TITLE: Is Minkowski sum of boundary convex again?
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: Consider a closed, bounded and convex set $C \subset \mathbb{R}^{2}$ and denote its boundary with $\partial C$. It is very well-known that the Minkowski sum of two convex sets is convex again. What about the Minkowski sum of its boundary?
Is the Minkowski sum $\partial C + \partial C$ again a convex set and how can one prove that?
Does this property hold in other dimensions?

REPLY [11 votes]: Yes, $\partial C + \partial C$ is convex since it equals $2C$. Equivalently, every point in $z \in C$ is a midpoint of two boundary points. This is obvious if $z \in \partial C$. Otherwise, let $f :S^{n-1} \to \mathbf{R}$ be the continuous function which sends $u$ to the length of the segment going from $z$ to $\partial C$ in direction $u$. Since $n > 1$, this function takes equal values at a pair of antipodal points (a very simple corollary to Borsuk-Ulam, if you want), which gives the desired property.