Let $L$ be a sequence $(\ell_1,\ell_2,\ldots,\ell_n)$ of $n$ lines in $\mathbb{C}^3$. We define the {\it intersection graph} $G_L=([n],E)$ of $L$, where $[n]:=\{1,\ldots, n\}$, and with $\{i,j\}\in E$ if and only if $i\neq j$ and the corresponding lines $\ell_i$ and $\ell_j$ intersect, or are parallel (or coincide). For a graph $G=([n],E)$, we say that a sequence $L$ is a {\it realization} of $G$ if $G\subset G_L$. One of the main results of this paper is to provide a combinatorial characterization of graphs $G=([n],E)$ that have the following property: For every {\it generic} realization $L$ of $G$ that consists of $n$ pairwise distinct lines, we have $G_L=K_n$, in which case the lines of $L$ are either all concurrent or all coplanar.
The general statements that we obtain about lines, apart from their independent interest, turns out to be closely related to the notion of graph rigidity. The connection is established due to the so-called Elekes--Sharir framework, which allows us to transform the problem into an incidence problem involving lines in three dimensions. By exploiting the geometry of contacts between lines in 3D, we can obtain alternative, simpler, and more precise characterizations of the rigidity of graphs.
We give a combinatorial characterization of generic minimal rigidity for planar periodic frameworks. The characterization is a true analogue of the Maxwell-Laman Theorem from rigidity theory: it is stated in terms of a finite combinatorial object and the conditions are checkable by polynomial time combinatorial algorithms. To prove our rigidity theorem we introduce and develop periodic direction networks and Z2-graded-sparse colored graphs.
A simplicial polytope is combinatorially rigid if its combinatorial structure is determined by its graded Betti numbers which are important invariant coming from combinatorial commutative algebra. We find a necessary condition to be combinatorially rigid for 3-dimensional reducible simplicial polytopes and provide some rigid reducible simplicial polytopes.
We showed in the first paper of this series that the generic $C_2^1$-cofactor matroid is the unique maximal abstract $3$-rigidity matroid. In this paper we obtain a combinatorial characterization of independence in this matroid. This solves the cofactor counterpart of the combinatorial characterization problem for the rigidity of generic 3-dimensional bar-joint frameworks. We use our characterization to verify that the counterparts of conjectures of Dress (on the rank function) and Lovász and Yemini (which suggested a sufficient connectivity condition for rigidity) hold for this matroid.
Motivated by a rigidity-theoretic perspective on the Localization Problem in 2D, we develop an algorithm for computing circuit polynomials in the algebraic rigidity matroid associated to the Cayley-Menger ideal for $n$ points in 2D. We introduce combinatorial resultants, a new operation on graphs that captures properties of the Sylvester resultant of two polynomials in the algebraic rigidity matroid. We show that every rigidity circuit has a construction tree from $K_4$ graphs based on this operation. Our algorithm performs an algebraic elimination guided by the construction tree, and uses cla…
We study the rigidity of body-and-cad frameworks which capture the majority of the geometric constraints used in 3D mechanical engineering CAD software. We present a combinatorial characterization of the generic minimal rigidity of a subset of body-and-cad frameworks in which we treat 20 of the 21 body-and-cad constraints, omitting only point-point coincidences. While the handful of classical combinatorial characterizations of rigidity focus on distance constraints between points, this is the first result simultaneously addressing coincidence, angular, and distance constraints. Our result is s…
We extend our generic rigidity theory for periodic frameworks in the plane to frameworks with a broader class of crystallographic symmetry. Along the way we introduce a new class of combinatorial matroids and associated linear representation results that may be interesting in their own right. The same techniques immediately yield a Maxwell-Laman-type combinatorial characterization for frameworks embedded in 2-dimensional cones that arise as quotients of the plane by a finite order rotation.
The planar rigidity problem asks, given a set of m pairwise distances among a set P of n unknown points, whether it is possible to reconstruct P, up to a finite set of possibilities (modulo rigid motions of the plane). The celebrated Maxwell-Laman Theorem from Rigidity Theory says that, generically, the rigidity problem has a combinatorial answer: the underlying combinatorial structure must contain a spanning minimally-rigid graph (Laman graph). In the case where the system is not rigid, its inclusion-wise maximal rigid substructures (rigid components) are also combinatorially characterized vi…
Combinatorial rigidity theory seeks to describe the rigidity or flexibility of bar-joint frameworks in R^d in terms of the structure of the underlying graph G. The goal of this article is to broaden the foundations of combinatorial rigidity theory by replacing G with an arbitrary representable matroid M. The ideas of rigidity independence and parallel independence, as well as Laman's and Recski's combinatorial characterizations of 2-dimensional rigidity for graphs, can naturally be extended to this winder setting. As we explain, many of these fundamental concepts really depend only on the matr…
A theorem of Laman gives a combinatorial characterisation of the graphs that admit a realisation as a minimally rigid generic bar-joint framework in $\bR^2$. A more general theory is developed for frameworks in $\bR^3$ whose vertices are constrained to move on a two-dimensional smooth submanifold $\M$. Furthermore, when $\M$ is a union of concentric spheres, or a union of parallel planes or a union of concentric cylinders, necessary and sufficient combinatorial conditions are obtained for the minimal rigidity of generic frameworks.
