Questions tagged [convex-polytopes]
Convex polytopes are the convex hulls of a finite set of points in Euclidean spaces. They have rich combinatorial, arithmetic, and metrical theory, and are related to toric varieties and to linear programming
125 questions
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Guises of the Stasheff polytopes, associahedra for the Coxeter $A_n$ root system?
Richard Stanley keeps a famous running compilation of different guises of the celebrated Catalan numbers. The number of vertices of the associahedron is one instantiation among the multitude, and the ...
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Combinatorics for the action of Virasoro / Kac–Schwarz operators: partition polynomials of free probability theory
In the background sections below, I establish the relations among characterizations of the action of Virasoro / Kac–Schwarz operators of 2D gravity models presented in terms of Laurent series by ...
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7
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Uniformly Sampling from Convex Polytopes
How to choose a point uniformly from a convex polytope $P \subset [0,1]^n$ defined by some inequalities, $Ax < b$? (Here $A$ is an $m \times n$ matrix, $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$, and $b \in \mathbb{R}^...
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Given the vertices of a convex polytope, how can we construct its half-space representation?
Let us say I have the vertices of a polytope $V = \{v_1,\dots,v_k\} \subset \mathbb R^n$. Is it possible to write $V$ as intersection of half-spaces using the information from the vertices, i.e., can ...
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Algorithm for finding the volume of a convex polytope
It's easy to find the area of a convex polygon by division into triangles, but what is the optimal way of finding the volume of higher-dimensional convex bodies? I tried a few methods for dividing ...
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3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?
There are (apparently) 261 distinct unfoldings of the 4D hypercube, a.k.a., the
tesseract, into 3D.1
These unfoldings (or "nets") are analogous to the 11 unfoldings of
the 3D cube into the plane.2
...
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4
answers
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Can you determine whether a graph is the 1-skeleton of a polytope?
How do I test whether a given undirected graph is the 1-skeleton of a polytope?
How can I tell the dimension of a given 1-skeleton?
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14
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Open problems in Euclidean geometry?
What are some (research level) open problems in Euclidean geometry ?
(Edit: I ask just out of curiosity, to understand how -and if- nowadays this is not a "dead" field yet)
I should clarify a bit ...
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Loday's characterization and enumeration of faces of associahedra (Stasheff polytopes)
From "The multiple facets of the associahedra" by Loday:
Let us consider the formal power series
$$f(x) = x+a_1 x^2 +a_2 x^3 + \cdots+ a_n x^{n+1} + \cdots$$
and let
$$ g(x) = x+b_1 x^2 + ...
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2
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Extreme points of transportation polytope
I'm interested in $n \times m$ joint probability tables with prescribed row and column marginals. Such tables form a convex set known as the transportation polytope. What are the extreme points of ...
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1
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Relating face polytopes of permutohedra to integer partitions
The OEIS entries A019538, A049019, and A133314, relate a refinement of the face polynomials of the permutohedra (A049019) to partition polynomials (A133314) defined by multiplicative inversion of an ...
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The amplituhedron minus the physics
Is it possible to appreciate the geometric/polytopal properties of the amplituhedron without delving into the physics that gave rise to it?
All the descriptions I've so far encountered assume ...
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8
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Fair but irregular polyhedral dice
I am interested in determining a collection of geometric conditions that will guarantee that a convex polyhedron
of $n$ faces is a fair die in the sense that, upon random rolling, it has an equal $1/n$...
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5
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Unusual symmetries of the Cayley-Menger determinant for the volume of tetrahedra
Suppose you have a tetrahedron $T$ in Euclidean space with edge lengths $\ell_{01}$, $\ell_{02}$, $\ell_{03}$, $\ell_{12}$, $\ell_{13}$, and $\ell_{23}$. Now consider the tetrahedron $T'$ with edge ...
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Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile 3-space: How to check for isometric space-fillers?
Recently Mark McClure constructed and displayed
the 261 unfoldings of the hypercube (tesseract)
in response to the question,
"3D models of the unfoldings of the hypercube?":
The first 9 unfoldings ...
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21
votes
5
answers
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Is there a midsphere theorem for 4-polytopes?
The (remarkable) midsphere theorem says that each combinatorial
type of convex polyhedron may be realized by one all of whose edges are
tangent to a sphere
(and the realization is unique if the center ...
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votes
2
answers
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How many vertices can a convex polytope have?
