Affine vs. Euclidean isoperimetric inequalities

Abstract

It is shown that every even, zonal measure on the Euclidean unit sphere gives rise to an isoperimetric inequality for sets of finite perimeter which directly implies the classical Euclidean isoperimetric inequality. The strongest member of this large family of inequalities is shown to be the only affine invariant one among them – the Petty projection inequality. As an application, a family of sharp Sobolev inequalities for functions of bounded variation is obtained, each of which is stronger than the classical Sobolev inequality. Moreover, corresponding families of Lp isoperimetric and Sobolev type inequalities are also established.