By the reduction theory of quadratic forms introduced by Korkine and Zolotareff [9], a cartesian coordinate system may be chosen in R n in such a way that L has a basis of the form (A 1 , 0, 0,. .. , 0), (a 2,1 , A 2 , 0,. .. ,

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Let R n be the n-dimensional Euclidean space. Let ∧ be a lattice of determinant 1 such that there is a sphere |X| < R which contains no point of ∧ other than the origin O and has n linearly independent points of ∧ on its boundary. A well known conjecture in the geometry of numbers asserts that any closed sphere in R n of radius n/4 contains a point of ∧. This is known to be true for n ≤ 8. Here we give estimates on a more general conjecture of Woods for n ≥ 9. This leads to an improvement for 9 ≤ n ≤ 22 on estimates of Il'in (1991) to the long standing conjecture of Minkowski on product of n non-homogeneous linear forms.

Let R n be the n-dimensional Euclidean space. Let ∧ be a lattice of determinant 1 such that there is a sphere |X| < R which contains no point of ∧ other than the origin O and has n linearly independent points of ∧ on its boundary. A well known conjecture in the geometry of numbers asserts that any closed sphere in R n of radius √ n/2 contains a point of ∧. This is known to be true for n ≤ 8. Recently we gave estimates on a more general conjecture of Woods for n ≥ 9. This lead to an improvement for 9 ≤ n ≤ 22 on estimates of Il'in (1991) to the long standing conjecture of Minkowski on product of n non-homogeneous linear forms. Here we shall refine our method to obtain improved estimates for Woods Conjecture. These give improved estimates of Minkowski's conjecture for 9 ≤ n ≤ 31.

In the original view-obstruction problem congruent closed, centrally symmetric convex bodies centred at the points of the set are expanded uniformly until they block all rays from the origin into the open positive cone. The central problem is to determine the minimal blocking size and this value is known for balls in dimensions n = 2,3 and for symmetrically placed cubes in dimensions n = 2, 3, 4In order to explain fully the distinction between rational and irrational rays in the original problem, we extend consideration to the blocking of subspaces of all dimensions. In order to appreciate the special properties of balls and cubes, we give a discussion of the convex body with respect to reflection symmetry, lower dimensional sections, and duality. We introduce topological considerations to help understand when the critical parameter of the theory is an attained maximum and we add substantially to the list of known values of this parameter. In particular, when the dimension is n = 2 our dual body considerations furnish a complete solution to the view-obstruction problem