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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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226 <strong>Convex</strong> Bodies<br />

In the following we consider a characterization of ellipsoids due to Blaschke<br />

[123,124] by the property that the shadow boundaries under parallel illumination all<br />

are planar. As a consequence, two characterizations of Euclidean spaces are given.<br />

A remark concerns geometric stability problems. Finally, we define Radon norms.<br />

For more information we refer to the books <strong>and</strong> surveys of Bonnesen <strong>and</strong><br />

Fenchel [149], Day [248], Laugwitz [630], <strong>Gruber</strong> <strong>and</strong> Höbinger [446], Petty [798],<br />

Amir [27], Istrǎtescu [537], Heil <strong>and</strong> Martini [488], Lindenstrauss <strong>and</strong> Milman [660],<br />

Li, Simon <strong>and</strong> Zhao [655], Thompson [994], Martini [692], <strong>and</strong> Deutsch [263].<br />

A Version of Blaschke’s Characterization of Ellipsoids<br />

Among all characterizations of ellipsoids in convex geometry, Blaschke’s [123, 124]<br />

characterization mentioned above has the largest number of applications. In some of<br />

these the following slightly refined version due to Marchaud [689] is used.<br />

Theorem 12.4. Let C be a proper convex body in E d , d ≥ 3. Then the following<br />

statements are equivalent:<br />

(i) C is an ellipsoid.<br />

(ii) For each line L through o there is a hyperplane H such that<br />

(1) C + L = C ∩ H + L.<br />

In other words, the shadow boundary bd(C + L)∩C of C under illumination parallel<br />

to L contains the “planar curve” bd(C + L) ∩ H. Before beginning with the proof<br />

we state two auxiliary results, the proofs of which are left to the reader but take some<br />

effort.<br />

Lemma 12.1. Let C ∈ Cp <strong>and</strong> k ∈{2,...,d}. Then the following assertions are<br />

equivalent:<br />

(i) C is an ellipsoid.<br />

(ii) For each k-dimensional plane H which meets int C, the intersection C ∩ Hisan<br />

ellipsoid.<br />

Lemma 12.2. Let D ∈ Cp(E 2 ) <strong>and</strong> w ∈ int D such that for any pair of parallel<br />

support lines S, T of D there are points s ∈ D ∩ S, t ∈ D ∩ T with w ∈[s, t]. Then<br />

w is the centre of C.<br />

Proof of the Theorem. The implication (i)⇒(ii) is easy. We show only that<br />

(ii)⇒(i) A simple argument implies that the intersection of C with any 3dimensional<br />

plane which meets int C also has property (ii). If the implication (ii)⇒(i)<br />

holds in case d = 3, the first lemma implies that C is an ellipsoid. It is thus sufficient<br />

to consider the case<br />

d = 3.<br />

Our first proposition is as follows:<br />

(2) Let U be a support plane of C. Then C ∩ U is not a line segment.

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