English

A random line intersects $\mathbb{S}^2$ in two probabilistically independent locations

Probability 2023-08-07 v2

Abstract

We consider random lines in R3\mathbb{R}^3 (random with respect to the kinematic measure) and how they intersect S2\mathbb{S}^2. It is known that the entry point and the exit point behave like \textit{independent} uniformly distributed random variables. We give a new proof using bilinear integral geometry and use this approach to show that this property is extremely rare: if KRnK \subset \mathbb{R}^n is a bounded, convex domain with smooth boundary with this property (i.e., the intersection points with a random line are independent), then n=3n=3 and KK is a ball.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2307.04314,
  title  = {A random line intersects $\mathbb{S}^2$ in two probabilistically independent locations},
  author = {Dmitriy Bilyk and Alan Chang and Otte Heinävaara and Ryan W. Matzke and Stefan Steinerberger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.04314},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:25:37.035Z