  The angle between two compressed sparse vectors subject to the norm/distance
constraints imposed by the restricted isometry property (RIP) of the sensing
matrix plays a crucial role in the studies of many compressive sensing (CS)
problems. Assuming that (i) u and v are two sparse vectors separated by an
angle thetha, and (ii) the sensing matrix Phi satisfies RIP, this paper is
aimed at analytically characterizing the achievable angles between Phi*u and
Phi*v. Motivated by geometric interpretations of RIP and with the aid of the
well-known law of cosines, we propose a plane geometry based formulation for
the study of the considered problem. It is shown that all the RIP-induced
norm/distance constraints on Phi*u and Phi*v can be jointly depicted via a
simple geometric diagram in the two-dimensional plane. This allows for a joint
analysis of all the considered algebraic constraints from a geometric
perspective. By conducting plane geometry analyses based on the constructed
diagram, closed-form formulae for the maximal and minimal achievable angles are
derived. Computer simulations confirm that the proposed solution is tighter
than an existing algebraic-based estimate derived using the polarization
identity. The obtained results are used to derive a tighter restricted isometry
constant of structured sensing matrices of a certain kind, to wit, those in the
form of a product of an orthogonal projection matrix and a random sensing
matrix. Follow-up applications to three CS problems, namely, compressed-domain
interference cancellation, RIP-based analysis of the orthogonal matching
pursuit algorithm, and the study of democratic nature of random sensing
matrices are investigated.
