In this paper we study the extension problem, the averaging problem, and the generalized Erdős-Falconer distance problem associated with arbitrary homogeneous varieties in three dimensional vector spaces over finite fields. In the case when the varieties do not contain any plane passing through the origin, we obtain the best possible results on the aforementioned three problems. In particular, our result on the extension problem modestly generalizes the result by Mockenhaupt and Tao who studied the particular conical extension problem. In addition, investigating the Fourier decay on homogeneous varieties enables us to give complete mapping properties of averaging operators. Moreover, we improve the size condition on a set such that the cardinality of its distance set is nontrivial.

An abstract polytope of rank $n$ is said to be chiral if its automorphism group has precisely two orbits on the flags, such that adjacent flags belong to distinct orbits. This paper describes a general method for deriving new finite chiral polytopes from old finite chiral polytopes of the same rank. In particular, the technique is used to construct many new examples in ranks $3$, $4$, and $5$.

If $\Phi_\lambda$ is a master function corresponding to a hyperplane arrangement $\mathcal A$ and a collection of weights $\lambda$, we investigate the relationship between the critical set of $\Phi_\lambda$, the variety defined by the vanishing of the one-form $\omega_\lambda=\operatorname{d} \log \Phi_\lambda$, and the resonance of $\lambda$. For arrangements satisfying certain conditions, we show that if $\lambda$ is resonant in dimension $p$, then the critical set of $\Phi_\lambda$ has codimension at most $p$. These include all free arrangements and all rank $3$ arrangements.

The similar sublattices of a planar lattice can be classified via its multiplier ring. The latter is the ring of rational integers in the generic case, and an order in an imaginary quadratic field otherwise. Several classes of examples are discussed, with special emphasis on concrete results. In particular, we derive Dirichlet series generating functions for the number of distinct similar sublattices of a given index, and relate them to zeta functions of orders in imaginary quadratic fields.

An inductive approach to classifying all toric Fano varieties is given. As an application of this technique, we present a classification of the toric Fano threefolds with at worst canonical singularities. Up to isomorphism, there are $674,\!688$ such varieties.

We prove that the ranks of the subsets and the activities of the bases of a matroid define valuations for the subdivisions of a matroid polytope into smaller matroid polytopes.

We investigate equality cases in inequalities for Sylvester-type functionals. Namely, it was proven by Campi, Colesanti, and Gronchi that the quantity $$ \int_{x_0\in K}\cdots\int_{x_n\in K}[V(\textrm{conv}\{x_0,\dots,x_n\})]^pdx_0\cdots dx_n , n\geq d, p\geq 1 $$ is maximized by triangles among all planar convex bodies $K$ (parallelograms in the symmetric case). We show that these are the only maximizers, a fact proven by Giannopoulos for $p=1$. Moreover, if $h$: $\mathbb{R}_+\rightarrow \mathbb{R}_+$ is a strictly increasing function and $W_j$ is the $j$-th quermassintegral in $\mathbb{R}^d$, we prove that the functional $$ \int_{x_0\in K_0}\cdots\int_{x_n\in K_n}h(W_j(\textrm{conv}\{x_0,\dots,x_n\}))dx_0\cdots dx_n , n \geq d $$ is minimized among the $(n+1)$-tuples of convex bodies of fixed volumes if and only if $K_0,\dots,K_n$ are homothetic ellipsoids when $j=0$ (extending a result of Groemer) and Euclidean balls with the same center when $j>0$ (extending a result of Hartzoulaki and Paouris).

A theorem of Tietze and Nakajima, from 1928, asserts that if a subset $X$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$ is closed, connected, and locally convex, then it is convex. We give an analogous ``local to global convexity" theorem when the inclusion map of $X$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$ is replaced by a map from a topological space $X$ to $\mathbb{R}^n$ that satisfies certain local properties. Our motivation comes from the Condevaux--Dazord--Molino proof of the Atiyah--Guillemin--Sternberg convexity theorem in symplectic geometry.

