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[Edit: I had a mistake in the numerology (took d=6,5 instead d=5,4). Edit: I mistakingly identified my mistake, it is 6,5 but I got the indices shifted by one.]

# Background: Polygon spaces

Given a polygon P in space we can consider the space of all its embeddings when the lengths of the edges are fixed and mod out by rigid motion of space. Such spaces are called polygon spaces see for example the following paper Polygon spaces and Grassmannian by Jean-Claude Hausmann and Allen Knutson.

The dimension of these spaces can be recovered by a simple numerology: The number of degrees of freedom is $3n$ from this you have to substract $n$ constraints given by the length of edges, and the dimension 6 of rigid motions of space, and you are left with $2n-6$.

If you consider embeddings into the plane rather then into space then the dimension of your space is $2n-n-3 = n-3$. The idea that such spaces of polygons have symplectic structure is attributed in the Hausmann and Knutson's paper to Cappell. [AK adds: It seems to have first been observed by Klyachko.]

The fact that $n-3$ is half of $2n-6$ is no coincidence and indeed the space of planar embeddings correspond to Lagrangian submanifolds of the polygon spaces.

In between the simple numerology and the complicated spaces we can identify some intermediate objects: the tangent vector spaces, Those are the vector spaces of infinitesimal motions of an embedded polygon in $R^3$ or $R^2$ After moding out with infinitesimal motions arising from rigid motions of the whole space (or plane) we are left with vector spaces of dimensions $2n-6$ and $n-3$ respectively.

## Summary: Talking about polygon spaces we can identify three levels:

Numerology: $2n-6$ degrees of freedom to embeddings of polygons into $R^3$, $n-3$ degrees of freedom to embeddings of polygons into $R^2$.

Linear algebra: The vector spaces of infinitesimal motions of polygons embedded in the plane and space.

Symplectic manifolds: The polygon spaces and their Lagrangian submanifolds.

The polygon spaces have various structures on them and are quite exciting.

# The idea:

Polygons are triangulations of $S^1$. Extend the notion of a "polygon space" to certain embeddings of triangulated $(2k+1)$-dimensional spheres.

I will mainly talk about the "next case" which are triangulations of $S^3$.

Problem: Describe an appropriate analog of "polygon spaces" for triangulations of 3-dimensional >spheres.

# Details: From numerology to spaces

Numerology -->>> Linear algebra (vector spaces) ---->>>Varieties/spaces.

## 1) The Numerology:

The numerology refers to the dimension of our hypothetical analogs for polygon spaces.

Given a sequence of nonnegative integers $(f_{-1}=1) ,f_0, f_1, f_2 \dots$ and an integer $d \ge 0$ we define a new sequence $g_0[d]$, $g_1[d]$ , $g_2 [d],\dots$ as follows:

$$g_0[d] = 1,$$

$$g_1[d] = f_0 - d,$$

$$g_2[d] = f_1 - (d-1) f_0 + {{d} \choose {2}},$$

$$g_3[d] = f_2 - (d-2) f_1 + {{d-1} \choose {2}} f_0 - {{d} \choose {3}},$$

etc. (But below we worry only about g_2 and g_3)

The sequence $f_0, f_1,\dots$ usually comes as the $f$-vector of some simplicial complex and the new sequences $g_i[d]$ are important in studying the combinatorics of these complexes.

### polygons

Now, if we have a polygon with n vertices we have

$$f_0 = f_1 = n.$$

$$g_2[3] = -(n-3)$$ and $$g_2[4] = -(2n-6),$$ which are the dimensions of the polygon spaces for embeddings in $R^2$ and $R^3$ respectively.

### The next case: triangulations of $S^3$.

The next analogous case is to start with a triangulation $K$ of $S^3$ with $f_0$ vertices $f_1$ edges $f_2$ triangles and $f_3$ 3-simplices.

