Open Access
Issue
Wuhan Univ. J. Nat. Sci.
Volume 30, Number 6, December 2025
Page(s) 529 - 534
DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/wujns/2025306529
Published online 09 January 2026

© Wuhan University 2025

Licence Creative CommonsThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

0 Introduction

The classical Brunn-Minkowski theory is the core of convex geometry analysis. The classical Minkowski problem asks for the existence, uniqueness, and regularity of a convex body whose surface area measure is equal to a pre-given Borel measure. Lutwak[1-2] developed the classical Brunn-Minkowski theory into Lp-Brunn-Minkowski theory. After that, the Lp Minkowski problem and related researches can be found in Refs.[3-14].

The Lp Minkowski problem has been extended to the even Orlicz Minkowski problem by Habrel et al [15] with a series of papers on the Orlicz Minkowski theory [16-17]. The Orlicz Minkowski problem and related topics can be found in the Refs.[18-29].

Recently, Lutwak et al[30] introduced a new family of geometric measures by studying a variational formula on the geometric invariants of convex body integrals, which called chord integrals. Accordingly, the Lp chord Minkowski problem was considered. Xi et al [31] solved the Lp chord Minkowski problem when p>1, q>1 and the symmetric case of 0<p<1. Guo et al[32] solved the Lp chord Minkowski problem for 0p<1 without symmetric assumptions. Li[33] solved the discrete Lp chord Minkowski problem in the condition of p<0 and q>0, and as for general Borel measure, Li also gave a proof but need -n<p<0 and 1<q<n+1. Hu et al [34] used flow methods to get regularity of the chord log-Minkowski problem of p=0. In addition, Hu et al[35] also found the smooth origin-symmetric solution for Lp chord Minkowski problem in the case of {p>0,q>3}  {-n<p<0,3<q<n+1} by using same flow method[34]. Zhao et al [36] generalized the Lp chord Minkowski problem and sloved the existence of smooth solutions to the Orlicz chord Minkowski problem.

In this paper, we use variational method to solve the even Orlicz chord Minkowski problem.

Let Kn be the collection of convex bodies (compact convex sets with nonempty interior) in Rn. For KKn, the chord integral Iq(K) of K is defined as follows:

I q ( K ) = n | K L | q d L ,     q 0 ,

where |KL| denotes the length of the chord |KL|, and the integration is with respect to the Haar measure on the Grassmannian n of lines in Rn.

Chord integrals contain volume V(K) and surface area S(K) as two important special cases:

I 1 ( K ) = V ( K ) ,   I 0 ( K ) = ω n - 1 n ω n S ( K ) ,   I n + 1 ( K ) = n + 1 ω n V ( K ) 2 ,

where ωn is the volume enclosed by the unit sphere Sn-1.

We can see in Ref.[15] that the differential of Iq(K) defines a finite Borel measure Fq(K,) on Sn-1. Precisely, for convex bodies K and L in Rn, we have

d d t | t = 0 + I q ( K + t L ) = S n - 1 h L ( v ) d F q ( K , v ) ,     q 0 ,

where Fq(K,) is called the q-th chord measure of K and hL is the support function of L. The cases of q=0,1 of this formula are classical, which are the variational formulas of surface area and volume.

F 0 ( K , ) = ( n - 1 ) ω n - 1 n ω n S n - 2 ( K , ) ,   F 1 ( K , ) = S n - 1 ( K , ) ,

where Sn-2(K,) and Sn-1(K,) are respecting the (n-2)-th order and (n-1)-th order area measure of K.

The Orlicz chord Minkowski problem was stated in Ref.[36] by the following form:

The Orlicz chord Minkowski problem: Suppose φ: (0,)(0,) is a continuous decreasing function. If μ is an finite Borel measure on Sn-1 which is not concentrated on a great subsphere of Sn-1, what are the necessary and sufficient conditions on μ , such that there exist a convex body KKon in Rn and a positive constant c so that

μ = c φ ( h K ) d F q ( K , )   ?

