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20 votes
0 answers
433 views

Is the dodecahedron flexible (as a polytope with fixed edge-lengths)?

Consider the (regular) dodecahedron $D\subset\Bbb R^3$. I want to continuously deform it so that throughout the deformation it stays a convex polytope, it stays a combinatorial dodecahedron (i.e. its ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
19 votes
0 answers
576 views

"Japanese Theorem" on cyclic polygons: Higher-dimensional generalizations?

A beautiful theorem known as the Japanese Theorem (Wikipedia, MathWorld) says that, no matter how one triangulates a cyclic (inscribed in a circle) polygon, the sum of the radii of the incircles is ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
298 views

Realization spaces of 3-dimensional polytopes with fixed face areas

It is a well-know result (Steinitz, 1922) that the realization space of 3-dimensional convex polytopes with fixed combinatorics is contractible. A proof of this theorem can be found for instance in ...
Misha's user avatar
  • 31.2k
14 votes
0 answers
205 views

Have there been further developments on this scheme for polytope approximations to the unit ball of $\ell_p^n$?

A long time ago I happened to look at, and save (on a floppy disk!) for future reading, a copy of the following article: W. T. Gowers, Polytope approximations of the unit ball of $l^n_p$. In Convex ...
Yemon Choi's user avatar
  • 25.8k
14 votes
0 answers
479 views

Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose angles between edges are rational multiples of $\pi$?

After reading these very interesting questions, I came up with another one: Does every convex polyhedron have a combinatorially isomorphic counterpart whose angles between all pairs of edges meeting ...
Piotr Shatalin's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
378 views

Is a convex polyhedron determined by its edge lengths and angular defects?

Let's consider 3-dimensional convex polyhedra $P\subset\Bbb R^3$. The angular defect at a vertex $v$ is $2\pi$ minus the sum of the interior angles of the incident faces at $v$. Question: Is a ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
13 votes
0 answers
252 views

Does there always exist a self dual polytope that contains a given polytope contained in its dual?

Suppose a polytope $P$ is contained in its dual polytope $\tilde{P}$. Does there always exist a polytope $Q$ that contains $P$ and is self dual $Q=\tilde{Q}$? Is there any bound on the minimal number ...
Huangjun Zhu's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
352 views

Right-angled polytopes

%This question is motivated by the little discussion here at the bottom. The following thing are known about hyperbolic right-angled polytopes: Compact hyperbolic right-angled polytopes do not exist ...
SashaKolpakov's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
333 views

Bi-spherical polyhedra

Bicentric polygons have been studied: a polygon all of whose vertices lie on its circumcirle, and whose incircle is tangent to every edge:   I have not been able to find a comparable literature ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
144 views

Which polytopes have compact realization spaces?

Let $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ be a convex polytope. Its reduced realization space is the space of all combinatorially equivalent polytopes modulo projective transformations. I am interested in polytopes for ...
M. Winter's user avatar
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9 votes
0 answers
1k views

Maximum volume cross-section of a hypercube

This is surely well known, but: Q1. What is the $(d{-}1)$-dimensional polytope that realizes the maximum volume cross-section of a unit hypercube by a $(d{-}1)$-dimensional hyperplane? ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
183 views

Can the GUE be thought of as a uniform point in a high-dimensional polytope

I have thought about this question for a long time and could only find partial answers. The Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (or GUE) is the eigenvalues of a random Hermitian matrix with complex Gaussian ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.8k
8 votes
0 answers
154 views

How many facets can $\{\|D^T x\|_1\leq 1\}$ have?

$\newcommand{\RR}{\mathbb{R}}$Consider $x\in\RR^n$ and $D\in \RR^{n\times p}$ with $p\geq n$ and full rank. My question is: How many facets can the polytope $ \{x\in\RR^n\ :\ \|D^T x\|_1\leq 1\}$ ...
Dirk's user avatar
  • 12.7k
8 votes
0 answers
826 views

Geometry of the metric cone

Let us say that two metrics $d$ and $d_0$ on a set $X$ are related if there exist positive constants $0 < \alpha \leq \beta$ such that $$ \alpha \,\left(d_0(x,y) + d_0(y,z) - d_0(x,z)\right) \leq ...
alvarezpaiva's user avatar
  • 13.5k
7 votes
0 answers
162 views

Approximating any convex shape in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with a polytope having $\mathrm{poly}(d)$ facets

We denote by $V(A)$ the $d$-volume of any convex set $A$. Furthermore, given any two convex sets $A,B\in\mathbb{R}^d$, we denote by $V_{A,B}$ the $d$-volume of the symmetric difference $V\left(A \...
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
227 views

Tiling space with supertile of hypercube unfoldings

Two students in my class asked and answered what might be a novel question. It is well known that the cube has exactly $11$ edge-unfoldings (or "nets"), as shown below:         (Image from ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
74 views

Roundest polyhedra: how well can we bound the edge count of their faces?

