment curve

Last updated

In geometry, the moment curve is an algebraic curve in d-dimensional Euclidean space given by the set of points with Cartesian coordinates of the form

Contents

[1]

In the Euclidean plane, the moment curve is a parabola, and in three-dimensional space it is a twisted cubic. Its closure in projective space is the rational normal curve.

Moment curves have been used for several applications in discrete geometry including cyclic polytopes, the no-three-in-line problem, and a geometric proof of the chromatic number of Kneser graphs.

Properties

Every hyperplane intersects the moment curve in a finite set of at most d points. If a hyperplane intersects the curve in exactly d points, then the curve crosses the hyperplane at each intersection point. Thus, every finite point set on the moment curve is in affine general position. [2]

Applications

The convex hull of any finite set of points on the moment curve is a cyclic polytope. [3] Cyclic polytopes have the largest possible number of faces for a given number of vertices, and in dimensions four or more have the property that their edges form a complete graph. More strongly, they are neighborly polytopes, meaning that each set of at most d/2 vertices of the polytope forms one of its faces. Sets of points on the moment curve also realize the maximum possible number of simplices, , among all possible Delaunay triangulations of sets of n points in d dimensions. [4]

In the Euclidean plane, it is possible to divide any area or measure into four equal subsets, using the ham sandwich theorem. Similarly but more complicatedly, any volume or measure in three dimensions may be partitioned into eight equal subsets by three planes. However, this result does not generalize to five or more dimensions, as the moment curve provides examples of sets that cannot be partitioned into 2d subsets by d hyperplanes. In particular, in five dimensions, sets of five hyperplanes can partition segments of the moment curve into at most 26 pieces. It is not known whether four-dimensional partitions into 16 equal subsets by four hyperplanes are always possible, but it is possible to partition 16 points on the four-dimensional moment curve into the 16 orthants of a set of four hyperplanes. [5]

A construction based on the moment curve can be used to prove a lemma of Gale, according to which, for any positive integers k and d, it is possible to place 2k + d points on a d-dimensional sphere in such a way that every open hemisphere contains at least k points. This lemma, in turn, can be used to calculate the chromatic number of the Kneser graphs, a problem first solved in a different way by László Lovász. [6]

The moment curve has also been used in graph drawing, to show that all n-vertex graphs may be drawn with their vertices in a three-dimensional integer grid of side length O(n) and with no two edges crossing. The main idea is to choose a prime number p larger than n and to place vertex i of the graph at coordinates

(i, i 2 mod p, i 3 mod p). [7]

Then a plane can only cross the curve at three positions. Since two crossing edges must have four vertices in the same plane, this can never happen. A similar construction using the moment curve modulo a prime number, but in two dimensions rather than three, provides a linear bound for the no-three-in-line problem. [8]

Notes

  1. Matoušek (2002), Definition 5.4.1, p. 97; Matoušek (2003), Definition 1.6.3, p. 17.
  2. Edelsbrunner (1987), p. 100; Matoušek (2002), Lemma 5.4.2, p. 97; Matoušek (2003), Lemma 1.6.4, p. 17.
  3. Gale (1963); Edelsbrunner (1987), p. 101; Matoušek (2002), Lemma 5.4.2, p. 97.
  4. Amenta, Attali & Devillers (2007).
  5. Edelsbrunner (1987), pp. 70–79; Matoušek (2003), pp. 50–51.
  6. Matoušek (2003), Section 3.5, Gale's Lemma and Schrijver's Theorem, pp. 64–67. The use of Gale's lemma for the coloring problem is due to Bárány (1978).
  7. Cohen et al. (1997).
  8. Credited by Roth (1951) to Paul Erdős.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dual polyhedron</span> Polyhedron associated with another by swapping vertices for faces

In geometry, every polyhedron is associated with a second dual structure, where the vertices of one correspond to the faces of the other, and the edges between pairs of vertices of one correspond to the edges between pairs of faces of the other. Such dual figures remain combinatorial or abstract polyhedra, but not all can also be constructed as geometric polyhedra. Starting with any given polyhedron, the dual of its dual is the original polyhedron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaunay triangulation</span> Triangulation method

In mathematics and computational geometry, a Delaunay triangulation for a given set P of discrete points in a general position is a triangulation DT(P) such that no point in P is inside the circumcircle of any triangle in DT(P). Delaunay triangulations maximize the minimum of all the angles of the triangles in the triangulation; they tend to avoid sliver triangles. The triangulation is named after Boris Delaunay for his work on this topic from 1934.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convex hull</span> Smallest convex set containing a given set

In geometry, the convex hull or convex envelope or convex closure of a shape is the smallest convex set that contains it. The convex hull may be defined either as the intersection of all convex sets containing a given subset of a Euclidean space, or equivalently as the set of all convex combinations of points in the subset. For a bounded subset of the plane, the convex hull may be visualized as the shape enclosed by a rubber band stretched around the subset.

