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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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12 Special <strong>Convex</strong> Bodies 227<br />

To see this, assume the contrary. For each illumination of C parallel to a line L<br />

parallel to U but not to the line segment C ∩ U, the plane H must contain this line<br />

segment. If the direction of L differs only slightly from the direction of the line<br />

segment, then H is almost parallel to L <strong>and</strong> (1) cannot hold, a contradiction.<br />

As a consequence of Corollary 11.1 we may assume that, after a suitable translation<br />

<strong>and</strong> the choice of a suitable inner product in E 3 ,<br />

(3) the group of affinities in E 3 which leave C invariant (as a whole), is a subgroup<br />

of the orthogonal group.<br />

Let M be a line <strong>and</strong> U a plane not parallel to M. Anaffine reflection of E 3 in M<br />

parallel to U is an affinity which reflects each plane parallel to U in its intersection<br />

point with M.IfM is orthogonal to U we speak of an orthogonal reflection of E 3 in<br />

M. Now the following will be shown:<br />

(4) The group of affinities in E 3 which leave C invariant, contains the orthogonal<br />

reflections in all lines through o, except for a set of lines which is at<br />

most countable.<br />

Let U, V be a pair of parallel support planes of C which are not parallel to any of<br />

the at most countably many 2-faces in bd C. Then C ∩ U, C ∩ V consist of one point<br />

each by (2), say u <strong>and</strong> v, respectively. Let W be a plane between U, V <strong>and</strong> let w<br />

be the intersection point of W <strong>and</strong> the line M through u,v. For any illumination of<br />

C parallel to U, V, W, the plane H must contain u,v <strong>and</strong> thus also w. This implies<br />

that the convex disc D = C ∩ W satisfies the assumptions of the second lemma <strong>and</strong><br />

thus has centre w. Since W was an arbitrary plane between U, V, it follows that C is<br />

invariant with respect to the affine reflection in the line M, parallel to U. Noting (3)<br />

<strong>and</strong> our choice of U, V, we obtain (4).<br />

A simple compactness argument then shows that<br />

the group of affinities in E d which leave C invariant contains the orthogonal<br />

reflections in all lines through o.<br />

This readily implies that the intersection of C with any plane through o is a circular<br />

disc, which in turn shows that C is a ball with centre o with respect to the chosen<br />

inner product. ⊓⊔<br />

Remark. It turns out that, for a characterization of ellipsoids, only illuminations in<br />

a rather small set of directions are needed, see [446].<br />

Geometric Stability Problems<br />

Considering the various stability problems in the mathematical literature, the following<br />

geometric problem is quite natural.<br />

Problem 12.1. Consider a geometric property which characterizes certain convex<br />

bodies. How well can a convex body which satisfies this property approximately, be<br />

approximated by convex bodies which satisfy this property exactly?

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