Triangles inscribed in a semicircle, in Minkowski planes, and in normed spaces (Q1840790)

Let \(X\) be a real normed space of dimension at least 2. In the present paper the authors define and study two new parameters in normed spaces \(X\): \[ \begin{aligned} A_1(X) & = {1\over 2} \inf_{x\in S_X} \sup_{y\in S_X} (\|x-y\|+\|x+ y\|),\\ A_2(X) & = {1\over 2} \sup_{x\in S_X} \sup_{y\in S_X} (\|x-y\|+\|x+y\|),\end{aligned} \] where \(S_X\) denotes the unit sphere. These parameters measure how big the sum of the distances from a point of the unit sphere to two antipodal points can be, in other terms, their value depends on the perimeter of triangles with the diameter as one side and the third vertex on the sphere. Parameter \(A_2\) has a two-dimensional character and it is strictly connected with the modulus of convexity of the space (for example: \(A_2(X)= 1+ \sup_{0\leq\varepsilon\leq 2}({\varepsilon\over 2}- \delta(\varepsilon))\)). Paramter \(A_1\) has a different character and its study seems to be more complicated. The authors calculate the value of this parameters (for example: \(A_1(X)\cdot A_2(X)\geq 2\), \(A_1(X)\geq {1\over 6} (3+\sqrt{21})\), \(A_1(\ell^p)\in 2^{1/p}\) for \(1< p\leq 2\), \(A_2(\ell^p)= \max\{2^{1/p}, 2^{1-1/p}\}\) for \((1< p<+\infty)\) and prove a few connections among their values and geometry of real normed spaces.