  We show that the Euclidean ball has the smallest volume among sublevel sets
of nonnegative forms of bounded Bombieri norm as well as among sublevel sets of
sum of squares forms whose Gram matrix has bounded Frobenius or nuclear (or,
more generally, p-Schatten) norm. These volume-minimizing properties of the
Euclidean ball with respect to its representation (as a sublevel set of a form
of fixed even degree) complement its numerous intrinsic geometric properties.
We also provide a probabilistic interpretation of the results.