By "roundest" I mean having the lowest surface area for the highest volume, given a fixed number of faces $n$. There've been a few questions about them on here (including from me), but I'm ...
Robin Saunders's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
191 views

Cut locus on a hypercube

Inspired by the question, "Shortest path connecting two opposite points on a cube": Q. What does the cut locus with respect to one corner of a hypercube in $\mathbb{R}^d$ look like? "The cut ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
118 views

Rational $d$-simplices

Define a rational $d$-simplex as a simplex in $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that the measure of all its $k$-dimensional faces, $k \ge 1$, is rational. So a rational triangle has rational edge lengths and ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
491 views

Minimum solid angle and aspect ratio of an $n$-simplex

In computational geometry and other fields, it is of interest to have degeneracy measures for shapes of simplices, which quantitatively seperate the regular simplex from degenerate simplices. In two ...
shuhalo's user avatar
  • 5,327
6 votes
1 answer
254 views

Triangulations of convex surfaces

Let $M$ be a smooth closed positively curved surface in Euclidean 3-space, $T$ be a geodesic triangulation of $M$, and $E$ be the edge graph of the convex hull of vertices of $T$. It is easy to see ...
Mohammad Ghomi's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
93 views

Which polytopes can be deformed while keeping their edge-lengths?

Let $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ be a convex polytope (a convex hull of finitely many points). Lets call it flexible, if it can be continuously deformed while keeping its combinatorial type, and keeping its ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
5 votes
0 answers
310 views

Biggest (or large) rectangle in a polytope

I need an efficient method to construct a (hyper)rectangle inside a polytope with a lot of dimensions (say $100 < d < 1000$). Ideally I'd want the biggest possible rectangle, but as I don't ...
Elliot Gorokhovsky's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
232 views

4D polytope analogues of the icosahedron/Rogers-Ramanujan continued fraction relationship?

The formula for the j-function which employs polynomial invariants of the icosahedron, $$j(\tau)=-\frac{(r^{20} - 228r^{15} + 494r^{10} + 228r^5 + 1)^3}{r^5(r^{10} + 11r^5 - 1)^5}$$ where, $$r^{-1}-...
Tito Piezas III's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
104 views

Regularity of simplices, part deux

This question is directly inspired by Pietro Majer's question and my answer to it. One can define a simplex, and the dihedral angles thereof in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space (one has to take ...
Igor Rivin's user avatar
  • 96.4k
4 votes
0 answers
52 views

Quantifying error in the reconstruction of convex polytopes from moments

The problem of reconstructing a geometric object from its moments is of interest in a variety of fields. In the paper The Inverse Moment Problem for Convex Polytopes, the authors show that a convex ...
Lucas Blakeslee's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
132 views

Can a polytopal graph be "centrally symmetric" in more than one way?

Let $P,Q$ be two centrally symmetric convex polytopes, potentially of different dimensions and combinatorial type, but with the same edge-graph $G$. The central symmetry of $P$ induces an involutory ...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
4 votes
0 answers
223 views

Characterization of curves contained in the boundary of convex bodies

Given a continuous closed curve $\gamma$ in $\mathbb R^n$ does there exist a convex body $K$ (convex set with non-empty interior) such that $\gamma\subset \partial K$? I am looking for a reference to ...
Vadim Semenov's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
229 views

How to find the dimension of the polar cone of a convex cone generated by some given vectors

Suppose we have access to a generating set $\{v_1, ..., v_k\}\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$ of the convex cone $C=cone(v_1, ..., v_k)$, where $cone(\cdot)$ is the conical hull (i.e. nonnegative span) of ...
Min Wu's user avatar
  • 461
4 votes
0 answers
114 views

Can we combine the symmetries of two polytopes to create a more symmetric polytope?

Suppose that there are two combinatorially equivalent (convex) polytopes $P_1,P_2\subset\Bbb R^d$, that is, both with the same face lattice $\mathcal L$. The symmetry group $\mathrm{Aut}(P_i)\subset\...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
4 votes
0 answers
2k views

Regular cross-sections of a dodecahedron; analogous sections of 4-polytopes

One can intersect a dodecahedron with a plane and obtain an equilateral triangle, a square, a regular pentagon, a regular hexagon, and a regular decagon:             &...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
202 views

An isoperimetric inequality for "order" polytopes

I am looking for an isoperimetric inequality for order-like polytopes. An order polytope $K\in \mathbb{R}^n$ is defined by a set of linear inequaities: $$ \forall i \; 0\leq x_i \leq 1 $$ and $ ...
Guy Adini's user avatar
  • 243
3 votes
0 answers
110 views

Sampling uniformly from the convex cone

Let $n$ vectors of dimension $d$ (e.g., $n = 100$, $d = 10000$), each with infinity norm of $1$, be given. The conic combination of those $n$ vectors generates a convex cone. How to uniformly sample ...
mathhamcs's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
69 views

Volume of all Voronoi cells in n-dimensional bounded space

How can one find the volume of all Voronoi cells (bounded and unbounded) in an $n$-dimensional bounded space? For instance, consider an $N$-dimensional space (hypercube) with bounds on each dimension ...
Maaz's user avatar
  • 131
3 votes
0 answers
187 views

Approximating any $d$-dimensional convex shape that occupies a constant fraction of its bounding box with a polytope having $\mathrm{poly}(d)$ facets

