Recurrence Relationships for the Mean Number of Faces and Vertices for Random Convex Hulls

This paper studies the convex hull of n random points in \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$\mathsf{R}^{d}$\end{document} . A recently proved topological identity of the author is used in combination with identities of Efron and Buchta to find the expected number of vertices of the convex hull—yielding a new recurrence formula for all dimensions d. A recurrence for the expected number of facets and (d−2)-faces is also found, this analysis building on a technique of Rényi and Sulanke. Other relationships for the expected count of i-faces (1≤i<d) are found when d≤5, by applying the Dehn–Sommerville identities. A general recurrence identity (see (3) below) for this expected count is conjectured.