Isoptic characterization of spheres (Q2352471)

Let \(K\) be a convex body in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) and \(P\) be a point not in \(K\). Then, the masking number \(\mathcal{M}_{K}(P)\) of \(K\) at \(P\) is \[ \mathcal{M}_{K}(P)=\frac{1}{2}\int_{S^{n-1}}\#(\partial K\cap l(P,u_{\xi}))d\xi, \] where \(\#\) is the counting measure, \(\xi\) is the spherical coordinate of the unit vector \(u_{\xi}\), and \(l(P,u_{\xi})\) is the straight line through \(P\) having direction \(u_{\xi}\). The set of points \(P\) that has constant \(\alpha\) masking number is called \(\alpha\)-isomasker of \(K\). The main result of this paper is the following: Let \(r_{2}>r_{1}>r_{0}>0\) and \(K\) be a convex body contained in the interior of \(r_{1}B^{n}\). If the sphere \(r_{1}S^{n-1}\) is the common \(\alpha\)-isomasker and \(r_{2}S^{n-1}\) is the common \(\beta\)-isomasker of \(K\) and \(r_{0}B^{n}\), then \(K=r_{0}B^{n}\).