Shadow-boundaries of convex bodies (Q1923492)

Let \(Q\) be an \(r\)-dimensional linear subspace of \(\mathbb{R}^d\) \((1\leq r\leq d-1)\). The union of all \((d-1)\)-dimensional supporting flats of a convex \(d\)-body \(K \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d \) which are totally orthogonal to \(Q\) forms the supporting cylinder \(C(K,Q)\) of \(K\) with respect to \(Q\). The intersection \(S(K,Q): = C(K,Q) \cap K\) is called the shadow-boundary of order \(r\) of \(K\) regarding \(Q\). The author gives an extensive survey on (mainly combinatorial) results around shadow-boundaries of convex polytopes (first part) and general convex bodies (second part); 96 references are cited. Further, he shows relations between several properties of shadow-boundaries and various other mathematical problems (such as covering problems, illumination problems, affine differential geometry, etc).