Angle sums of random simplices in dimensions $3$ and $4$

Abstract

Consider a random $d$-dimensional simplex whose vertices are $d+1$ random points sampled independently and uniformly from the unit sphere in $\mathbb R^d$. We show that the expected sum of solid angles at the vertices of this random simplex equals $\frac 18$ if $d=3$ and $\frac{539}{288\pi^2}-\frac 16$ if $d=4$. The angles are measured as proportions of the full solid angle which is normalized to be $1$. Similar formulae are obtained if the vertices of the simplex are uniformly distributed in the unit ball. These results are special cases of general formulae for the expected angle-sums of random beta simplices in dimensions $3$ and $4$.