Remark 1   When φ(s)=s1-p, the Orlicz chord Minkowski problem is reduce to the Lp chord Minkowski problem[30-31]. When q=1, the Orlicz chord Minkowski problem is reduced to the Orlicz Minkowski problem[15].

In this paper, we consider the even Orlicz chord Minkowski problem. Concretely, we prove the following theorem.

Theorem 1   Let q>1 and 0<α<1. Suppose φ:(0,)(0,) is a continuous decreasing function. If μ is an even Borel measure on Sn-1 that is not concentrated on a great subsphere of Sn-1, then there exists a symmetric, convex body K0 such that

c φ ( h K 0 ) d F q ( K 0 , ) = d μ ,

with c=Iq(K0)α-(n+q-1)n+q-1.

This paper is organized as follows. In Section 1, we introduce some basic facts about convex bodies. In Section 2, we give some lemmas needed for the proof of theorems in Section 3. In Section 3, we prove the main theorem.

1 Preliminaries

In this section, we will give some relative notations and facts about convex bodies. And for more details, see Refs.[37-39].

Let Rn be n-dimensional Euclidean space. The standard inner product in Rn is denoted by xy. We write Sn-1={xRn: xx=1} for the boundary of the Euclidean unit ball B in Rn.

A convex body is a compact convex subset of Rn with non-empty interior. The set of convex bodies in Rn containing the origin in their interiors is denoted by Kon. The set of convex bodies in Rn that are symmetric about the origin will be denoted by Ken.

A compact, convex set KRn is uniquely determined by its support function hK: RnR, where hK(x)=max{xy : yK}, for each xRn. For example, the support function of the line segment v¯ joining the points ±vRn is given by

h v ¯ ( x ) = | x v | ,   x R n .

It is trivial that for the support function of the dilate cK={cx: xK} of a compact, convex K , we have

h c K = c h K ,   c > 0 . (1)

Note that support functions are positively homogeneous of degree 1 and subadditive. It follows immediately from the definition of support functions that for compact, convex K, LRn,

K L h K h L . (2)

Consequently, the support function of a body KKon is bounded from above and below by positive reals.

The set of continuous functions on the sphere Sn-1 will be denoted by C(Sn-1) and will always be viewed as equipped with the max-norm metric:

f - g = m a x u S n - 1 | f ( u ) - g ( u ) | ,

for f, gC(Sn-1). The subspace of positive continuous functions will be denoted by C+(Sn-1) and the subspace of C+(Sn-1) consisting of only the even functions will be denoted by Ce+(Sn-1).

For hC(Sn-1), the Wulff-shape [h] is a compact convex set defined by

[ h ] = { x R n   :   x v h ( v ) , v S n - 1 } .

Clearly, h[h](v)h(v).

The set Kon will be viewed as equipped with the Hausdorff metric. If a sequence Ki of bodies in Kon and a body KKon, we say that limiKi=K provided

h K i - h K 0 .

If xu=hK(u), a boundary point xK has uSn-1 as an outer normal. A boundary point is said to be singular if it has more than one unit normal vector. It is well known that the set of singular boundary points of a convex body has n-1-measure equal to 0.

The inverse spherical image of a convex body K at ωSn-1 which is a Borel set, denoted by τ(K,ω), is the set of all boundary points of K which have an outer unit normal belonging to the set ω. SK which is called the Aleksandrov-Fenchel-Jensen surface area measure of K is defined by SK(ω)=n-1(τ(K,ω)), for each Borel set ωSn-1, associated with each convex body KKon is a Borel measure on Sn-1.

2 Some Lemmas

This section mainly gives some lemmas needed for the proof in Section 3. First, we give the properties of a simple functional.

Lemma 1[15] Suppose φ: (0,)(0,) is a continuous decreasing function. Define the function ϕ:[0,) [0,) by ϕ(t)=0t1φ(s)ds. For c>0 and 0<α<1, we have

l i m t ϕ ( c t ) t α = (3)

and

l i m t 0 + ϕ ( t ) t α = 0 . (4)

Moreover, the derivative of ϕ is increasing and the function ϕ is convex.

The following lemma is a slight variant of a standard result about differentiability under an integral sign.

