A note on Hurwitz's inequality

Abstract

Given a simple closed plane curve $\Gamma$ of length $L$ enclosing a compact convex set $K$ of area $F$, Hurwitz found an upper bound for the isoperimetric deficit, namely $L^2-4\pi F\leq \pi |F_{e}|$, where $F_{e}$ is the algebraic area enclosed by the evolute of $\Gamma$. In this note we improve this inequality finding strictly positive lower bounds for the deficit $\pi|F_{e}|-\Delta$, where $\Delta=L^{2}-4\pi F$. These bounds involve wether the visual angle of $\Gamma$ or the pedal curve associated to $K$ with respect to the Steiner point of $K$ or the $\mathcal{L}^{2}$ distance between $K$ and the Steiner disk of $K$. For each established inequality we study when equality holds. This occurs for those compact convex sets being bounded by a curve parallel to an hypocycloid of $3, 4$ or $5$ cusps or the Minkowski sum of this kind of sets.