On the local equatorial characterization of zonoids and intersection bodies (Q2469888)

It is shown that there is no local equatorial characterization of zonoids in odd dimensions. This gives a negative answer to the conjecture posed by \textit{W. Weil} in 1977 [Arch. Math. 29, 655--659 (1977; Zbl 0382.52006)] and shows that the local equatorial characterization of zonoids may be given only in even dimensions (Affirmative answers for even dimensions were given independently by \textit{G. Panina} [Izv. Akad. Nauk Arm. SSR, Mat. 23, No. 4, 385--395 (1988; Zbl 0679.52006)] in 1988 and \textit{P. Goodey} and \textit{W. Weil} [J. Differ. Geom. 35, 675--688 (1993; Zbl 0735.52005)] in 1993.) In both cases (for odd and even dimensions) the answer to the conjecture can be obtained as a consequence of the characterization of zonoids in terms of sections of the polar body, given in [\textit{A. Koldobsky, D. Ryabogin} and \textit{A. Zvavitch}, Isr. J. Math. 139, 361--380 (2004; Zbl 1062.52002)]. In addition it is proved a similar result for intersection bodies and shown that there is no local characterization of these bodies. A result due to W. Weil (1977) is extended in the following way: There exists an origin-symmetric convex \(C^\infty\) body \(K \subset {\mathbb R}^n\), \(n \geqslant 5\), that is not an intersection body, but has the following property: for each \(u \in S^{n-1}\) there exists an intersection body \(I_u\) centered at the origin and a neighborhood \(U_u \in S^{n-1}\) of \(u\) such that the boundaries of \(K\) and \(I_u\) coincide on \(U_u\).