The Bobkov–Madiman–Wang mixed Minkowski-sum inequality

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Let k≥2k\geq 2, and let A1,A2,…,Ak+1A_1,A_2,\ldots,A_{k+1} be compact sets in Rd\mathbb{R}^d. For a finite family of sets, ∑iAi\sum_i A_i denotes their Minkowski sum, and vol⁡\operatorname{vol} denotes Lebesgue measure. Bobkov–Madiman–Wang conjecture.

vol⁡(∑i=1k+1Ai)1/d≥1k∑i=1k+1vol⁡(∑j≠iAj)1/d.\operatorname{vol}\left(\sum_{i=1}^{k+1}A_i\right)^{1/d}\geq\frac{1}{k}\sum_{i=1}^{k+1}\operatorname{vol}\left(\sum_{j\ne i}A_j\right)^{1/d}.

In particular, for k=2k=2,

vol⁡(A1+A2+A3)1/d≥12(vol⁡(A1+A2)1/d+vol⁡(A1+A3)1/d+vol⁡(A2+A3)1/d).\operatorname{vol}(A_1+A_2+A_3)^{1/d}\geq\frac{1}{2}\left(\operatorname{vol}(A_1+A_2)^{1/d}+\operatorname{vol}(A_1+A_3)^{1/d}+\operatorname{vol}(A_2+A_3)^{1/d}\right).

The source describes this as a more general version of the volume monotonicity conjecture and says that star-shaped sets give a negative answer to that more general version; the displayed inequality is therefore refuted.

References

Primary source

Matthieu Fradelizi, Zsolt Lángi and Artem Zvavitch, “Volume of the Minkowski sums of star-shaped sets”, arXiv:1910.06146 (2021).

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