In solid geometry, a face is a flat surface that forms part of the boundary of a solid object; a three-dimensional solid bounded exclusively by faces is a polyhedron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">24-cell</span> Regular object in four dimensional geometry

In geometry, the 24-cell is the convex regular 4-polytope (four-dimensional analogue of a Platonic solid) with Schläfli symbol {3,4,3}. It is also called C24, or the icositetrachoron, octaplex (short for "octahedral complex"), icosatetrahedroid, octacube, hyper-diamond or polyoctahedron, being constructed of octahedral cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discrete geometry</span> Branch of geometry that studies combinatorial properties and constructive methods

Discrete geometry and combinatorial geometry are branches of geometry that study combinatorial properties and constructive methods of discrete geometric objects. Most questions in discrete geometry involve finite or discrete sets of basic geometric objects, such as points, lines, planes, circles, spheres, polygons, and so forth. The subject focuses on the combinatorial properties of these objects, such as how they intersect one another, or how they may be arranged to cover a larger object.

In mathematical measure theory, for every positive integer n the ham sandwich theorem states that given n measurable "objects" in n-dimensional Euclidean space, it is possible to divide each one of them in half (with respect to their measure, e.g. volume) with a single (n − 1)-dimensional hyperplane. This is even possible if the objects overlap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrangement of lines</span> Subdivision of the plane by lines

In geometry, an arrangement of lines is the subdivision of the plane formed by a collection of lines. Problems of counting the features of arrangements have been studied in discrete geometry, and computational geometers have found algorithms for the efficient construction of arrangements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radon's theorem</span> Says d+2 points in d dimensions can be partitioned into two subsets whose convex hulls intersect

In geometry, Radon's theorem on convex sets, published by Johann Radon in 1921, states that:

Any set of d + 2 points in Rd can be partitioned into two sets whose convex hulls intersect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convex polytope</span> Convex hull of a finite set of points in a Euclidean space

A convex polytope is a special case of a polytope, having the additional property that it is also a convex set contained in the -dimensional Euclidean space . Most texts use the term "polytope" for a bounded convex polytope, and the word "polyhedron" for the more general, possibly unbounded object. Others allow polytopes to be unbounded. The terms "bounded/unbounded convex polytope" will be used below whenever the boundedness is critical to the discussed issue. Yet other texts identify a convex polytope with its boundary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happy ending problem</span>

In mathematics, the "happy ending problem" is the following statement:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geometric graph theory</span> Subfield of graph theory

Geometric graph theory in the broader sense is a large and amorphous subfield of graph theory, concerned with graphs defined by geometric means. In a stricter sense, geometric graph theory studies combinatorial and geometric properties of geometric graphs, meaning graphs drawn in the Euclidean plane with possibly intersecting straight-line edges, and topological graphs, where the edges are allowed to be arbitrary continuous curves connecting the vertices; thus, it can be described as "the theory of geometric and topological graphs". Geometric graphs are also known as spatial networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apeirogon</span> Polygon with an infinite number of sides

In geometry, an apeirogon or infinite polygon is a polygon with an infinite number of sides. Apeirogons are the two-dimensional case of infinite polytopes. In some literature, the term "apeirogon" may refer only to the regular apeirogon, with an infinite dihedral group of symmetries.

In five-dimensional geometry, a 5-cube is a name for a five-dimensional hypercube with 32 vertices, 80 edges, 80 square faces, 40 cubic cells, and 10 tesseract 4-faces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Desargues configuration</span> Geometric configuration of ten points and lines

In geometry, the Desargues configuration is a configuration of ten points and ten lines, with three points per line and three lines per point. It is named after Girard Desargues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K-set (geometry)</span> Points separated from others by a line

In discrete geometry, a -set of a finite point set in the Euclidean plane is a subset of elements of that can be strictly separated from the remaining points by a line. More generally, in Euclidean space of higher dimensions, a -set of a finite point set is a subset of elements that can be separated from the remaining points by a hyperplane. In particular, when , the line or hyperplane that separates a -set from the rest of is a halving line or halving plane.

In geometry and polyhedral combinatorics, a k-neighborly polytope is a convex polytope in which every set of k or fewer vertices forms a face. For instance, a 2-neighborly polytope is a polytope in which every pair of vertices is connected by an edge, forming a complete graph. 2-neighborly polytopes with more than four vertices may exist only in spaces of four or more dimensions, and in general a k-neighborly polytope requires a dimension of 2k or more. A d-simplex is d-neighborly. A polytope is said to be neighborly, without specifying k, if it is k-neighborly for k = ⌊d2. If we exclude simplices, this is the maximum possible k: in fact, every polytope that is k-neighborly for some k ≥ 1 + ⌊d2 is a simplex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrangement (space partition)</span> Decomposition into connected open cells of lower dimensions, by a finite set of objects

In discrete geometry, an arrangement is the decomposition of the d-dimensional linear, affine, or projective space into connected cells of different dimensions, induced by a finite collection of geometric objects, which are usually of dimension one less than the dimension of the space, and often of the same type as each other, such as hyperplanes or spheres.

Using the Borsuk–Ulam Theorem: Lectures on Topological Methods in Combinatorics and Geometry is a graduate-level mathematics textbook in topological combinatorics. It describes the use of results in topology, and in particular the Borsuk–Ulam theorem, to prove theorems in combinatorics and discrete geometry. It was written by Czech mathematician Jiří Matoušek, and published in 2003 by Springer-Verlag in their Universitext series (ISBN 978-3-540-00362-5).

References