We give coordinate-minimal geometric realizations in general position of all 865 vertex-minimal triangulations of the orientable surface of genus 2 in the 4x4x4-cube.
We give coordinate-minimal geometric realizations in general position for 17 of the 20 vertex-minimal triangulations of the orientable surface of genus 3 in the 5x5x5-cube.
The construction of the COMBINATORIAL data for a surface with n vertices of maximal genus is a classical problem: The maximal genus g=[(n-3)(n-4)/12] was achieved in the famous ``Map Color Theorem'' by Ringel et al. (1968). We present the nicest one of Ringel's constructions, for the case when n is congruent to 7 mod 12, but also an alternative construction, essentially due to Heffter (1898), which easily and explicitly yields surfaces of genus g ~ 1/16 n^2. For GEOMETRIC (polyhedral) surfaces with n vertices the maximal genus is not known. The current record is g ~ n log n, due to McMullen, S…
When the number of non-triangular faces adjacent to a vertex $v$ is less than or equal to three, the vertex $v$ will be called (\emph{combinatorially}) \emph{rigid}. We study the number of rigid vertices and suggest a conjecture on a classification of polyhedra.
We discuss a polyhedral embedding of the classical Fricke-Klein regular map of genus 5 in ordinary 3-space. This polyhedron was originally discovered by Grunbaum in 1999, but was recently rediscovered by Brehm and Wills. We establish isomorphism of the Grunbaum polyhedron with the Fricke-Klein map, and confirm its combinatorial regularity. The Grunbaum polyhedron is among the few currently known geometrically vertex-transitive polyhedra of genus g > 2, and is conjectured to be the only vertex-transitive polyhedron in this genus range that is also combinatorially regular. We also contribute …
Since Gruenbaum and Shephard's investigation of self-intersection-free polyhedra with positive genus and vertex-transitive symmetry in 1984 the question of complete classification of such objects in Euclidean 3-space has been open. Due to a recent article by Gevay, Schulte, and Wills, we now know that the genus range g>=2 can only admit a finite number of vertex-transitive polyhedra, all with rotational Platonic symmetry. In this article, we show that the symmetry group must also act simply transitively on the vertices. Furthermore, the case of rotational tetrahedral symmetry is settled comple…
We give explicit realizations with small integer coordinates for all triangulated tori with up to 12 vertices. In particular, we provide coordinate-minimal realizations in general position for all triangulations of the torus with 7, 8, 9, and 10 vertices. For the unique 7-vertex triangulation of the torus we show that all corresponding 72 oriented matroids are realizable in the 6x6x6-cube. Moreover, we present polyhedral tori with 8 vertices in the 2x2x2-cube, general position realizations of triangulated tori with 8 vertices in the 2x2x3-cuboid as well as polyhedral tori with 9 and 10 vertice…
In this paper we obtain new upper bounds on volumes of right-angled polyhedra in hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^3$ in three different cases: for ideal polyhedra with all vertices on the ideal hyperbolic boundary, for compact polytopes with only finite (or usual) vertices, and for finite volume polyhedra with vertices of both types.
Consider all geodesics between two given points on a polyhedron. On the regular tetrahedron, we describe all the geodesics from a vertex to a point, which could be another vertex. Using the Stern--Brocot tree to explore the recursive structure of geodesics between vertices on a cube, we prove, in some precise sense, that there are twice as many geodesics between certain pairs of vertices than other pairs. We also obtain the fact that there are no geodesics that start and end at the same vertex on the regular tetrahedron or the cube.
We show that no minimal vertex triangulation of a closed, connected, orientable 2-manifold of genus 6 admits a polyhedral embedding in R^3. We also provide examples of minimal vertex triangulations of closed, connected, orientable 2-manifolds of genus 5 that do not admit any polyhedral embeddings. We construct a new infinite family of non-realizable triangulations of surfaces. These results were achieved by transforming the problem of finding suitable oriented matroids into a satisfiability problem. This method can be applied to other geometric realizability problems, e.g. for face lattices of…
In this article we define an algebraic vertex of a generalized polyhedron and show that it is the smallest set of points needed to define the polyhedron. We prove that the indicator function of a generalized polytope $P$ is a linear combination of indicator functions of simplices whose vertices are algebraic vertices of $P$. We also show that the indicator function of any generalized polyhedron is a linear combination, with integer coefficients, of indicator functions of cones with apices at algebraic vertices and line-cones. The concept of an algebraic vertex is closely related to the Fourier…
Deciding realizability of a given polyhedral map on a (compact, connected) surface belongs to the hard problems in discrete geometry, from the theoretical, the algorithmic, and the practical point of view. In this paper, we present a heuristic algorithm for the realization of simplicial maps, based on the intersection edge functional. The heuristic was used to find geometric realizations in R^3 for all vertex-minimal triangulations of the orientable surfaces of genus g=3 and g=4. Moreover, for the first time, examples of simplicial polyhedra in R^3 of genus 5 with 12 vertices were obtained.
