A counterexample to an illumination conjecture (Q2455205)

Let \(\mathbb{R}^n= L_1\oplus L_2\) be a decomposition of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) into a direct sum of subspaces, and let \(M_1\subset L_1\), \(M_2\subset L_2\) be convex bodies in these subspaces with the convex body \(M\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) as their direct sum, i.e., \(M= M_1\oplus M_2\). Denote by \(c(M)\) the minimum positive integer for which there are nonzero vectors \(a_1,\dots, a_c\) whose directions illuminate the whole boundary \(\text{bd\,}M\) of \(M\), where \(x\in\text{bd\,}M\) is said to be illuminated by \(a_i\) if \(x+ \lambda a_i\) is from the interior of \(M\) for a sufficiently small \(\lambda\in\mathbb{R}^+\). The author shows that, somehow unexpectedly, for \(n= 3\) the inequality \(c(M_1\oplus M_2)< c(M_1)\cdot c(M_2)\) can hold.