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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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Preface VII<br />

some important theorems, the proofs of which are regrettably omitted. Some of the<br />

proofs given are complicated <strong>and</strong> we suggest skipping these at a first reading. There<br />

are plenty of comments, some stating the author’s personal opinions. The emphasis<br />

is more on the systematic aspect of convexity theory. This means that many interesting<br />

results are not even mentioned. In several cases we study a notion in the context<br />

of convexity in one section (e.g. Jordan measure) <strong>and</strong> apply additional properties of<br />

it in another section (e.g. Fubini’s theorem). We have tried to make the attributions<br />

to the best of our knowledge, but the history of convexity would form a complicated<br />

book. In spite of this, historical remarks <strong>and</strong> quotations are dispersed throughout the<br />

book. The selection of the material shows the author’s view of convexity. Several<br />

sub-branches of convex <strong>and</strong> discrete geometry are not touched at all, for example<br />

axiomatic <strong>and</strong> abstract convexity, arrangements <strong>and</strong> matroids, <strong>and</strong> finite packings,<br />

others are barely mentioned.<br />

I started to work in the geometry of numbers as a student <strong>and</strong> became fascinated<br />

by convex <strong>and</strong> discrete geometry slightly later. My interest was greatly increased by<br />

the study of the seminal little books of Blaschke, Fejes Tóth, Hadwiger <strong>and</strong> Rogers,<br />

<strong>and</strong> I have been working in these fields ever since.<br />

For her great help in the preparation of the manuscript I am obliged to Edith<br />

Rosta <strong>and</strong> also to Franziska Berger who produced most of the figures. Kenneth<br />

Stephenson provided the figures in the context of Thurston’s algorithm. The whole<br />

manuscript or part of it was read by Isk<strong>and</strong>er Aliev, Keith Ball, Károly Böröczky<br />

Jr., Gábor Fejes Tóth, August Florian, Richard Gardner, Helmut Groemer, Christoph<br />

Haberl, Rajinder Hans-Gill, Martin Henk <strong>and</strong> his students Eva Linke <strong>and</strong> Matthias<br />

Henze, Jiˇrí Matouˇsek, Peter McMullen, Matthias Reitzner, Rolf Schneider, Franz<br />

Schuster, Tony Thompson, Jörg Wills, Günter Ziegler <strong>and</strong> Chuanming Zong <strong>and</strong> his<br />

students. Useful suggestions are due to Peter Engel, Hendrik Lenstra, Peter Mani <strong>and</strong><br />

Alex<strong>and</strong>er Schrijver. I thank all these colleagues, students <strong>and</strong> friends for their efforts<br />

in correcting mathematical <strong>and</strong> linguistic errors, for pointing out relevant results <strong>and</strong><br />

references which I had missed, <strong>and</strong> for their expert advice. Thanks in particular are<br />

due to Paul Goodey for his help.<br />

I am indebted to numerous mathematicians for discussions, side remarks,<br />

questions, correct <strong>and</strong> false conjectures, references to the literature, orthodox <strong>and</strong>,<br />

sometimes, unorthodox views, <strong>and</strong> interesting lectures over many years. The book<br />

reflects much of this. Most of these friends, colleagues <strong>and</strong> students are mentioned<br />

in the book via their work. I finally remember with gratitude my teacher, colleague<br />

<strong>and</strong> friend Edmund Hlawka <strong>and</strong> my late senior friends László Fejes Tóth <strong>and</strong> Hans<br />

Zassenhaus.<br />

Special thanks go to Springer. For their expert advice <strong>and</strong> help I thank, in<br />

particular, Catriona Byrne, Stefanie Zoeller <strong>and</strong> Joachim Heinze.<br />

Vienna, January 2007 Peter M. <strong>Gruber</strong>

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