A Jordan-like decomposition theorem for valuations on star bodies

Abstract

We show that every radial continuous valuation $V:\mathcal S_0^n\rightarrow \mathbb R$ defined on the $n$-dimensional star bodies $\mathcal S_0^n$, and verifying $V(\{0\})=0$, can be decomposed as a sum $V=V^+-V^-$, where both $V^+$ and $V^-$ are positive radial continuous valuations on $\mathcal S_0^n$ with $V^+(\{0\})=V^-(\{0\})=0$. As an application, we show that radial continuous rotationally invariant valuations $V$ on $\mathcal S_0^n$ can be characterized as the applications on star bodies which can be written as $$V(K)=\int_{S^{n-1}}\theta(\rho_K)dm,$$ where $\theta:[0,\infty)\rightarrow \mathbb R$ is a continuous function, $\rho_K$ is the radial function associated to $K$ and $m$ is the Lebesgue measure on $S^{n-1}$. This completes recent work of the second named author, where an analogous result is proved for the case of {\em positive} radial continuous rotationally invariant valuations.