Lemma 2[15] Let ϕ:(0,)(0,) be continuously differentiable, IR be an open interval, and

h   :   I × S n - 1 ( 0 , ) , ( t , u ) h ( t , u )

be a continuous function such that the partial derivative ht(t,u) exists for all (t,u)I×Sn-1. If ht is bounded and h is bounded from above and from below by positive numbers, then the function H : I(0,) defined by

H ( t ) = S n - 1 ( ϕ h ) ( t , u ) d μ ( u ) ,

for tI, is differentiable on I and

H ' ( t ) = S n - 1 ( ϕ h ) t ( t , u ) d μ ( u ) .

Moreover, if (ϕh)/t is continuous with respect to t, then H' is continuous.

To solve the maximization problem, we use the variational formula in the following lemma.

Lemma 3[30] Let q>0. Suppose that g : Sn-1R is continuous and ht : Sn-1(0,) is a family of continuous functions given as follows:

h t = h 0 + t g + o ( t , ) ,

for each t(-δ,δ) with δ>0. Here, ο(t,)C(Sn-1) and ο(t,)/t tends to 0 uniformly on Sn-1 as t0. Let Kt be the Wulff-shape generated by ht and K be the Wulff-shape generated by h0. Then,

d d t | t = 0 I q ( K t ) = S n - 1 g ( v ) d F q ( K , v ) .

3 The Even Orlicz Chord Minkowski Problem

Let q0 and 0<α<1. Suppose φ : (0,)(0,) is a continuous decreasing function. Define the function ϕ:[0,)[0,) by ϕ(t)=0t1φ(s)ds. For each non-zero even finite Borel measure μ on Sn-1, define the functional Φϕ,q(h): C+(Sn-1)R by

Φ ϕ , q ( h ) = n + q - 1 α I q ( [ h ] ) α n + q - 1 - S n - 1 ( ϕ h ) d μ .

The following theorem shows that if the maximization can be obtained, the even Orlicz chord Minkowski problem has a solution.

Theorem 2   Let q>0 and μ be a nonzero even finite Borel measure on Sn-1 that is not concentrated on a great subsphere of Sn-1. If the maximization problem

s u p { Φ ϕ , q ( h ) :   h C + ( S n - 1 ) }

has a solution h0C+(Sn-1), then there exists K0Ken such that cφ(hK0)dFq(K0,)=dμ.

Proof   Define ht=h0+tg for gC(Sn-1), t(-δ,δ) for δ>0. For sufficiently small |t|, the family htC+(Sn-1). By Lemma 2 and Lemma 3, the function tΦϕ,q(ht) is differentiable at 0. By the fact that h0 is a maximizer,

0 = d d t Φ ϕ , q ( h t ) | t = 0     = I q ( [ h 0 ] ) α - ( n + q - 1 ) n + q - 1 S n - 1 g ( v ) d F q ( [ h 0 ] , v ) - S n - 1 1 φ ( h 0 ) g ( v ) d μ ( v ) .

Since gC(Sn-1) is arbitrary and using the fact that h0=h[h0] almost everywhere, for Fq([h0],), we have

I q ( [ h 0 ] ) α - ( n + q - 1 ) n + q - 1 φ ( h [ h 0 ] ) d F q ( [ h 0 ] , v ) = d μ ( v ) .

Let [h0]=K0Ken, we have

c φ ( h K 0 ) d F q ( K 0 , v ) = d μ ( v ) ,

where c=Iq(K0)α-(n+q-1)n+q-1.

Next, we will prove the main theorem by showing that Φϕ,q attains a maximum .

Theorem 3   Let q>0 and 0<α<1. Suppose φ:(0,)(0,) is a continuous decreasing function. If μ is an even finite Borel measure on Sn-1 that is not concentrated on a great subsphere of Sn-1, then there exists a convex body K0Ken such that

c φ ( h K 0 ) d F q ( K 0 , ) = d μ

with c=Iq(K0)α-(n+q-1)n+q-1.

