Random conical tessellations

Abstract

We consider tessellations of the Euclidean $(d-1)$-sphere by $(d-2)$-dimensional great subspheres or, equivalently, tessellations of Euclidean $d$-space by hyperplanes through the origin; these we call conical tessellations. For random polyhedral cones defined as typical cones in a conical tessellation by random hyperplanes, and for random cones which are dual to these in distribution, we study expectations for a general class of geometric functionals. They include combinatorial quantities, such as face numbers, as well as, for example, conical intrinsic volumes. For isotropic conical tessellations (those generated by random hyperplanes with spherically symmetric distribution), we determine the complete covariance structure of the random vector whose components are the $k$-face contents of the induced spherical random polytopes. This result can be considered as a spherical counterpart of a classical result due to Roger Miles.