A simple convex polytope $P$ is \emph{cohomologically rigid} if its combinatorial structure is determined by the cohomology ring of a quasitoric manifold over $P$. Not every $P$ has this property, but some important polytopes such as simplices or cubes are known to be cohomologically rigid. In this article we investigate the cohomological rigidity of polytopes and establish it for several new classes of polytopes including products of simplices. Cohomological rigidity of $P$ is related to the \emph{bigraded Betti numbers} of its \emph{Stanley--Reisner ring}, another important invariants coming…
We develop a combinatorial rigidity theory for symmetric bar-joint frameworks in a general finite dimensional normed space. In the case of rotational symmetry, matroidal Maxwell-type sparsity counts are identified for a large class of $d$-dimensional normed spaces (including all $\ell^p$ spaces with $p\not=2$). Complete combinatorial characterisations are obtained for half-turn rotation in the $\ell^1$ and $\ell^\infty$-plane. As a key tool, a new Henneberg-type inductive construction is developed for the matroidal class of $(2,2,0)$-gain-tight graphs.
In 1992, Hendrickson proved that (d+1)-connectivity and redundant rigidity are necessary conditions for a generic (non-complete) bar-joint framework to be globally rigid in $\mathbb{R}^d$. Jackson and Jordan confirmed in 2005 that these conditions are also sufficient in $\mathbb{R}^2$, giving a combinatorial characterization of graphs whose generic realizations in $\mathbb{R}^2$ are globally rigid. In this paper, we establish analogues of these results for infinite periodic frameworks under fixed lattice representations. Our combinatorial characterization of globally rigid generic periodic fra…
We review some recent results in the generic rigidity theory of planar frameworks with forced symmetry, giving a uniform treatment to the topic. We also give new combinatorial characterizations of minimally rigid periodic frameworks with fixed-area fundamental domain and fixed-angle fundamental domain.
We introduce the idea of Assur graphs, a concept originally developed and exclusively employed in the literature of the kinematics community. The paper translates the terminology, questions, methods and conjectures from the kinematics terminology for one degree of freedom linkages to the terminology of Assur graphs as graphs with special properties in rigidity theory. Exploiting recent works in combinatorial rigidity theory we provide mathematical characterizations of these graphs derived from minimal linkages. With these characterizations, we confirm a series of conjectures posed by Offer Sha…
This article is concerned with the rigidity properties of geometric realizations of incidence geometries of rank two as points and lines in the Euclidean plane; we care about the distance being preserved among collinear points. We discuss the rigidity properties of geometric realizations of incidence geometries in relation to the rigidity of geometric realizations of other well-known structures, such as graphs and hypergraphs.The $2$-plane matroid is also discussed. Further, we extend a result of Whiteley to determine necessary conditions for an incidence geometry of points and lines with exac…
One can associate to a bipartite graph a so-called edge ring whose spectrum is an affine normal toric variety. We characterize the faces of the (edge) cone associated to this toric variety in terms of some independent sets of the bipartite graph. By applying to this characterization the combinatorial study of deformations of toric varieties by Altmann, we present certain criteria for their rigidity purely in terms of graphs.
A simple polytope $P$ is said to be \emph{B-rigid} if its combinatorial structure is characterized by its Tor-algebra, and is said to be \emph{C-rigid} if its combinatorial structure is characterized by the cohomology ring of a quasitoric manifold over $P$. It is known that a B-rigid simple polytope is C-rigid. In this paper, we, further, show that the B-rigidity is not equivalent to the C-rigidity.
