Non-central sections of the simplex, the cross-polytope and the cube

Abstract

We determine the maximal hyperplane sections of the regular n-simplex, if the distance of the hyperplane to the centroid is fairly large, i.e. larger than the distance of the centroid to the midpoint of edges. Similar results for the n-cube and the l1n-ball were obtained by Moody, Stone, Zach and Zvavitch and by Liu and Tkocz. The maximal hyperplanes in these three cases are perpendicular to the vectors from the centroid to the vertices. For smaller distances -in a well-defined range- we show that these hyperplane sections are at least locally maximal. We also determine the hyperplane sections of the simplex, the cross-polytope and the cube which have maximal perimeter, i.e. maximal volume intersection with the boundary of the convex body.