Quadratic ellipsoids in Minkowski geometries (Q2142578)

Extending results from \textit{H. Busemann} and \textit{P. J. Kelly} [Projective geometry and projective metrics. New York: Academic Press (1953; Zbl 0052.37305)], the author proves that a Minkowski plane is Euclidean if and only if at least one ellipse is a quadric. The notions involved can be defined as follows: Given \(I\), an open, strictly convex, bounded domain in \({\mathbb R}^n\), (centrally) symmetric to the origin, the function \(d: {\mathbb R}^n \times {\mathbb R}^n \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) defined by \(d(x, y) = \inf\{\lambda > 0 : (y - x)/\lambda \in I\}\) is called a Minkowski metric on \({\mathbb R}^n\). The ellipse, respectively the ellipsoid is defined in terms of \(d\). A hypersurface in \({\mathbb R}^n\) is called a quadric if it is the zero set of an irreducible polynomial of degree two in \(n\) variables. A higher-dimensional version of the above results reads: A Minkowski geometry is Euclidean if and only if every central planar section of at least one quadric is an ellipse. It is also shown that a Minkowski plane is analytic if and only if at least one of its ellipses is analytic.