An arithmetic proof of John's ellipsoid theorem (Q2487025)

The authors give a new, transparent proof of John's ellipsoid theorem (the characterization of the unique ellipsoid of maximal volume in a convex body \(C\subset\mathbb{R}^d\)), both in the symmetric and in the non-symmetric case. The main idea is to represent ellipsoids as points in \([{1\over 2}d(d+ 1)]\)-dimensional (resp. \([{1\over 2}d(d+ 3)]\)-dimensional) space (through symmetric, positive definite matrices) and to use Carathéodory's theorem for cones. They also prove a partial extension, where ellipsoids are replaced by affine images of a given compact set \(B\subset C\).