Here (using Euler's theorem) it is easy to verify that for every $K$

we have $$g_3[5] g_3[6] = 2g_3[4].$$ 2g_3[5].$$(Both quantities are negative.) Thus, the suggestion is that  -g_3[6] should be the dimension of a "generalized polygon space" for some sort of embedding of the triangulation K (possibly into  R^5) and -g_3[5] the dimension for "embedding" of  K (possibly into R^4) and hopefully the later will correspond to a Lagraganian submanifold of the former. (Remark in the comments Misha proposed making the embedding into certain CAT (1) spaces.) Let me just verify the identity I described: g_3[6] = f_2-4f_1+10f_0-20 and g_3[5]=f_2-3f_1+6f_0-10. For triangulated 3-spheres Euler's theorem asserts that f_0-f_1+f_2-f_3=0 and also f_2=2f_3 and therefore f_2=2f_1-2f_0. It follows that$$g_3[6]=-2f_1+8f_0-20,$$while$$g_3[5]=-f_1+4f_0-10.$$## 2) The linear algebra The linear algebra refers to the tangent vector spaces of our hypothetical spaces. ### polygons: For a graph G consider the quantity X = (the number of edges - m the number of vertices + {{m+1} \choose{2}}). X (=g_2) is a lower bound (interesting of course only when X is non negative) on the space of infinitesimal stresses when the vertices of the graph are embedded in R^m. -X is a lower bound on the number of infinitesimal flexes for such embeddings (this is interesting when X is negative). For polygons embedded in R^2 and R^3. X is nonpositive and -X is the dimension of the infinitesimal flexes (not just a lower bound). Those are the tangents of the polygon spaces. ### Triangulations of S^3. For a simplicial 2-dimensional complex K we can let$$Y=f_2 - (d-2) f_1 + {{d-1} \choose {2}}f_0 - {{d} \choose {3}}.$$(We called it g_3[d] before.) We care about d=6 so$$Y=f_2-4f_1+10f_0-20.$$There are some known notions of high dimensional infinitesimal flexes and stresses which are bounded by Y (or -Y, respectively.) There are conjectures for simplicial spheres, which are proven for simplicial polytopes, that these bounds are tight. These spaces are perhaps tangent to some hypothetical polygon-like spaces (but only at very special points). ## 3) How the polygon-like space may look? This particular suggestion probably does not work, but it allows to describe what I am up to. We embed the vertices of k, the triangulated S^3 in some fixed location. We need 4 degrees of freedom for every edge and one constraint for every triangle. For example, we can let the edges be arcs between the corresponding vertices which are parabolas; the "triangles" will be quadratic (describing a surfaces of minimum area) which extend the arcs corresponding to edges. The condition is that the "triangle"'s areas are prescribed. 8 added 93 characters in body Edit: [Edit: I had a mistake in the numerology (took d=6,5 instead d=5,4). Edit: I mistakingly identified my mistake, it is 6,5 but I got the indices shifted by one.] Thus, the suggestion is that  -g_3[5] g_3[6] should be the dimension of a "generalized polygon space" for some sort of embedding of the triangulation K (possibly into  R^4R^5) and -g_3[4] -g_3[5] the dimension for "embedding" of  K (possibly into R^3) R^4) and hopefully the later will correspond to a Lagraganian submanifold of the former. Let me just verify the identity I described: g_3[5] g_3[6] = f_2-4f_1+10f_0-20 and g_3[4]=f_2-3f_1+6f_0-10. g_3[5]=f_2-3f_1+6f_0-10. For triangulated 3-spheres Euler's theorem asserts that f_0-f_1+f_2-f_3=0 and also f_2=2f_3 and therefore f_2=2f_1-2f_0. It follows that$$g_3[5]=-2f_1+8f_0-20,$$g_3[6]=-2f_1+8f_0-20,$$ while $$g_3[4]=-f_1+4f_0-10.$$$g_3[5]=-f_1+4f_0-10.Y=f_2 - (d-1) d-2) f_1 + {{d} {d-1} \choose {2}}f_0 - {{d+1} {d} \choose {3}}.$$(We called it g_3[d] before.) We care about d=5 d=6 so$$Y=f_2-4f_1+10f_0-20.$$7 added 1 characters in body Edit: I had a mistake in the numerology (took d=6,5 instead d=5,4). # Background: Polygon spaces Given a polygon P in space we can consider the space of all its embeddings when the lengths of the edges are fixed and mod out by rigid motion of space. Such spaces are called polygon spaces see for example the following paper Polygon spaces and Grassmannian by Jean-Claude Hausmann and Allen Knutson. The dimension of these spaces can be recovered by a simple numerology: The number of degrees of freedom is 3n from this you have to substract n constraints given by the length of edges, and the dimension 6 of rigid motions of space, and you are left with 2n-6. If you consider embeddings into the plane rather then into space then the dimension of your space is 2n-n-3 = n-3. The idea that such spaces of polygons have symplectic structure is attributed in the Hausmann and Knutson's paper to Cappell. [AK adds: It seems to have first been observed by Klyachko.] The fact that n-3 is half of 2n-6 is no coincidence and indeed the space of planar embeddings correspond to Lagrangian submanifolds of the polygon spaces. In between the simple numerology and the complicated spaces we can identify some intermediate