For every polytope $\mathcal{P}$ there is the universal regular polytope of the same rank as $\mathcal{P}$ corresponding to the Coxeter group $\mathcal{C} =[\infty, \dots, \infty]$. For a given automorphism $d$ of $\mathcal{C}$, using monodromy groups, we construct a combinatorial structure $\mathcal{P}^d$. When $\mathcal{P}^d$ is a polytope isomorphic to $\mathcal{P}$ we say that $\mathcal{P}$ is self-invariant with respect to $d$, or $d$-invariant. We develop algebraic tools for investigating these operations on polytopes, and in particular give a criterion on the existence of a $d$\nobreakdash-auto\-morphism of a given order. As an application, we analyze properties of self-dual edge-transitive polyhedra and polyhedra with two flag-orbits. We investigate properties of medials of such polyhedra. Furthermore, we give an example of a self-dual equivelar polyhedron which contains no polarity (duality of order 2). We also extend the concept of Petrie dual to higher dimensions, and we show how it can be dealt with using self-invariance.

This article presents a study of an algebra spanned by the faces of a hyperplane arrangement. The quiver with relations of the algebra is computed and the algebra is shown to be a Koszul algebra. It is shown that the algebra depends only on the intersection lattice of the hyperplane arrangement. A complete system of primitive orthogonal idempotents for the algebra is constructed and other algebraic structure is determined including: a description of the projective indecomposable modules, the Cartan invariants, projective resolutions of the simple modules, the Hochschild homology and cohomology, and the Koszul dual algebra. A new cohomology construction on posets is introduced, and it is shown that the face semigroup algebra is isomorphic to the cohomology algebra when this construction is applied to the intersection lattice of the hyperplane arrangement.

The multiplicity conjecture of Herzog, Huneke, and Srinivasan is verified for the face rings of the following classes of simplicial complexes: matroid complexes, complexes of dimension one and two, and Gorenstein complexes of dimension at most four. The lower bound part of this conjecture is also established for the face rings of all doubly Cohen--Macaulay complexes whose 1-skeleton's connectivity does not exceed the codimension plus one as well as for all $(d-1)$-dimensional $d$-Cohen--Macaulay complexes. The main ingredient of the proofs is a new interpretation of the minimal shifts in the resolution of the face ring $\field[\Delta]$ via the Cohen--Macaulay connectivity of the skeletons of $\Delta$.

A set in a metric space is called a \emph{\v{C}eby\v{s}ev set} if it has a unique ``nearest neighbour'' to each point of the space. In this paper we generalize this notion, defining a set to be \emph{\v{C}eby\v{s}ev relative to} another set if every point in the second set has a unique ``nearest neighbour'' in the first. We are interested in \v{C}eby\v{s}ev sets in some hyperspaces over $\R$, endowed with the Hausdorff metric, mainly the hyperspaces of compact sets, compact convex sets, and strictly convex compact sets. We present some new classes of \v{C}eby\v{s}ev and relatively \v{C}eby\v{s}ev sets in various hyperspaces. In particular, we show that certain nested families of sets are \v{C}eby\v{s}ev. As these families are characterized purely in terms of containment, without reference to the semi-linear structure of the underlying metric space, their properties differ markedly from those of known \v{C}eby\v{s}ev sets.

Given $r>1$, we consider convex bodies in $\E^n$ which contain a fixed unit ball, and whose extreme points are of distance at least $r$ from the centre of the unit ball, and we investigate how well these convex bodies approximate the unit ball in terms of volume, surface area and mean width. As $r$ tends to one, we prove asymptotic formulae for the error of the approximation, and provide good estimates on the involved constants depending on the dimension.

