English

Quadratic Crofton and sets that see themselves as little as possible

Classical Analysis and ODEs 2023-04-19 v2 Metric Geometry

Abstract

Let ΩR2\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2 and let LΩ\mathcal{L} \subset \Omega be a one-dimensional set with finite length L=LL =|\mathcal{L}|. We are interested in minimizers of an energy functional that measures the size of a set projected onto itself in all directions: we are thus asking for sets that see themselves as little as possible (suitably interpreted). Obvious minimizers of the functional are subsets of a straight line but this is only possible for L\mboxdiam(Ω)L \leq \mbox{diam}(\Omega). The problem has an equivalent formulation: the expected number of intersections between a random line and L\mathcal{L} depends only on the length of L\mathcal{L} (Crofton's formula). We are interested in sets L\mathcal{L} that minimize the variance of the expected number of intersections. We solve the problem for convex Ω\Omega and slightly less than half of all values of LL: there, a minimizing set is the union of copies of the boundary and a line segment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2211.03259,
  title  = {Quadratic Crofton and sets that see themselves as little as possible},
  author = {Stefan Steinerberger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.03259},
  year   = {2023}
}