Extremal distances between sections of convex bodies (Q1764300)

By a well-known theorem of \textit{F. John} [Studies Essays, pres. to R. Courant, 187--204 (1948; Zbl 0034.10503)] the Banach-Mazur distance between two centrally symmetric convex bodies in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) is bounded above by \(n\). This bound is best possible up to a constant, as \textit{E. D. Gluskin} [Funct. Anal. Appl. 15, 57--58 (1981; Zbl 0469.46017)] has shown by the construction of certain random convex polytopes. However, these polytopes possess sections of proportional dimension which are close to each other. In the present paper, the author considers the supremum \(\Delta (k,n)\) of the distances of \(k\)-dimensional (central) sections of any two centrally symmetric convex bodies in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) for \(k<n\) and determines its asymptotic behaviour up to a logarithmic factor. The corresponding problem for random \(k\)-dimensional sections has been recently solved by \textit{P. Mankiewicz} and \textit{N. Tomczak-Jaegermann} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 11, No. 6, 1282--1326 (2001; Zbl 1033.46011)].