One has an $n$-dimensional convex polytope $P$ represented by an intersection of half-spaces:
\begin{equation}H_i = \{ (x_1,x_2, \ldots,x_n) \in \mathbb{R}^n \mid \sum_{j=1}^n a_{ij} x_j \ge a_{i0}, \...
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Egalitarian measures
A question I got asked I while ago:
If $T$ is a triangle in $\mathbb R^2$, is there a function $f:T\to\mathbb R$ such that the integral of $f$ over each straight segment connecting two points in the ...
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16
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3
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Can we realize a graph as the skeleton of a polytope that has the same symmetries?
Given a graph $G$, a realization of $G$ as a polytope is a convex polytope $P\subseteq \Bbb R^n$ with $G$ as its 1-skeleton.
A realization $P\subseteq \Bbb R^n$ is said to realize the symmetries of $...
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2
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Can you perturb an inscribed polytope so all its edges grow?
Consider the family of convex simplicial polytopes with vertices in the unit sphere of $\mathbb{R}^n$ which have the origin as an interior point.
My question is the following:
Let $P, P'$ be two non-...
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2
answers
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Combinatorics of the Stasheff polytopes
First a little background for those unaware. The Stasheff polytopes (or associahedra) are certain convex polytopes that arise in the theory of $A_\infty$-algebras. There is one polytope for each $n\...
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3
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Random Sampling a linearly constrained region in n-dimensions...
Hi,
So here is my problem:
Given a nonlinear, discontinous, cost function $f(x_1,x_2,..,x_N)$ along with linear constraints $x_n \ge 0, \forall n$
$x_n \le c_n$
and $\sum_{n=1}^N x_n = 1$ find an ...
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3
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On maximal regular polyhedra inscribed in a regular polyhedron
Let T, C, O, D, or I be regular tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron, respectively. Suppose that the outer polyhedron have edge-length 1.
For example, it's easy to prove that ...
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votes
3
answers
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Minimal data required to determine a convex polytope
Let $P\subset \Bbb R^d$ be a convex polytope.
Suppose that I know
its combinatorial type (aka. the face-lattice),
the length $\ell_i$ of each edge, and
the distance $r_i$ of each vertex from the ...
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2
answers
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Bodies of constant width?
In two-dimensional case one can generalize figures of constant width as figures which can rotate in a convex polygon.
Here is one example which can be used to drill triangular holes:
I would like to ...
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3
answers
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Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose faces all have rational areas?
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose faces all have rational areas?
Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose edges ...
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3
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How many different numbers can be obtained as product of first $n$ natural numbers?
Let m and n be natural numbers, and consider the set of all possible products of m (not necessarily distinct) elements from the set $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$, that is consider the set
$\{1^{a_1} \cdot 2^{...
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Sampling from the Birkhoff polytope
The set of $n\times n$ real, nonnegative matrices whose rows and columns sum to one forms the well-known Birkhoff polytope
Recently someone asked me if I knew
How to sample (in polynomial time) ...
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7
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coordinates of vertices of regular simplex
For $d=3$, vertex coordinates of a regular simplex have a simple expression since vertices correspond to four vertices of a cube. Is there a simple expression for higher dimensions? In particular I'm ...
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2
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"Derived" polyhedra and polytopes
The notion of derived polygon is natural and leads to remarkable convergence.
Start with a polygon, and replace it by locating a point on every edge
a fraction $\alpha$ between the two endpoints. For ...
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18
votes
1
answer
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Higher dimensional generalization of: Any quadrilateral tiles the plane?
Any (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral tiles the plane.
(MathWorld image.)
Q. What is the strongest known generalization of this statement to higher dimensions?
I.e., $\mathbb{R}^d$ ...
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An integrality question about expressing an integer as a product of numbers below $n$
Let $n\ge 2$ be a natural number. Suppose that $N$ is a natural number, composed only of primes below $n$, and that can be expressed as
$$
N= \prod_{j=1}^{n} j^{x_j}
$$
where $x_1$, $\ldots$, $x_n$...
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11
votes
1
answer
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Tighter Caratheodory on the moment curve?
The moment curve is the set of points of the form
$$(t,t^2,t^3,...,t^n) \in R^n$$
Let $M$ be the portion of the moment curve where $t\in [0,1]$, and let $\overline{M}$ be the convex hull of $M$.
...
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1
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How to correctly state Cauchy's rigidity theorem?
Cauchy's rigidity theorem is often stated briefly as
Any two (convex, 3-dimensional) polyhedra with pairwise congruent faces are themselves congruent.
As a more formal generalization to general ...
