Deforming convex bodies in Minkowski geometry

We introduce and study certain deformation of Minkowski norms in [Formula: see text] determined by a set of [Formula: see text] linearly independent 1-forms and a smooth positive function of [Formula: see text] variables. In particular, the deformation of a Euclidean norm [Formula: see text] produces a Minkowski norm defined in our recent work; its indicatrix is a rotation hypersurface with a [Formula: see text]-dimensional axis passing through the origin. For [Formula: see text], our deformation generalizes the construction of [Formula: see text]-norms which form a rich class of “computable” Minkowski norms and play an important role in Finsler geometry. We characterize such pairs of a Minkowski norm and its image that Cartan torsions of the two norms either coincide or differ by a [Formula: see text]-reducible term. We conjecture that for [Formula: see text] any Minkowski norm can be approximated by images of a Euclidean norm.

A Characterization of the Minkowski Norms

If n > 2 and M(m1,..., xn) is a symmetric norm of the form m(x1, m(x2, m{...)...), where m is a symmetric norm on ℝ2, then m(x, y) = (|x|p + |y|p)1/p for some p ≥ 1 or else m(x, y) = max{|x|,|y|}.