objects: the tangent vector spaces, Those are the vector spaces of infinitesimal motions of an embedded polygon in R^3 or R^2 After moding out with infinitesimal motions arising from rigid motions of the whole space (or plane) we are left with vector spaces of dimensions 2n-6 and n-3 respectively. ## Summary: Talking about polygon spaces we can identify three levels: Numerology: 2n-6 degrees of freedom to embeddings of polygons into R^3, n-3 degrees of freedom to embeddings of polygons into R^2. Linear algebra: The vector spaces of infinitesimal motions of polygons embedded in the plane and space. Symplectic manifolds: The polygon spaces and their Lagrangian submanifolds. The polygon spaces have various structures on them and are quite exciting. # The idea: Polygons are triangulations of S^1. Extend the notion of a "polygon space" to certain embeddings of triangulated (2k+1)-dimensional spheres. I will mainly talk about the "next case" which are triangulations of S^3. Problem: Describe an appropriate analog of "polygon spaces" for triangulations of 3-dimensional >spheres. # Details: From numerology to spaces Numerology -->>> Linear algebra (vector spaces) ---->>>Varieties/spaces. ## 1) The Numerology: The numerology refers to the dimension of our hypothetical analogs for polygon spaces. Given a sequence of nonnegative integers (f_{-1}=1) ,f_0, f_1, f_2 \dots and an integer d \ge 0 we define a new sequence g_0[d], g_1[d] , g_2 [d],\dots as follows:$$g_0[d] = 1,g_1[d] = f_0 - d,g_2[d] = f_1 - (d-1) f_0 + {{d} \choose {2}},g_3[d] = f_2 - (d-2) f_1 + {{d-1} \choose {2}} f_0 - {{d} \choose {3}},$$etc. (But below we worry only about g_2 and g_3) The sequence f_0, f_1,\dots usually comes as the f-vector of some simplicial complex and the new sequences g_i[d] are important in studying the combinatorics of these complexes. ### polygons Now, if we have a polygon with n vertices we have$$f_0 = f_1 = n.g_2[3] = -(n-3)$$and$$g_2[4] = -(2n-6),$$which are the dimensions of the polygon spaces for embeddings in R^2 and R^3 respectively. ### The next case: triangulations of S^3. The next analogous case is to start with a triangulation K of S^3 with f_0 vertices f_1 edges f_2 triangles and f_3 3-simplices. Here (using Euler's theorem) it is easy to verify that for every K we have$$g_3[5] = 2g_3[4].$$(Both quantities are negative.) Thus,the Thus, the suggestion is that -g_3[5] should be the dimension of a "generalized polygon space" for some sort of embedding of the triangulation K (possibly into R^4) and -g_3[4] the dimension for "embedding" of K (possibly into R^3) and hopefully the later will correspond to a Lagraganian submanifold of the former. (Remark in the comments Misha proposed making the embedding into certain CAT (1) spaces.) Let me just verify the identity I described: g_3[5] = f_2-4f_1+10f_0-20 and g_2[4]=f_2-3f_1+6f_0-10. g_3[4]=f_2-3f_1+6f_0-10. For triangulated 3-spheres Euler's theorem asserts that f_0-f_1+f_2-f_3=0 and also f_2=2f_3 and therefore f_2=2f_1-2f_0. It follows that$$g_3[5]=-2f_1+8f_0-20,$$while$$g_3[4]=-f_1+4f_0-10.$$## 2) The linear algebra The linear algebra refers to the tangent vector spaces of our hypothetical spaces. ### polygons: For a graph G consider the quantity X = (the number of edges - m the number of vertices + {{m+1} \choose{2}}). X (=g_2) is a lower bound (interesting of course only when X is non negative) on the space of infinitesimal stresses when the vertices of the graph are embedded in R^m. -X is a lower bound on the number of infinitesimal flexes for such embeddings (this is interesting when X is negative). For polygons embedded in R^2 and R^3. X is nonpositive and -X is the dimension of the infinitesimal flexes (not just a lower bound). Those are the tangents of the polygon spaces. ### Triangulations of S^3. For a simplicial 2-dimensional complex K we can let$$Y=f_2 - (d-1) f_1 + {{d} \choose {2}}f_0 - {{d+1} \choose {3}}.$$(We called it g_3[d] before.) We care about d=5 so$$Y=f_2-4f_1+10f_0-20.$$There are some known notions of high dimensional infinitesimal flexes and stresses which are bounded by$Y$(or$-Y$, respectively.) There are conjectures for simplicial spheres, which are proven for simplicial polytopes, that these bounds are tight. These spaces are perhaps tangent to some hypothetical polygon-like spaces (but only at very special points). ## 3) How the polygon-like space may look? This particular suggestion probably does not work, but it allows to describe what I am up to. We embed the vertices of$k$, the triangulated$S^3\$ in some fixed location.

We need 4 degrees of freedom for every edge and one constraint for every triangle.

For example, we can let the edges be arcs between the corresponding vertices which are parabolas; the "triangles" will be quadratic (describing a surfaces of minimum area) which extend the arcs corresponding to edges.

The condition is that the "triangle"'s areas are prescribed.

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