Integral Geometry And Geometric Probability

Classic text on integral geometry now available in paperback in the Cambridge Mathematical Library.

The purpose of this book is to present the three basic ideas of geometrical probability, also known as integral geometry, in their natural framework. In this way, the relationship between the subject and enumerative combinatorics is more transparent, and the analogies can be more productively understood. The first of the three ideas is invariant measures on polyconvex sets. The authors then prove the fundamental lemma of integral geometry, namely the kinematic formula. Finally the analogues between invariant measures and finite partially ordered sets are investigated, yielding insights into Hecke algebras, Schubert varieties and the quantum world, as viewed by mathematicians. Geometers and combinatorialists will find this a most stimulating and fruitful story.

Stochastic geometry deals with models for random geometric structures. Its early beginnings are found in playful geometric probability questions, and it has vigorously developed during recent decades, when an increasing number of real-world applications in various sciences required solid mathematical foundations. Integral geometry studies geometric mean values with respect to invariant measures and is, therefore, the appropriate tool for the investigation of random geometric structures that exhibit invariance under translations or motions. Stochastic and Integral Geometry provides the mathematically oriented reader with a rigorous and detailed introduction to the basic stationary models used in stochastic geometry – random sets, point processes, random mosaics – and to the integral geometry that is needed for their investigation. The interplay between both disciplines is demonstrated by various fundamental results. A chapter on selected problems about geometric probabilities and an outlook to non-stationary models are included, and much additional information is given in the section notes.

Essentials of integral geometry in a homogenous space are presented and the focus is on the basic results and applications. This book provides the readers with new findings, some being published for the first time and serves as an excellent graduate text.

Topics include: ways modern statistical procedures can yield estimates of pi more precisely than the original Buffon procedure traditionally used; the question of density and measure for random geometric elements that leave probability and expectation statements invariant under translation and rotation; and much more.

Integral geometry originated with problems on geometrical probability and convex bodies. Its later developments, however, have proved to be useful in several fields ranging from pure mathematics (measure theory, continuous groups) to technical and applied disciplines (pattern recognition, stereology). This book is a systematic exposition of the theory and a compilation of the main results in the field. The volume can be used for a one-semester undergraduate course in probability and differential geometry or as a complement to classical courses on differential geometry, Lie groups, or probability.

The classical subjects of geometric probability and integral geometry, and the more modern one of stochastic geometry, are developed here in a novel way to provide a framework in which they can be studied. The author focuses on factorization properties of measures and probabilities implied by the assumption of their invariance with respect to a group, in order to investigate nontrivial factors. The study of these properties is the central theme of the book. Basic facts about integral geometry and random point process theory are developed in a simple geometric way, so that the whole approach is suitable for a nonspecialist audience. Even in the later chapters, where the factorization principles are applied to geometrical processes, the only prerequisites are standard courses on probability and analysis. The main ideas presented have application to such areas as stereology and geometrical statistics and this book will be a useful reference book for university students studying probability theory and stochastic geometry, and research mathematicians interested in this area.