Comparison of Convex Hulls and Box Hulls

Endre Boros1, Vladimir Gurvich2, Ying Liu3
1RUTCOR, Rutgers University, 640 Bartholomew Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA.
2FRUTCOR, Rutgers University, 640 Bartholomew Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA.
3School of Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe St. N., Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4 Canada.

Abstract

A convex hull of a set of points \(X\) is the minimal convex set containing \(X\). A box \(B\) is an interval \(B = \{x | x \in [a,b], a,b \in \mathbb{R}^n\}\). A box hull of a set of points \(X\) is defined to be the minimal box containing \(X\). Because both convex hulls and box hulls are closure operations of points, classical results for convex sets can naturally be extended for box hulls. We consider here the extensions of theorems by Carathéodory, Helly, and Radon to box hulls and obtain exact results.