Collinear supporting-cone flatness characterization of ellipsoids

Let KRnK\subset\mathbb R^n, n3n\geq 3, be a convex body and let SS be a hypersurface that is the image of an embedding of the sphere Sn1\mathbb S^{n-1}, with KK contained in the interior of SS, and with SS star-convex with respect to the origin. Supporting-cone flatness conjecture. If for every xSx\in S there is a different ySy\in S such that the line xyxy passes through the origin and the intersection of the boundaries of the supporting cones of KK with apexes at xx and yy is flat, then KK is an ellipsoid. This is posed as a further characterization problem for ellipsoids and remains open.

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Primary source

Bartłomiej Zawalski, “On flat shadow boundaries from point light sources and the characterization of ellipsoids”, arXiv:2603.29130 (2026).

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