Toric topology assigns to each $n$-dimensional combinatorial simple convex polytope $P$ with $m$ facets an $(m+n)$-dimensional moment-angle manifold $\mathcal{Z}_P$ with an action of a compact torus $T^m$ such that $\mathcal{Z}_P/T^m$ is a convex polytope of combinatorial type $P$. A simple $n$-polytope is called $B$-rigid, if any isomorphism of graded rings $H^*(\mathcal{Z}_P,\mathbb Z)= H^*(\mathcal{Z}_Q,\mathbb Z)$ for a simple $n$-polytope $Q$ implies that $P$ and $Q$ are combinatorially equivalent. An ideal almost Pogorelov polytope is a combinatorial $3$-polytope obtained by cutting off …
A simple graph G=(V,E) is 3-rigid if its generic bar-joint frameworks in R3 are infinitesimally rigid. Block and hole graphs are derived from triangulated spheres by the removal of edges and the addition of minimally rigid subgraphs, known as blocks, in some of the resulting holes. Combinatorial characterisations of minimal $3$-rigidity are obtained for these graphs in the case of a single block and finitely many holes or a single hole and finitely many blocks. These results confirm a conjecture of Whiteley from 1988 and special cases of a stronger conjecture of Finbow-Singh and Whiteley from …
We investigate how to find generic and globally rigid realizations of graphs in $\mathbb{R}^d$ based on elementary geometric observations. Our arguments lead to new proofs of a combinatorial characterization of the global rigidity of graphs in $\mathbb{R}^2$ by Jackson and Jordán and that of body-bar graphs in $\mathbb{R}^d$ recently shown by Connelly, Jordán, and Whiteley. We also extend the 1-extension theorem and Connelly's composition theorem, which are main tools for generating globally rigid graphs in $\mathbb{R}^d$. In particular we show that any vertex-redundantly rigid graph in $\math…
A combinatorial object representing schemas of, possibly skew, perspectives, called {\em a configuration of skew perspective} has been defined in \cite{klik:binom}, \cite{maszko}. Here we develop the theory of configurations generalizing perspectives defined in combinatorial Veronesians. The complete classification of thus obtained $({15}_4 {20}_3)$-configurations is presented.
It is proved that the numerical semigroups associated to the combinatorial configurations satisfy a family of non-linear symmetric patterns. Also, these numerical semigroups are studied for two particular classes of combinatorial configurations.
A rigidity theory is developed for the Euclidean and non-Euclidean placements of countably infinite simple graphs in R^d with respect to the classical l^p norms, for d>1 and 1<p<\infty. Generalisations are obtained for the Laman and Henneberg combinatorial characterisations of generic infinitesimal rigidity for finite graphs in the Euclidean plane. Also Tay's multi-graph characterisation of the rigidity of generic finite body-bar frameworks in d-dimensional Euclidean space is generalised to the non-Euclidean l^p norms and to countably infinite graphs. For all dimensions and norms it is shown t…
We introduce the notion of Bonnet-Myers and Lichnerowicz sharpness in the Ollivier Ricci curvature sense. Our main result is a classification of all self-centered Bonnet-Myers sharp graphs (hypercubes, cocktail party graphs, even-dimensional demi-cubes, Johnson graphs $J(2n,n)$, the Gosset graph and suitable Cartesian products). We also present a purely combinatorial reformulation of this result. We show that Bonnet-Myers sharpness implies Lichnerowicz sharpness. We also relate Bonnet-Myers sharpness to an upper bound of Bakry-Émery $\infty$-curvature, which motivates a generalconjecture about…
When all non-edge distances of a graph realized in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ as a {\em bar-and-joint framework} are generically {\em implied} by the bar (edge) lengths, the graph is said to be {\em rigid} in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$. For $d=3$, characterizing rigid graphs, determining implied non-edges and {\em dependent} edge sets remains an elusive, long-standing open problem. One obstacle is to determine when implied non-edges can exist without non-trivial rigid induced subgraphs, i.e., {\em nucleations}, and how to deal with them. In this paper, we give general inductive construction schemes and proof tech…
In this paper we study the rank of planar rigidity matrix of 4-valent graphs, both in case of generic realizations and configurations in general position, under various connectivity assumptions on the graphs. For each case considered, we prove a lower bound and provide an example which shows the order of the bound we proved is sharp. This work is closed related to work in \cite{Luo:Rigidity} and answers some questions raised there.