Suppose that we have the unit Euclidean ball in $\R^n$ and construct new bodies using three operations --- linear transformations, closure in the radial metric, and multiplicative summation defined by $\|x\|_{K+_0L} = \sqrt{\|x\|_K\|x\|_L}.$ We prove that in dimension $3$ this procedure gives all origin-symmetric convex bodies, while this is no longer true in dimensions $4$ and higher. We introduce the concept of embedding of a normed space in $L_0$ that naturally extends the corresponding properties of $L_p$-spaces with $p\ne0$, and show that the procedure described above gives exactly the unit balls of subspaces of $L_0$ in every dimension. We provide Fourier analytic and geometric characterizations of spaces embedding in $L_0$, and prove several facts confirming the place of $L_0$ in the scale of $L_p$-spaces.

Cubical sets and their homology have been used in dynamical systems as well as in digital imaging. We take a fresh look at this topic, following Zariski ideas from algebraic geometry. The cubical topology is defined to be a topology in $\R^d$ in which a set is closed if and only if it is cubical. This concept is a convenient frame for describing a variety of important features of cubical sets. Separation axioms which, in general, are not satisfied here, characterize exactly those pairs of points which we want to distinguish. The noetherian property guarantees the correctness of the algorithms. Moreover, maps between cubical sets which are continuous and closed with respect to the cubical topology are precisely those for whom the homology map can be defined and computed without grid subdivisions. A combinatorial version of the Vietoris-Begle theorem is derived. This theorem plays the central role in an algorithm computing homology of maps which are continuous with respect to the Euclidean topology.

We characterize diametrically maximal and constant width sets in $C(K)$, where $K$ is any compact Hausdorff space. These results are applied to prove that the sum of two diametrically maximal sets needs not be diametrically maximal, thus solving a question raised in a paper by Groemer. A~characterization of diametrically maximal sets in $\ell_1^3$ is also given, providing a negative answer to Groemer's problem in finite dimensional spaces. We characterize constant width sets in $c_0(I)$, for every $I$, and then we establish the connections between the Jung constant of a Banach space and the existence of constant width sets with empty interior. Porosity properties of families of sets of constant width and rotundity properties of diametrically maximal sets are also investigated. Finally, we present some results concerning non-reflexive and Hilbert spaces.

In the Euclidean plane $\mathbb{R}^{2}$, we define the Minkowski difference $\mathcal{K}-\mathcal{L}$ of two arbitrary convex bodies $\mathcal{K}$, $\mathcal{L}$ as a rectifiable closed curve $\mathcal{H}_{h}\subset \mathbb{R} ^{2}$ that is determined by the difference $h=h_{\mathcal{K}}-h_{\mathcal{L} } $ of their support functions. This curve $\mathcal{H}_{h}$ is called the hedgehog with support function $h$. More generally, the object of hedgehog theory is to study the Brunn--Minkowski theory in the vector space of Minkowski differences of arbitrary convex bodies of Euclidean space $\mathbb{R} ^{n+1}$, defined as (possibly singular and self-intersecting) hypersurfaces of $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$. Hedgehog theory is useful for: (i) studying convex bodies by splitting them into a sum in order to reveal their structure; (ii) converting analytical problems into geometrical ones by considering certain real functions as support functions. The purpose of this paper is to give a detailed study of plane hedgehogs, which constitute the basis of the theory. In particular: (i) we study their length measures and solve the extension of the Christoffel--Minkowski problem to plane hedgehogs; (ii) we characterize support functions of plane convex bodies among support functions of plane hedgehogs and support functions of plane hedgehogs among continuous functions; (iii) we study the mixed area of hedgehogs in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ and give an extension of the classical Minkowski inequality (and thus of the isoperimetric inequality) to hedgehogs.

Petrie polygons, especially as they arise in the study of regular polytopes and Coxeter groups, have been studied by geometers and group theorists since the early part of the twentieth century. An open question is the determination of which polyhedra possess Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. The current work explores combinatorial structures in abstract polytopes, called Petrie schemes, that generalize the notion of a Petrie polygon. It is established that all of the regular convex polytopes and honeycombs in Euclidean spaces, as well as all of the Gr\"unbaum--Dress polyhedra, possess Petrie schemes that are not self-intersecting and thus have Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. Partial results are obtained for several other classes of less symmetric polytopes.

