Instructor:	Greg Kuperberg (greg@math)
Quarter:	Winter 2012
Office Hours:	11am – 12pm W, 2pm – 3pm Th, MSB 2216
Lectures:	10:00am – 10:50am MWF, Olson Hall 261
TA:	Steven Lu (ulnevets@math)
TA Office Hours:	12pm – 1pm Th, MSB 3125
Discussion:	10:00am – 10:50am Th, Olson Hall 261
Midterm dates:	January 30 and February 27
Final exam:	1pm – 3pm, March 21, in Olson 261

Homework and solutions

Homework will usually, but not necessarily always, be due on Fridays. As is standard for upper-division courses, you should usually prove or argue your answers in complete sentences. If a problem is particularly computational, then you don't need to add many words, but I would still like to see some prose.

Thanks go to Stephen Lu for the homework solutions. However, note that these are brief solutions, generally on the short side for what you should write.

Materials

A book on convex geometry with various important material:

Theory of convex sets, by Chakerian and Sangwine-Yager.

Pages on specific definitions that we have been using:

Also, take a look at my own notes on the Poincaré tiling theorem.

Syllabus, grades, and policies

The course doesn't have one particular textbook. I will add references on this page as needed.

I will only very roughly follow the approved department syllabus. Convex geometry is a topic that is dear to my heart, and we will see where the course goes. Here are some possible topics:

Curiosity, conjectures, and theorems in convex geometry
Affine sets, convex sets, and the convex hull of a set
Caratheodory's theorem and extreme points
Polyhedra, polytopes, and faces
Tilings by convex shapes
Regular polytopes
Volume in convex geometry
Minkowski sums and set arithmetic
Lattice packings of convex bodies
Voronoi tilings
Isoperimetric inequalities
Dual or polar convex bodies

Grading

Office visit: 1%
Homework: 14%
Two midterms: 20% each
Final exam: 45%

As I will mention in class, you should come to see me at least once during office hours by the time of the second midterm. You should come prepared with a good question. It can be a question about anything, not necessarily about the course material or even about mathematics at all. Of course, a question about the course material also counts.

Late, excused, and copied work

Homework up to one week late will be accepted for up to half credit. Feel free to hand in part of the homework on time if you did not finish.

I can excuse late homework or arrange alternate testing for serious interruptions such as medical emergencies, weddings, varsity sports events, etc. These interruptions must be documented. I reserve the right to decide what kinds of events are serious.

When you hand in homework, especially late homework, you promise that you did not look at any posted solutions for that homework. Working in a study group is allowed, in fact I encourage it, but you should write your homework in your own words. Copying work without attribution will be considered academic plagiarism.

(I apologize for the scary fine print here. It's not very scary in practice.)