Stuttgart, Univ., Diss., 2005.

Techn. University, Diss., 2003--Berlin.

This work refers to ball-intersections bodies as well as covering, packing, and kissing problems related to balls and spheres in normed spaces. A quick introduction to these topics and an overview of our results is given in Section 1.1 of Chapter 1. The needed background knowledge is collected in Section 1.2, also in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 we define ball-intersection bodies and investigate special classes of them: ball-hulls, ball-intersections, equilateral ball-polyhedra, complete bodies and bodies of constant width. Thus, relations between the ball-hull and the ball-intersection of a set are given. We extend a minimal property of a special class of equilateral ball-polyhedra, known as Theorem of Chakerian, to all normed planes. In order to investigate bodies of constant width, we develop a concept of affine orthogonality, which is new even for the Euclidean subcase. In Chapter 2 we solve kissing, covering, and packing problems. For a given family of circles and lines we find at least one, but for some families even all circles kissing all the members of this family. For that reason we prove that a strictly convex, smooth normed plane is a topological Möbius plane. We give an exact geometric description of the maximal radius of all homothets of the unit disc that can be covered by 3 or 4 translates of it. Also we investigate configurations related to such coverings, namely a regular 4-covering and a Miquelian configuration of circles. We find the concealment number for a packing of translates of the unit ball.

Verallgemeinerungen bekannter Existenz- und Eindeutigkeitsaussagen für gebietsfüllende Kreispackungen. Für jedes beschränkte, einfach zusammenhängende Gebiet und für jeden zulässigen Komplex existiert eine gebietsfüllende, verallgemeinerte Kreispackung, die einer beliebigen der folgenden Normalisierungen genügt. alpha-beta-gamma: drei Randkreise sind je einem Randpunkt (Primende) zugeordnet alpha-gamma: ein Kreis mit fixem Mittelpunkt und ein Randkreis mit zugeordnetem Primende alpha-beta: zwei Kreise mit fixen Mittelpunkten Bedingungen werden angegeben, unter welchen die aufgeführten Normalisierungen eindeutige Lösungen implizieren, welche zudem stetig von den Normalisierungsparametern abhängen. Ist der Alpha-Kreis ein innerer Kreis, dann wird gezeigt, dass die alpha-beta Normalisierung im Allg. keine Eindeutigkeit liefert. Bedingungen werden aufgeführt, die nicht-entartete Lösungen (klassische Kreispackungen) garantieren. Alle Beweise sind möglichst elementar und unabhängig von existierenden Kreispackungs-Ergebnissen. / Existing existence and uniqueness results in the field of domain filling circle packings are generalized. For every bounded, simply connected domain, for every admissible complex, and under any of the following normalizations it is shown that there is a domain filling generalized circle packing. alpha-beta-gamma: three boundary disks are each associated with a boundary point (prime end) alpha-gamma: one disk with fixed center and one boundary disk with associated prime end alpha-beta: two disks with fixed centers Conditions are given under which the stated normalizations yield unique solutions, which then depend continuous on some normalization parameters. For the special case of an interior alpha disk it is shown that the alpha-beta normalization does not yield uniqueness in general. Several conditions are stated that guarantee non-degenerate solutions (classical circle packings). All proofs are kept as elementary as possible and independent of existing circle packing results.

This work refers to ball-intersections bodies as well as covering, packing, and kissing problems related to balls and spheres in normed spaces. A quick introduction to these topics and an overview of our results is given in Section 1.1 of Chapter 1. The needed background knowledge is collected in Section 1.2, also in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2 we define ball-intersection bodies and investigate special classes of them: ball-hulls, ball-intersections, equilateral ball-polyhedra, complete bodies and bodies of constant width. Thus, relations between the ball-hull and the ball-intersection of a set are given. We extend a minimal property of a special class of equilateral ball-polyhedra, known as Theorem of Chakerian, to all normed planes. In order to investigate bodies of constant width, we develop a concept of affine orthogonality, which is new even for the Euclidean subcase. In Chapter 2 we solve kissing, covering, and packing problems. For a given family of circles and lines we find at least one, but for some families even all circles kissing all the members of this family. For that reason we prove that a strictly convex, smooth normed plane is a topological Möbius plane. We give an exact geometric description of the maximal radius of all homothets of the unit disc that can be covered by 3 or 4 translates of it. Also we investigate configurations related to such coverings, namely a regular 4-covering and a Miquelian configuration of circles. We find the concealment number for a packing of translates of the unit ball.