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…
This paper deals with triangulations of the 2-torus with the vertex labeled general octahedral graph $O_4$ which is isomorphic to the complete four-partite graph $K_{2,2,2,2}$; it is known that there exist precisely twelve such triangulations. We find all the 12 triangulations in a Schlegel diagram of the hyperoctahedron and realize all of them geometrically with the same 1-skeleton in 3-space. In particular, we identify two geometric polyhedral tori (both without self-intersections) with the same 1-skeleton in 3-space, but without a single common face, or in other words their intersection (as…
The monostatic property of convex polyhedra (i.e. the property of having just one stable or unstable static equilibrium point) has been in the focus of research ever since Conway and Guy published the proof of the existence of the first such object, followed by the constructions of Bezdek and Reshetov. These examples establish $F\leq 14, V\leq 18$ as the respective \emph{upper bounds} for the minimal number of faces and vertices for a homogeneous mono-stable polyhedron. By proving that no mono-stable homogeneous tetrahedron existed, Conway and Guy established for the same problem the lower bou…
We define the mechanical complexity $C(P)$ of a convex polyhedron $P,$ interpreted as a homogeneous solid, as the difference between the total number of its faces, edges and vertices and the number of its static equilibria, and the mechanical complexity $C(S,U)$ of primary equilibrium classes $(S,U)^E$ with $S$ stable and $U$ unstable equilibria as the infimum of the mechanical complexity of all polyhedra in that class. We prove that the mechanical complexity of a class $(S,U)^E$ with $S, U > 1$ is the minimum of $2(f+v-S-U)$ over all polyhedral pairs $(f,v )$, where a pair of integers is call…
How much of the combinatorial structure of a pointed polyhedron is contained in its vertex-facet incidences? Not too much, in general, as we demonstrate by examples. However, one can tell from the incidence data whether the polyhedron is bounded. In the case of a polyhedron that is simple and "simplicial," i.e., a d-dimensional polyhedron that has d facets through each vertex and d vertices on each facet, we derive from the structure of the vertex-facet incidence matrix that the polyhedron is necessarily bounded. In particular, this yields a characterization of those polyhedra that have circul…
In the article, a series of neigbourly polyhedra is constructed. They have $N=2d+4$ vertices and are embedded in $\mathbb R^{2d}$. Their (affine) Gale diagrams in $\mathbb R^2$ have $d+3$ black points that form a convex polygon. These Gale diagams can be enumerated using 3-trees (trees with some additional structure). Given $d$ and $m$, each of the constructed polyhedra in $\mathbb R^{2d}$ has a fixed number of faces of dimension $m$ that contain a vertex $A$. (This number depends on $d$ and $m$ does not depend on the polyhedron and the vertex $A$).
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…
Let $S_{g,n}$ be a surface of genus $g > 1$ with $n>0$ punctures equipped with a complete hyperbolic cusp metric. Then it can be uniquely realized as the boundary metric of an ideal Fuchsian polyhedron. In the present paper we give a new variational proof of this result. We also give an alternative proof of the existence and uniqueness of a hyperbolic polyhedral metric with prescribed curvature in a given conformal class.
A pseudo-edge graph of a convex polyhedron K is a 3-connected embedded graph in K whose vertices coincide with those of K, whose edges are distance minimizing geodesics, and whose faces are convex. We construct a convex polyhedron K in Euclidean 3-space with a pseudo-edge graph with respect to which K is not unfoldable. The proof is based on a result of Pogorelov on convex caps with prescribed curvature, and an unfoldability obstruction for almost flat convex caps due to Tarasov. Our example, which has 340 vertices, significantly simplifies an earlier construction by Tarasov, and confirms that…
The problem of counting the number of waves arriving at the vertex of a polyhedron is motivated by physics. In the article it was solved for the case of Platonic solid using three nontrivial results from number theory. This growth turns out to be subexponential. Also we prove a subexponential upper bound for all polyhedra with rational total angles at vertices.
We prove that every positively-weighted tree T can be realized as the cut locus C(x) of a point x on a convex polyhedron P, with T weights matching C(x) lengths. If T has n leaves, P has (in general) n+1 vertices. We show there are in fact a continuum of polyhedra P each realizing T for some x on P. Three main tools in the proof are properties of the star unfolding of P, Alexandrov's gluing theorem, and a cut-locus partition lemma. The construction of P from T is surprisingly simple.