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Is the closure of the convex hull of some set $A\subseteq\mathbb R^d$ equal to the convex hull of the closure of $A$, i.e. $\text{cl}(\text{conv}(A))=\text{conv}(\text{cl}(A))?$

If not, what are the general relations between them?

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    conv(cl(A)) is neither of the sets you mentioned, which was the original question2017-01-25

2 Answers 2

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No.

Let $A = \{(x,e^{-x})\}_{x\geq 0} \cup \{(x,-e^{-x})\}_{x\geq 0}$. Then $A$ is closed, and $\mathrm{co} A = (\{0\}\times [-1,1]) \cup ((0,\infty)\times (-1,1))$, which is not closed (take $(x_n,y_n) = (1, 1-\frac{1}{n})$).

Hence $\mathrm{co} A = \mathrm{co} \overline{A} $ is strictly contained in $\overline{\mathrm{co}} A = [0,\infty)\times [-1,1]$.

If $A$ is compact, the result is true (using, eg, Carathéodory's theorem).

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    @TigranSaluev: My previous comment shows that $\mathrm{co} \overline{A} \subset \overline{\mathrm{co}} A$ for any $A$. If $A$ is relatively compact, we have $\mathrm{co} \overline{A} = \overline{\mathrm{co}} \overline{A}$ and since $A \subset \overline{A}$ we have $\overline{\mathrm{co}} A \subset \overline{\mathrm{co}} \overline{A} = \mathrm{co} \overline{A}$ from which we have $\overline{\mathrm{co}} A = \mathrm{co} \overline{A}$.2016-04-25
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Not necessarily. Let $A=\Bigl\{(x,y) : y\geq {1\over 1+x^2}\Bigr\}$ Then the closure of the convex hull is the closed upper half plane $\{(x,y) : y\geq 0\}$, but the convex hull of the closure is the open upper half plane $\{(x,y) : y > 0\}$.