Local Blaschke--Kakutani ellipsoid characterization and Banach's isometric subspaces problem

Abstract

We prove the following local version of Blaschke--Kakutani's characterization of ellipsoids: Let $V$ be a finite-dimensional real vector space, $B\subset V$ a convex body with 0 in its interior, and $2\le k<\dim V$ an integer. Suppose that the body $B$ is contained in a cylinder based on the cross-section $B\cap X$ for every $k$-plane $X$ from a connected open set of linear $k$-planes in $V$. Then in the region of $V$ swept by these $k$-planes $B$ coincides with either an ellipsoid, or a cylinder over an ellipsoid, or a cylinder over a $k$-dimensional base. For $k=2$ and $k=3$ we obtain as a corollary a local solution to Banach's isometric subspaces problem: If all cross-sections of $B$ by $k$-planes from a connected open set are linearly equivalent, then the same conclusion as above holds.

20 pages, v2: changed title, extended introduction