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8
votes
1
answer
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What's the best way to test if a sphere is a polytope? (algorithms for the Simplicial Steinitz Problem)
The problem of recognizing whether a simplicial face lattice is polytopal is sometimes called the Steinitz problem.
Sturmfels and Bokowski advanced a set of methods in the late 80s to test whether ...
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"MultiCatalan numbers"
Could anyone provide a reference for the following (sort of) generalization of Catalan numbers: the multinomial coefficient
$$
\binom{2k_1+3k_2+4k_3+...}{k_1+2k_2+3k_3+...,k_1,k_2,k_3,...}
$$
is ...
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Classification of vertex-transitive zonotopes
Zonotopes are convex polytopes that can be defined in several equivalent ways:
parallel projections of cubes,
Minkowsi sums of line segments,
only centrally symmetric faces,
...
I wonder whether ...
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0
answers
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Guises of the refined Eulerian numbers, generated by tangent vectors (OEIS A145271)
The Eulerian numbers (OEIS A008292, not to be confused with the Euler numbers) pop up in numerous scenarios in combinatorics and advanced analysis, one as the components of the h-vectors of the ...
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1
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1
answer
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On the Lipschitz continuity of the unit-normal vector field of a polytope
Let $\mu$ be a probability measure on $\mathbb R^n$ and let $P$ be a compact polytope in $\mathbb R^n$. For any $x \in \mathbb R^n \setminus P$, let $p(x) \in P$ be (unique!) point in $P$ which is ...
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1
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Is a polytope with vertices on a sphere and all edges of same length already rigid?
Let's say $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ is some convex polytope with the following two properties:
all vertices are on a common sphere.
all edges are of the same length.
I suspect that such a polytope is ...
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56
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1
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Intersecting family of triangulations
Let $\cal T_n$ be the family of all triangulations on an $n$-gon using $(n-3)$ non-intersecting diagonals. The number of triangulations in $\cal T_n$ is $C_{n-2}$ the $(n-2)$th Catalan number. Let $\...
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Generalizations of the Birkhoff-von Neumann Theorem
The famous Birkhoff-von Neumann theorem asserts that every doubly stochastic matrix can be written as a convex combination of permutation matrices.
The question is to point out different ...
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Why do polytopes pop up in Lagrange inversion?
I'd be interested in hearing people's viewpoints on this. Looking for an intuitive perspective. See Wikipedia for descriptions of polytopes and the Lagrange inversion theorem/formula (LIF) for ...
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Complete the following sequence: point, triangle, octahedron, . . . in a dg-category
Let $\mathcal C$ be a pre-triangulated dg-category (or a stable $\infty$-category, if you wish).
An object $X$ in $\mathcal C$ gives a "point":
$$X$$
A morphism $X\xrightarrow f Y$ in $\mathcal C$ ...
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Which unfoldings of the $d$-dimensional hypercube tile $(d{-}1)$-space?
A six year old question,
Which unfoldings of the hypercube tile $3$-space?, has just been answered by
Moritz Firsching:
All $261$ unfoldings tile space!
So now we know:
For $d=2$, the unfolding of ...
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23
votes
1
answer
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Covering the unit sphere in $\mathbf{R}^n$ with $2n$ congruent disks
Let $v_i$ be $2n$ points in $\mathbf{R}^n$, with equal distance $|v_i|$ from the origin. Suppose that the convex hull of these points contains the unit ball. Is it known that $|v_i|\geq\sqrt{n}$? ...
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1
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Rational inscribed realization of the regular dodecahedron
While it is clear that the regular dodecahedron $D$ cannot be realized with all integer coordinates, it is easy to find a polytope, which is combinatorially equivalent (face lattice isomorphic) to $D$ ...
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votes
4
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The limit of edge-midpoint convex polyhedra
Starting with a convex polyhedron $P_1 \subset \mathbb{R}^3$,
replace that with $P_2$, the convex hull of the midpoints of the edges of $P_1$.
Continuing this process, we obtain a ...
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19
votes
1
answer
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Can every simple polytope be inscribed in a sphere?
It is known that not every convex polytope (even polyhedron, e.g. this one) can be made inscribed, that is, we cannot always move its vertices so that
all vertices end up on a common sphere, and
the ...
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2
answers
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About a Delzant polytope. (In particular dodecahedron)
Hi. I have a question.
Definition. Delzant polytope $P$ is a rational convex simple polytope with the smooth condition. Here, "smooth" means that for each vertex $v$, the $n$ edges containing $v$ ...
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