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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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7 Valuations 135<br />

geometry from another is the group of transformations under which the propositions<br />

remain valid. Thus, for the purposes of integral geometry, it seems to be natural to<br />

choose the measure in such a way that it remains invariant under the corresponding<br />

group of transformation.<br />

The first reference of integral geometry <strong>and</strong> the closely related field of geometric<br />

probability, is the needle experiment of the naturalist Buffon [177]. Buffon found<br />

his formula in 1733, but it was published only in 1777. Principal contributors to this<br />

area are Cauchy, Barbier, Crofton <strong>and</strong> Czuber in the nineteenth century, Blaschke<br />

<strong>and</strong> his school, in particular his followers Santaló, Chern <strong>and</strong> Hadwiger, in the 1930s<br />

<strong>and</strong> later, <strong>and</strong> a number of contemporaries. See the collected works of Blaschke<br />

[129] <strong>and</strong> the books of Blaschke [128], Hadwiger [468], Stoka [971], Santaló [879],<br />

Ambartzumian [26], Schneider <strong>and</strong> Weil [911], Klain <strong>and</strong> Rota [587] <strong>and</strong> Beneˇs <strong>and</strong><br />

Rataj [95].<br />

A related, yet different, type of integral geometry deals with the Radon transform<br />

<strong>and</strong> its applications. See, e.g. Helgason [489], Gel’f<strong>and</strong>, Gindikin <strong>and</strong> Graev [368]<br />

<strong>and</strong> Palamodov [784].<br />

In the following we state <strong>and</strong> prove the principal kinematic formula based on<br />

Hadwiger’s functional theorem.<br />

Measure on the Group of Rigid Motions<br />

Let M = M(E d ) be the group of all (proper <strong>and</strong> improper) rigid motions in E d .<br />

Since every rigid motion is a (proper or improper) rotation, i.e. an element of the<br />

orthogonal group O(d), followed by a translation, we obtain an invariant measure µ<br />

on M as follows: Take the product of the invariant measure ν on the compact group<br />

O(d), normalized such that the whole group has measure 1, with the d-dimensional<br />

Lebesgue measure. See [760].<br />

The Principal Kinematic Formula<br />

permits us to calculate the integral<br />

�<br />

(1) χ(C ∩ mD) dµ(m),<br />

M<br />

where C, D are polyconvex bodies <strong>and</strong> χ is the Euler characteristic, see Sect. 7.1.<br />

It is due to Santaló [879] (d = 2), Blaschke [127, 128] (d = 3) <strong>and</strong> Chern <strong>and</strong><br />

Yien [205] (general d). There exist many generalizations <strong>and</strong> extensions of it, for<br />

example the general kinematic formula which permits us to calculate the integral<br />

�<br />

Wi(C ∩ mD) dµ(m).<br />

M<br />

For convex bodies C, D the integral (1) is simply the measure of all rigid motions m<br />

such that the intersection C ∩mD is not empty. If B is a convex body which contains<br />

C, the quotient

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