The main topics in this introductory text to discrete geometry include basics on convex sets, convex polytopes and hyperplane arrangements, combinatorial complexity of geometric configurations, intersection patterns and transversals of convex sets, geometric Ramsey-type results, and embeddings of finite metric spaces into normed spaces. In each area, the text explains several key results and methods.
Based on a graduate course at the Technische Universität, Berlin, these lectures present a wealth of material on the modern theory of convex polytopes. The straightforward exposition features many illustrations, and complete proofs for most theorems. With only linear algebra as a prerequisite, it takes the reader quickly from the basics to topics of recent research. The lectures introduce basic facts about polytopes, with an emphasis on methods that yield the results, discuss important examples and elegant constructions, and show the excitement of current work in the field. They will provide interesting and enjoyable reading for researchers as well as students.
The Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry is intended as a reference book fully accessible to nonspecialists as well as specialists, covering all major aspects of both fields. The book offers the most important results and methods in discrete and computational geometry to those who use them in their work, both in the academic world—as researchers in mathematics and computer science—and in the professional world—as practitioners in fields as diverse as operations research, molecular biology, and robotics. Discrete geometry has contributed significantly to the growth of discrete mathematics in recent years. This has been fueled partly by the advent of powerful computers and by the recent explosion of activity in the relatively young field of computational geometry. This synthesis between discrete and computational geometry lies at the heart of this Handbook. A growing list of application fields includes combinatorial optimization, computer-aided design, computer graphics, crystallography, data analysis, error-correcting codes, geographic information systems, motion planning, operations research, pattern recognition, robotics, solid modeling, and tomography.
This book examines interactions of polyhedral discrete geometry and algebra. What makes this book unique is the presentation of several central results in all three areas of the exposition - from discrete geometry, to commutative algebra, and K-theory.
The papers showcase the breadth of discrete geometry through many new methods and results in a variety of topics. Also included are survey articles on some important areas of active research. This volume is aimed at researchers in discrete and convex geometry and researchers who work with abstract polytopes or string C C-groups. It is also aimed at early career mathematicians, including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, to give them a glimpse of the variety and beauty of these research areas. Topics covered in this volume include: the combinatorics, geometry, and symmetries of convex polytopes; tilings; discrete point sets; the combinatorics of Eulerian posets and interval posets; symmetries of surfaces and maps on surfaces; self-dual polytopes; string C C-groups; hypertopes; and graph coloring.
Geometry is a classical core part of mathematics which, with its birth, marked the beginning of the mathematical sciences. Thus, not surprisingly, geometry has played a key role in many important developments of mathematics in the past, as well as in present times. While focusing on modern mathematics, one has to emphasize the increasing role of discrete mathematics, or equivalently, the broad movement to establish discrete analogues of major components of mathematics. In this way, the works of a number of outstanding mathema- cians including H. S. M. Coxeter (Canada), C. A. Rogers (United Kingdom), and L. Fejes-T oth (Hungary) led to the new and fast developing eld called discrete geometry. One can brie y describe this branch of geometry as the study of discrete arrangements of geometric objects in Euclidean, as well as in non-Euclidean spaces. This, as a classical core part, also includes the theory of polytopes and tilings in addition to the theory of packing and covering. D- crete geometry is driven by problems often featuring a very clear visual and applied character. The solutions use a variety of methods of modern mat- matics, including convex and combinatorial geometry, coding theory, calculus of variations, di erential geometry, group theory, and topology, as well as geometric analysis and number theory.
