Let B (“black”) and W (“white”) be disjoint compact test sets in ℝd, and consider the volume of all its simultaneous shifts keeping B inside and W outside a compact set A ⊂ ℝd. If the union B ∪ W is rescaled by a factor tending to zero, then the rescaled volume converges to a value determined by the surface area measure of A and the support functions of B and W, provided that A is regular enough (e.g., polyconvex). An analogous formula is obtained for the case when the conditions B ⊂ A and W ⊂ AC are replaced by prescribed threshold volumes of B in A and W in AC. Applications in stochastic geometry are discussed. First, the hit distribution function of a random set with an arbitrary compact structuring element B is considered. Its derivative at 0 is expressed in terms of the rose of directions and B. An analogous result holds for the hit-or-miss function. Second, in a design based setting, different random digitizations of a deterministic set A are treated. It is shown how the number of configurations in such a digitization is related to the surface area measure of A as the lattice distance converges to zero.

The Ehrhart polynomials for the class of 0-symmetric convex lattice polytopes in Euclidean n-space ℝn are investigated. It turns out that the roots of the Ehrhart polynomial and Minkowski's successive minima of such polytopes are closely related by their geometric and arithmetic means. It is also shown that the roots of the Ehrhart polynomials of lattice n-polytopes with or without interior lattice points differ essentially. Furthermore, the structure of the roots in the planar case is studied. Here it turns out that their distribution reflects basic properties of lattice polygons.

This paper treats finite lattice packings Cn + K of n copies of some centrally symmetric convex body K in Ed for large n. Assume that Cn is a subset of a lattice Λ, and ϱ is at least the covering radius; namely, Λ + ϱK covers the space. The parametric density δ(Cn, ϱ) is defined by δ(Cn, ϱ) = n · V(K)/V(convCn + ϱK). It is shown that, if δ(Cn, ϱ) is minimal for n large, then the shape of conv Cn is approximately given by Wulff's condition, well-known from crystallography. Thus maximizing parametric density is equivalent to optimizing a certain Gibbs–Curie energy. It is also proved that, in case of lattice packings of K (allowing any packing lattice), for large n the optimal shape with respect to the parametric density is approximately a Wulff-shape associated to some densest packing lattice of K.

It is known that 4 ≤ x(ℝ2) ≤ 7, where x(ℝ2) is the number of colour necessary to colour each point of Euclidean 2-space so that no two points lying distance 1 apart have the same colour. Any lattice-sublattice colouring sucheme for R2 must use at least 7 colour to have an excluded distance. This article shows that at least 6 colours are necessary for an excluded distance when convex polygonal tiles (all with area greater than some positive constant) are used as the colouring base.

Generalizing an earlier notion of secondary polytopes, Billera and Sturmfels introduced the important concept of fibre polytopes, and showed how they were related to certain kinds of subdivision induced by the projection of one polytope onto another. There are two obvious ways in which this concept can be extended: first, to possibly unbounded polyhedra, and second, by making the definition a categorical one. In the course of these investigations, it became clear that the whole subject fitted even more naturally into the context of finite tilings which admit strong duals. In turn, this new approach provides more unified and perspicuous explanations of many previously known but apparently quite disparate results.

Let K be a compact convex body in ℝn not contained in a hyperplane, and denote the norm whose unit ball is ½(K − K) by ║·║k. Given a translative packing of K, we are interested in how long a segment (with respect to ║·║K) can lie in the complement of the interiors of the translates. The main result of this note is to show the existence of a translative packing such that the length of the longest segments avoiding it is only exponential in the dimension n (see below). We start here with a lower bound, showing that this bound is close to optimal for balls.

What is the effect of punching holes at random in an infinite tensed membrane? When will the membrane still support tension? This problem was introduced by Connelly in connection with applications of rigidity theory to natural sciences. The answer clearly depends on the shapes and the distribution of the holes. We briefly outline a mathematical theory of tension based on graph rigidity theory and introduce a probabilistic model for this problem. We show that if the centers of the holes are distributed in ℝ2 according to a Poisson law with density λ > 0, and the shapes are i.i.d. and independent of the locations of their centers, the tension is lost on all of ℝ2 for any λ. After introducing a certain step-by-step dynamic for the loss of tension, we establish the existence of a nonrandom N = N(λ) such that N steps are almost surely enough for the loss of tension. Also, we prove that N(λ) > 2 almost surely for sufficiently small λ. The processes described in the paper are related to bootstrap and rigidity percolation.