Given any convex set $A\in\mathbb{R}^d$, we denote by $V(A)$ its $d$-volume. Furthermore, given any two convex sets $A_1,A_2\in\mathbb{R}^d$, we denote by $V_{A_1,A_2}$ the $d$-volume of the symmetric ...
Penelope Benenati's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
53 views

Endpoints of intrinsic diameter of a convex polyhedron

Let $P$ be a convex polyhedron in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and $d(P)$ its intrinsic diameter, i.e., the longest shortest surface path between two points. Say that $P$ is of class $D_0$ if neither endpoint of $...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
105 views

Simplex cover of an n-cube with non-congruent simplexes

I am curious about simplex coverings of the unit n-dimensional hypercube (or n-cube) with the following properties: The simplexes do not need to be regular The simplexes can be non-congruent (i.e. of ...
Sirplentifus's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
52 views

Deformations that flatten small curvature

I'm trying to show that any 3-dimensional polyhedron with many vertices can be mildly deformed so that its vertices are no longer convexly independent. I suspect it suffices to look at a vertex with ...
jnhnum1's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
0 answers
526 views

Cavalieri's principle and inversion of the Vandermonde matrix

There are many examples on the Web of the use of Cavalieri's principle in determining areas and volumes of 2-D and 3-D geometrical figures. The Wikipedia link uses the principle as both a proof and ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
  • 10.5k
3 votes
0 answers
133 views

Convex polyhedra jammed in $k$ disjoint holes

For a given convex polyhedron $P \subset \mathbb{R}^3$, I was imagining finding the optimal "fixing" of $P$ in holes (or jamming them in "mud"), which led to the following question. First, scale $P$ ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
51 views

Estimating the Hausdorff distance of parallel facets of convex polytopes

Background Let $\mathcal{K}_P^n$ denote the class of open, convex, $n$-dimensional polytopes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ containing the origin. For each $K\in \mathcal{K}_P^n$, its gauge function $f_*:\mathbb{R}...
kenvergence's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
103 views

Polytopes with large dihedral angles

The regular $d$-simplex has dihedral angle $\arccos(1/d)<90^\circ$, and the $d$-cube has dihedral angle exactly $90^\circ$. The maximal dihedral angle of a prism over a $(d-1)$-simplex is also $90^\...
M. Winter's user avatar
  • 13.6k
2 votes
0 answers
87 views

Iterated polyhedron face twisting

Let $Q$ be a polygon in the plane. Modify $Q$ by rotating each edge about its midpoint by $180^\circ$. The result is $Q$ again: No change. This suggests exploring a similar operation in $\mathbb{R}^3$...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
41 views

Describing hull of vertex intersections of two convex bounded polytopes?

We have two convex bounded polytopes $P_1$ and $P_2$ where a. $P_2\subseteq P_1$ b. $\mathcal{V}(P_2)\cap\mathcal{V}(P_1)\neq\emptyset$. Is there a name for the polytope $P=\mbox{Conv}(\mathcal{V}(...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.9k
2 votes
0 answers
414 views

Find the intersection between two convex hulls, in this specific case

We work over $\mathbb{R}^K$. Let $V$ be the set of vectors whose coordinates take values $0$ or $1$, or equivalently the corners of the unit cube $[0,1]^K$. Let $d:\{0, \ldots, K\} \to \mathbb{R}_+$ ...
tam's user avatar
  • 233
2 votes
0 answers
193 views

Definition of self-dual polytope

Given a d-polytope $P$ we define the c-dual polytope as $P^\ast = \{y\in R^d \mid x\cdot y\geq -c, \forall x\in P\}$. Then I say that a polytope is c-polar self-dual if $P=P^\ast$. I cannot find this ...
Stephen Sturgeon's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
40 views

Polyhedra inscribed in a sphere with mutually non-congruent, equal area faces

Two constrained versions of the main question given in this post: Polyhedrons with mutually non-congruent faces, all of equal area. An earlier post that could be related: Cutting a spherical surface ...
Nandakumar R's user avatar
  • 5,979
1 vote
0 answers
61 views

Fitting a convex polytope with 𝑛 facets between two nested spheres

This is related to a research problem that is interested in approximation of spheres by convex polytopes. Let $C_r$ and $C_R$ be two spheres in $\mathbb R^d$ of radius $r$ and $R$, respectively, where ...
pyridoxal_trigeminus's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

About the number of faces of the conification of a polytope

Let $P\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be a polytope of dimension $(n-1)$ such that the origin $\vec{0}\not\in\text{Aff}(P)$, where $\text{Aff}(P)$ denotes the affine hull of $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. Now, we ...
ElliptCg's user avatar
  • 131
1 vote
0 answers
100 views

All 3-dimensional symmetric reflexive polytopes

$\DeclareMathOperator\Conv{Conv}$I am finding all 3-dimensional symmetric reflexive polytopes. To do so, first, we know that all 2 dim symmetric reflexive polytopes are $X_3=\Conv((-1,-1),(1,0),(0,1))$...
King 's user avatar
  • 21