Asymptotics of cross sections for convex bodies (Q1580080)

A normed isotropic convex body \(K\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) is a convex compact set of volume 1 whose ellipsoid of inertia is a ball centred at the origin. For a unit vector \(u\) and \(t\in\mathbb{R}\), let \(\varphi_{K,u}(t)\) denote the \((n-1)\)-dimensional volume of the intersection of \(K\) with the hyperplane \(\{x\cdot u = t\}\). The authors study a `central limit property' for normed isotropic \(K\), which says that \(\varphi_{K,u}\) is, for large \(n\) and most \(u\), close to a Gaussian density. Results of this central limit type are shown for cubes, balls, cross polytopes and regular simplices, whereby closeness of the densities is expressed in terms of the \(L_1\)- and \(L_\infty\)-norms. Some details of the lengthy calculations are omitted, they are available in the electronic version of the paper.