Proof   For s>0, let ψs: (0,)R be defined by

ψ s ( t ) = ( n + q - 1 α I q ( B ) α n + q - 1 - | μ | ϕ ( s t ) t α ) t α .

From (3) we conclude that limtψs(t)=-. In particular, for each s, there is a positive number rs>0 such that

t > r s ψ s ( t ) < 0 . (5)

We use B to denote the centered unit ball in Rn. For every r>0,

Φ ϕ , q ( h r B ) = n + q - 1 α r α I q ( B ) α n + q - 1 - ϕ ( r ) | μ |   = ( n + q - 1 α I q ( B ) α n + q - 1 - | μ | ϕ ( r ) r α ) r α .

By the equation of (4), it follows that Φϕ,q(hrB) is positive for small positive r.

Hence, there exists KKen such that

Φ ϕ , q ( K ) > 0 . (6)

The Wulff-shape [h] associated with a given function hCe+(Sn-1) is origin symmetric and has a support function h[h] with satisfies 0<h[h]h. Since ϕ is increasing and Iq(h[h])=Iq(h), we deduce Φϕ,q(h)Φϕ,q(h[h]).

Next, we will show that the search for a function at which Φϕ,q attains a maximum can be further restricted to support functions of origin symmetric convex bodies contained in some ball of fixed radius. To this end, first note that the continuous function on Sn-1,

v S n - 1 h v ¯ d μ ,

is positive since μ is not concentrated on a great subsphere. Thus, there exists a s(0,) such that

1 | μ | S n - 1 h v ¯ d μ s ,   f o r   e v e r y v S n - 1 . (7)

Let KKen and choose vKSn-1 such that for a suitable real rK>0 the point rKvK is an element of K with maximal distance from the origin. Since K is origin symmetric, the line segment with endpoints ±rKvK is contained in K. From (3) and (2), we deduce rKhv¯KhK. The monotonicity of ϕ, Jensen's inequality, and (7) therefore yield

S n - 1 ϕ ( h K ) d μ S n - 1 ϕ ( r K h v ¯ K ) d μ             | μ | ϕ ( 1 | μ | S n - 1 r K h v ¯ K d μ ) | μ | ϕ ( s r K ) .

Since KrKB, the last inequality show that

    Φ ϕ , q ( h K ) = n + q - 1 α I q ( [ h K ] ) α n + q - 1 - S n - 1 ϕ ( h K ) d μ                     n + q - 1 α r k α I q ( B ) α n + q - 1 - | μ | ϕ ( s r K )                     = ( n + q - 1 α I q ( B ) α n + q - 1 - | μ | ϕ ( s r K ) r k α ) r k α                     = ψ s ( r K ) .

From (6) we therefore conclude that there exists a real r=rs>0 such that

r K > r Φ ϕ , q ( K ) < 0 . (8)

It follows from (6) and (8) that in order to find a maximum of the functional Φϕ,q on Ce+(Sn-1), it is sufficient to search among support functions of members of the set

= { K K e n : K r B } .

Let {Ki} be a maximizing sequence in for Φϕ,q, i.e

l i m i Φ ϕ , q ( h K i ) = s u p { Φ ϕ , q ( h K ) : K } .

Obviously, the sequence {Ki} is bounded. By the Blaschke's selection theorem, there exists a convergent subsequence, which we also denote by {Ki}, with limiKi=K0, where Ki is origin symmetric. Hence, K0 is origin symmetric. Let h0=hKo and by the continuity of functional Φϕ,q, we deduce that

n + q - 1 α I q ( [ h 0 ] ) α n + q - 1 Φ ϕ , q ( h 0 ) = Φ ϕ , q ( h K 0 ) = l i m i Φ ϕ , q ( h K i )                                            = s u p { Φ ϕ , q ( h K ) : K } > 0 .

Consequently, K0 has non-empty interior and thus K0Ken. Therefore, h0 is a solution of the maximization problem for Theorem 2. This completes the proof.

Remark 2   When φ(s)=s1-p, Theorem 3 is reduce to the Theorem 4.2 of Ref.[31] in the case of p>1. When q=1, Theorem 1 is reduced to the Theorem 1 of Ref.[15].

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