Polyhedral and Algebraic Methods in Computational Geometry provides a thorough introduction into algorithmic geometry and its applications. It presents its primary topics from the viewpoints of discrete, convex and elementary algebraic geometry. The first part of the book studies classical problems and techniques that refer to polyhedral structures. The authors include a study on algorithms for computing convex hulls as well as the construction of Voronoi diagrams and Delone triangulations. The second part of the book develops the primary concepts of (non-linear) computational algebraic geometry. Here, the book looks at Gröbner bases and solving systems of polynomial equations. The theory is illustrated by applications in computer graphics, curve reconstruction and robotics. Throughout the book, interconnections between computational geometry and other disciplines (such as algebraic geometry, optimization and numerical mathematics) are established. Polyhedral and Algebraic Methods in Computational Geometry is directed towards advanced undergraduates in mathematics and computer science, as well as towards engineering students who are interested in the applications of computational geometry.
An essential introduction to discrete and computational geometry Discrete geometry is a relatively new development in pure mathematics, while computational geometry is an emerging area in applications-driven computer science. Their intermingling has yielded exciting advances in recent years, yet what has been lacking until now is an undergraduate textbook that bridges the gap between the two. Discrete and Computational Geometry offers a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to this cutting-edge frontier of mathematics and computer science. This book covers traditional topics such as convex hulls, triangulations, and Voronoi diagrams, as well as more recent subjects like pseudotriangulations, curve reconstruction, and locked chains. It also touches on more advanced material, including Dehn invariants, associahedra, quasigeodesics, Morse theory, and the recent resolution of the Poincaré conjecture. Connections to real-world applications are made throughout, and algorithms are presented independently of any programming language. This richly illustrated textbook also features numerous exercises and unsolved problems. The essential introduction to discrete and computational geometry Covers traditional topics as well as new and advanced material Features numerous full-color illustrations, exercises, and unsolved problems Suitable for sophomores in mathematics, computer science, engineering, or physics Rigorous but accessible An online solutions manual is available (for teachers only)
This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Discrete Geometry and Algebraic Combinatorics held on January 11, 2013, in San Diego, California. The collection of articles in this volume is devoted to packings of metric spaces and related questions, and contains new results as well as surveys of some areas of discrete geometry. This volume consists of papers on combinatorics of transportation polytopes, including results on the diameter of graphs of such polytopes; the generalized Steiner problem and related topics of the minimal fillings theory; a survey of distance graphs and graphs of diameters, and a group of papers on applications of algebraic combinatorics to packings of metric spaces including sphere packings and topics in coding theory. In particular, this volume presents a new approach to duality in sphere packing based on the Poisson summation formula, applications of semidefinite programming to spherical codes and equiangular lines, new results in list decoding of a family of algebraic codes, and constructions of bent and semi-bent functions.
This richly illustrated textbook explores the amazing interaction between combinatorics, geometry, number theory, and analysis which arises in the interplay between polyhedra and lattices. Highly accessible to advanced undergraduates, as well as beginning graduate students, this second edition is perfect for a capstone course, and adds two new chapters, many new exercises, and updated open problems. For scientists, this text can be utilized as a self-contained tooling device. The topics include a friendly invitation to Ehrhart’s theory of counting lattice points in polytopes, finite Fourier analysis, the Frobenius coin-exchange problem, Dedekind sums, solid angles, Euler–Maclaurin summation for polytopes, computational geometry, magic squares, zonotopes, and more. With more than 300 exercises and open research problems, the reader is an active participant, carried through diverse but tightly woven mathematical fields that are inspired by an innocently elementary question: What are the relationships between the continuous volume of a polytope and its discrete volume? Reviews of the first edition: “You owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of Computing the Continuous Discretely to read about a number of interesting problems in geometry, number theory, and combinatorics.” — MAA Reviews “The book is written as an accessible and engaging textbook, with many examples, historical notes, pithy quotes, commentary integrating the mate rial, exercises, open problems and an extensive bibliography.” — Zentralblatt MATH “This beautiful book presents, at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, a fairly complete introduction to the problem of counting lattice points inside a convex polyhedron.” — Mathematical Reviews “Many departments recognize the need for capstone courses in which graduating students can see the tools they have acquired come together in some satisfying way. Beck and Robins have written the perfect text for such a course.” — CHOICE