In two recent papers (\textit{Mathematical Research Letters,18(6):1163--1178,2011} and \textit{European J. Combin.,33(8):1913--1918,2012}), Feigin proved that the Poincaré polynomials of the degenerate flag varieties have a combinatorial interpretation through the Dellac configurations, and related them to the $q$-extended normalized median Genocchi numbers $\bar{c}_n(q)$ introduced by Han and Zeng, mainly by geometric considerations. In this paper, we give combinatorial proofs of these results by constructing statistic-preserving bijections between the Dellac configurations and two other comb…
A picture P of a graph G = (V,E) consists of a point P(v) for each vertex v in V and a line P(e) for each edge e in E, all lying in the projective plane over a field k and subject to containment conditions corresponding to incidence in G. A graph variety is an algebraic set whose points parametrize pictures of G. We consider three kinds of graph varieties: the picture space X(G) of all pictures, the picture variety V(G), an irreducible component of X(G) of dimension 2|V|, defined as the closure of the set of pictures on which all the P(v) are distinct, and the slope variety S(G), obtained by f…
For a finite point set $E\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and a connected graph $G$ on $k+1$ vertices, we define a $G$-framework to be a collection of $k + 1$ points in E such that the distance between a pair of points is specified if the corresponding vertices of $G$ are connected by an edge. We consider two frameworks the same if the specified edge-distances are the same. We find tight bounds on such distinct-distance drawings for rigid graphs in the plane, deploying the celebrated result of Guth and Katz. We introduce a congruence relation on the wider set of graphs, which behaves nicely in both the r…
Cubic bipartite graphs with girth at least 6 correspond to symmetric combinatorial (v_3) configurations. In 1887 V. Martinetti described a simple reduction method which enables one to reduce each combinatorial (v_3) configuration to one from the infinite set of so-called irreducible configurations. The aim of this paper is to show that a slightly extended set of reductions enables one to reduce each combinatorial (v_3) configuration either to the Fano configuration or to the Pappus configuration.
It is well known that not every combinatorial configuration admits a geometric realization with points and lines. Moreover, some of them do not even admit realizations with pseudoline arrangements, i.e., they are not topological. In this paper we provide a new topological representation by using and essentially generalizing the topological representation of oriented matroids in rank 3. These representations can also be interpreted as curve arrangements on surfaces. In particular, we generalize the notion of a pseudoline arrangement to the notion of a quasiline arrangement by relaxing the condi…
Anonymous database search protocols allow users to query a database anonymously. This can be achieved by letting the users form a peer-to-peer community and post queries on behalf of each other. In this article we discuss an application of combinatorial configurations (also known as regular and uniform partial linear spaces) to a protocol for anonymous database search, as defining the key-distribution within the user community that implements the protocol. The degree of anonymity that can be provided by the protocol is determined by properties of the neighborhoods and the closed neighborhoods …
Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ nodes. In this note, we prove that if $G$ is $(r+1)$-vertex connected, $1 \leq r \leq n-2$, then there exists a configuration $p$ in general position in $R^r$ such that the bar framework $(G,p)$ is universally rigid. The proof is constructive and is based on a theorem by Lovasz et al concerning orthogonal representations and connectivity of graphs [12,13].
A pseudo-triangle is a simple polygon with three convex vertices, and a pseudo-triangulation is a face-to-face tiling of a planar region into pseudo-triangles. Pseudo-triangulations appear as data structures in computational geometry, as planar bar-and-joint frameworks in rigidity theory and as projections of locally convex surfaces. This survey of current literature includes combinatorial properties and counting of special classes, rigidity theoretical results, representations as polytopes, straight-line drawings from abstract versions called combinatorial pseudo-triangulations, algorithms an…
Let $\mathbf{p}$ be a configuration of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ for some $n$ and some $d \ge 2$. Each pair of points has a Euclidean length in the configuration. Given some graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, we measure the point-pair lengths corresponding to the edges of $G$. In this paper, we study the question of when a generic $\mathbf{p}$ in $d$ dimensions will be uniquely determined (up to an unknowable Euclidean transformation) from a given set of point-pair lengths together with knowledge of $d$ and $n$. In this setting the lengths are given simply as a set of real numbers; they are not lab…
We review the theory of combinatorial intersection cohomology of fans developed by Barthel-Brasselet-Fieseler-Kaup, Bressler-Lunts, and Karu. This theory gives a substitute for the intersection cohomology of toric varieties which has all the expected formal properties but makes sense even for non-rational fans, which do not define a toric variety. As a result, a number of interesting results on the toric $g$ and $h$ polynomials have been extended from rational polytopes to general polytopes. We present explicit complexes computing the combinatorial IH in degrees one and two; the degree two com…
The maximum likelihood threshold of a graph is the smallest number of data points that guarantees that maximum likelihood estimates exist almost surely in the Gaussian graphical model associated to the graph. We show that this graph parameter is connected to the theory of combinatorial rigidity. In particular, if the edge set of a graph $G$ is an independent set in the $n-1$-dimensional generic rigidity matroid, then the maximum likelihood threshold of $G$ is less than or equal to $n$. This connection allows us to prove many results about the maximum likelihood threshold.