A tiling of a convex m-gon by a finite number r of convex n-gons is said to be of type <m, n, r>. The Main Theorem of this paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions on m, n and r for a tiling of type <m, n, r> to exist.

Let Ω be a convex planar domain, with no curvature or regularity assumption on the boundary. Let Nθ(R) = card{RΩθ∩ℤ2}, where Ωθ denotes the rotation of Ω by θ. It is proved that, up to a small logarithmic transgression, Nθ(R) = |Ω|R2 + O(R2/3), for almost every rotation. A refined result based on the fractal structure of the image of the boundary of Ω under the Gauss map is also obtained.

Denote by Bn the n-dimensional unit ball centred at o. It is known that in every lattice packing of Bn there is a cylindrical hole of infinite length whenever n≥3. As a counterpart, this note mainly proves the following result: for any fixed ε with ε>0, there exist a periodic point set P(n, ε) and a constant c(n, ε) such that Bn + P(n, ε) is a packing in Rn, and the length of the longest segment contained in Rn\{int(εBn) + P(n, ε)} is bounded by c(n, ε) from above. Generalizations and applications are presented.

An n-hedral tiling of ℝd is a tiling with each tile congruent to one of the n distinct sets. In this paper, we use the iterated function systems (IFS) to generate n-hedral tilings of ℝd. Each tile in the tiling is similar to the attractor of the IFS. These tiles are fractals and their boundaries have the Hausdorff dimension less than d. Our results generalize a result of Bandt.

We consider two independent homogeneous Poisson processes Π0 and Π1 in the plane with intensities λ0 and λ1, respectively. We study additive functionals of the set of Π0-particles within a typical Voronoi Π1-cell. We find the first and the second moments of these variables as well as upper and lower bounds on their distribution functions, implying an exponential asymptotic behavior of their tails. Explicit formulae are given for the number and the sum of distances from Π0-particles to the nucleus within a typical Voronoi Π1-cell.

For finite coverings in euclidean d-space Ed we introduce a parametric density function. Here the parameter controls the influence of the boundary of the covered region to the density. This definition gives a new approach to covering which is similar to the approach for packing in [BHW1], [BHW2]. In this way we obtain a unified theory for finite and infinite covering and generalize similar results, which were developed by various authors since 1950 for d=2, to all dimensions.

We prove that for every strictly convex body C in the Euclidean space of dimension d≥3, some aflfine image of C admits a non-lattice covering of the space, thinner than any lattice covering. We illustrate the general construction with an example of a thin non-lattice covering of with certain congruent ellipsoids.

Consider a forest of maple trees in autumn, with leaves falling on the ground. Those coming late cover the others below, so eventually the fallen leaves form a statistically homogeneous spatial pattern. In particular, the uncovered leaf boundaries form a mosaic. We formulate a mathematical model to describe this mosaic, firstly in the case where the leaves are polygonal and later for leaves with curved boundaries. Mean values of certain statistics of the mosaic are derived.

The main object of this note is to prove that in three-space the sausage arrangement is the densest packing of four unit balls. Our method can be used to determine minimal arrangements with respect to various properties of four-ball packings, as we point out in Section 3.

In Euclidean d-space Ed we prove inequalities between the intrinsic volumes (i.e., normalized quermassintegrals) of convex bodies and the successive minima of arbitrary lattices. The inequalities are tight and they generalize earlier results of Hadwiger and Henk for the integer lattice ℤd.

This paper addresses random packing of equal-sized disks in a manner such that no disk has a gap on its circumference large enough to accommodate an extra touching neighbour. This structure generalises the deterministic packing models discussed in classical geometry (Coxeter (1961), Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen (1952)). Relationships with the dual mosaic formed by joining the centres of touching disks are established. Constraints on the neighbourhood of disks and on the packing density are established.

An upper bound for the “sausage catastrophe” of dense sphere packings in 4-space is given.

A basic problem in the theory of finite packing is to determine, for a given positive integer k, the minimal volume of all convex bodies into which k translates of the unit ball Bd of the Euclidean d-dimensional space Ed can be packed ([5]). For d = 2 this problem was solved by Groemer ([6]).

A method of obtaining the distribution of the volume of the typical cell of a Delaunay tessellation generated by a Poisson process in is developed and used to derive the density when d = 1, 2, 3.