The determination of convex bodies from derivatives of section functions

It is known that non-symmetric convex bodies generally cannot be characterized by the volumes of hyperplane sections through one interior point. Falconer and Gardner, however, independently proved that volumes of hyperplane sections through two different interior points determine the body uniquely. We prove that if −1 < q < n − 1 is not an integer, then the derivatives of the order q at zero of parallel section functions at one interior point completely characterize convex bodies in . If 0 ≤ q < n − 1 is an integer then one needs the derivatives of order q at two different interior points (except for the case where q = n − 2, q odd), generalizing the results of Falconer and Gardner. The first named author was partially supported by the NSF grant DMS 0455696. Received: 31 January 2006