We consider the $s$-energy $$ E(\ZZ_n;s)=\sum_{i \neq j} K(\|z_{i,n}-z_{j,n}\|;s) $$ for point sets $\ZZ_n=\{ z_{k,n}:k=0,\dots,n\}$ on certain compact sets $\Ga$ in $\R^d$ having finite one-dimensional Hausdorff measure, where $$ K(t;s)= \begin{cases} t^{-s} ,& \mbox{if } s>0, \\ -\ln t, & \mbox{if } s=0, \end{cases} $$ is the Riesz kernel. Asymptotics for the minimum $s$-energy and the distribution of minimizing sequences of points is studied. In particular, we prove that, for $s\geq 1$, the minimizing nodes for a rectifiable Jordan curve $\Ga$ distribute asymptotically uniformly with respect to arclength as $n\to\infty$.

This paper deals with generalizations of the notion of a polytope to infinite dimensions. The most general definition is the following: a bounded closed convex subset of a Banach space is called a \emph{polytope} if each of its finite-dimensional affine sections is a (standard) polytope. We study the relationships between eight known definitions of infinite-dimensional polyhedrality. We provide a complete isometric classification of them, which gives solutions to several open problems. An almost complete isomorphic classification is given as well (only one implication remains open).

Monotone paths on zonotopes and the natural generalization to maximal chains in the poset of topes of an oriented matroid or arrangement of pseudo-hyperplanes are studied with respect to a kind of local move, called polygon move or flip. It is proved that any monotone path on a $d$-dimensional zonotope with $n$ generators admits at least $\lceil 2n/(n-d+2) \rceil-1$ flips for all $n \ge d+2 \ge 4$ and that for any fixed value of $n-d$, this lower bound is sharp for infinitely many values of $n$. In particular, monotone paths on zonotopes which admit only three flips are constructed in each dimension $d \ge 3$. Furthermore, the previously known 2-connectivity of the graph of monotone paths on a polytope is extended to the 2-connectivity of the graph of maximal chains of topes of an oriented matroid. An application in the context of Coxeter groups of a result known to be valid for monotone paths on simple zonotopes is included.

A homogeneous real polynomial $p$ is {\em hyperbolic} with respect to a given vector $d$ if the univariate polynomial $t \mapsto p(x-td)$ has all real roots for all vectors $x$. Motivated by partial differential equations, G{\aa}rding proved in 1951 that the largest such root is a convex function of $x$, and showed various ways of constructing new hyperbolic polynomials. We present a powerful new such construction, and use it to generalize G{\aa}rding's result to arbitrary symmetric functions of the roots. Many classical and recent inequalities follow easily. We develop various convex-analytic tools for such symmetric functions, of interest in interior-point methods for optimization problems over related cones.

Partial answers are given to two questions. When does a lattice $\Lambda$ contain a sublattice $\Lambda'$ of index $N$ that is geometrically similar to $\Lambda$? When is the sublattice ``clean'', in the sense that the boundaries of the Voronoi cells for $\Lambda'$ do not intersect $\Lambda$?

Lattices and $\ZZ$-modules in Euclidean space possess an infinitude of subsets that are images of the original set under similarity transformation. We classify such self-similar images according to their indices for certain 4D examples that are related to 4D root systems, both crystallographic and non-crystallographic. We encapsulate their statistics in terms of Dirichlet series generating functions and derive some of their asymptotic properties.

In this article, we derive a Brunn-Minkowski type theorem for sets bearing some relation to the causal structure on the Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{L}^{n+1}$. We also present an isoperimetric inequality in the Minkowski spacetime $\mathbb{L}^{n+1}$ as a consequence of this Brunn-Minkowski type theorem.