We verify the infinitesimal inversive rigidity of almost all triangulated circle polyhedra in the Euclidean plane $\mathbb{E}^{2}$, as well as the infinitesimal inversive rigidity of tangency circle packings on the $2$-sphere $\mathbb{S}^{2}$. From this the rigidity of almost all triangulated circle polyhedra follows. The proof adapts Gluck's proof in~\cite{gluck75} of the rigidity of almost all Euclidean polyhedra to the setting of circle polyhedra, where inversive distances replace Euclidean distances and Möbius transformations replace rigid Euclidean motions.
We generalize Cauchy's celebrated theorem on the global rigidity of convex polyhedra in Euclidean $3$-space $\mathbb{E}^{3}$ to the context of circle polyhedra in the $2$-sphere $\mathbb{S}^{2}$. We prove that any two convex and proper non-unitary c-polyhedra with Möbius-congruent faces that are consistently oriented are Möbius-congruent. Our result implies the global rigidity of convex inversive distance circle packings in the Riemann sphere as well as that of certain hyperideal hyperbolic polyhedra in $\mathbb{H}^{3}$.
A ball-polyhedron is the intersection with non-empty interior of finitely many (closed) unit balls in Euclidean 3-space. One can represent the boundary of a ball-polyhedron as the union of vertices, edges, and faces defined in a rather natural way. A ball-polyhedron is called a simple ball-polyhedron if at every vertex exactly three edges meet. Moreover, a ball-polyhedron is called a standard ball-polyhedron if its vertex-edge-face structure is a lattice (with respect to containment). To each edge of a ball-polyhedron one can assign an inner dihedral angle and say that the given ball-polyhedro…
We characterise finite and infinitesimal rigidity for bar-joint frameworks in R^d with respect to polyhedral norms (i.e. norms with closed unit ball P a convex d-dimensional polytope). Infinitesimal and continuous rigidity are shown to be equivalent for finite frameworks in R^d which are well-positioned with respect to P. An edge-labelling determined by the facets of the unit ball and placement of the framework is used to characterise infinitesimal rigidity in R^d in terms of monochrome spanning trees. An analogue of Laman's theorem is obtained for all polyhedral norms on R^2.
The paper is centered around a new proof of the infinitesimal rigidity of convex polyhedra. The proof is based on studying derivatives of the discrete Hilbert-Einstein functional on the space of "warped polyhedra" with a fixed metric on the boundary. This approach is in a sense dual to using derivatives of the volume in order to prove the Gauss infinitesimal rigidity of convex polyhedra, which deals with deformations that preserve face normals and face areas. In the spherical and in the hyperbolic-de Sitter space, there is a perfect duality between the Hilbert-Einstein functional and the volum…
Let $P$ be a (non necessarily convex) embedded polyhedron in $\R^3$, with its vertices on an ellipsoid. Suppose that the interior of $P$ can be decomposed into convex polytopes without adding any vertex. Then $P$ is infinitesimally rigid. More generally, let $P$ be a polyhedron bounding a domain which is the union of polytopes $C_1, ..., C_n$ with disjoint interiors, whose vertices are the vertices of $P$. Suppose that there exists an ellipsoid which contains no vertex of $P$ but intersects all the edges of the $C_i$. Then $P$ is infinitesimally rigid. The proof is based on some geometric prop…
Weakly convex polyhedra which are star-shaped with respect to one of their vertices are infinitesimally rigid. This is a partial answer to the question whether every decomposable weakly convex polyhedron is infinitesimally rigid. The proof uses a recent result of Izmestiev on the geometry of convex caps.
The rigidity theorems of Alexandrov (1950) and Stoker (1968) are classical results in the theory of convex polyhedra. In this paper we prove analogues of them for normal (resp., standard) ball-polyhedra. Here, a ball-polyhedron means an intersection of finitely many congruent balls in Euclidean 3-space.
Let $P \subset \R^3$ be a polyhedron. It was conjectured that if $P$ is weakly convex (i. e. its vertices lie on the boundary of a strictly convex domain) and decomposable (i. e. $P$ can be triangulated without adding new vertices), then it is infinitesimally rigid. We prove this conjecture under a weak additional assumption of codecomposability. The proof relies on a result of independent interest concerning the Hilbert-Einstein function of a triangulated convex polyhedron. We determine the signature of the Hessian of that function with respect to deformations of the interior edges. In partic…
If one is given a rigid triangle in the plane or space, we show that the only motion possible, where each vertex of the triangle moves along a straight line, is given by a hypocycloid line drawer in the plane, and a natural extension in three-space. Each point lies on a circle which rolls around, without slipping, inside a larger circle of twice its diameter.
The uniqueness of the orthogonal Z^γ-circle patterns as studied by Bobenko and Agafonov is shown, given the combinatorics and some boundary conditions. Furthermore we study (infinite) rhombic embeddings in the plane which are quasicrystallic, that is they have only finitely many different edge directions. Bicoloring the vertices of the rhombi and adding circles with centers at vertices of one of the colors and radius equal to the edge length leads to isoradial quasicrystallic circle patterns. We prove for a large class of such circle patterns which cover the whole plane that they are uniquely …
Circle packings with specified patterns of tangencies form a discrete counterpart of analytic functions. In this paper we study univalent packings (with a combinatorial closed disk as tangent graph) which are embedded in (or fill) a bounded, simply connected domain. We introduce the concept of crosscuts and investigate the rigidity of circle packings with respect to maximal crosscuts. The main result is a discrete version of an indentity theorem for analytic functions (in the spirit of Schwarz' Lemma), which has implications to uniqueness statements for discrete conformal mappings.
Two planar embedded circle patterns with the same combinatorics and the same intersection angles can be considered to define a discrete conformal map. We show that two locally finite circle patterns covering the unit disc are related by a hyperbolic isometry. Furthermore, we prove an analogous rigidity statement for the complex plane if all exterior intersection angles of neighboring circles are uniformly bounded away from $0$. Finally, we study a sequence of two circle patterns with the same combinatorics each of which approximates a given simply connected domain. Assume that all kites are co…
