A unified approach to higher order discrete and smooth isoperimetric inequalities

AbstractWe present a unified approach to derive sharp isoperimetric‐type inequalities of arbitrary high order. In particular, we obtain (i) sharp high‐order discrete polygonal isoperimetric‐type inequalities, (ii) sharp high‐order isoperimetric‐type inequalities for smooth curves with both upper and lower bounds for the isoperimetric deficit, and (iii) sharp higher order Chernoff‐type inequalities involving a generalized width function and higher order locus of curvature centers. Our approach involves obtaining higher order discrete or smooth Wirtinger inequalities via Fourier analysis, by examining a family of linear operators. The key to our approach is identifying the appropriate linear operator and translating the analytic inequalities into geometric ones.