Rolling of Coxeter polyhedra along mirrors

The topic of the paper are developments of $n$-dimensional Coxeter polyhedra. We show that the surface of such polyhedron admits a canonical cutting such that each piece can be covered by a Coxeter $(n-1)$-dimensional domain.Comment: 20pages, 15 figure

Volume estimates for equiangular hyperbolic Coxeter polyhedra

An equiangular hyperbolic Coxeter polyhedron is a hyperbolic polyhedron where all dihedral angles are equal to \pi/n for some fixed integer n at least 2. It is a consequence of Andreev's theorem that either n=3 and the polyhedron has all ideal vertices or that n=2. Volume estimates are given for all equiangular hyperbolic Coxeter polyhedra.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; corrected typo in Theorem 2.

In search for a perfect shape of polyhedra: Buffon transformation

For an arbitrary polygon consider a new one by joining the centres of consecutive edges. Iteration of this procedure leads to a shape which is affine equivalent to a regular polygon. This regularisation effect is usually ascribed to Count Buffon (1707-1788). We discuss a natural analogue of this procedure for 3-dimensional polyhedra, which leads to a new notion of affine $B$-regular polyhedra. The main result is the proof of existence of star-shaped affine $B$-regular polyhedra with prescribed combinatorial structure, under partial symmetry and simpliciality assumptions. The proof is based on deep results from spectral graph theory due to Colin de Verdiere and Lovasz.Comment: Slightly revised version with added example of pentakis dodecahedro

Variational principles for circle patterns

A Delaunay cell decomposition of a surface with constant curvature gives rise to a circle pattern, consisting of the circles which are circumscribed to the facets. We treat the problem whether there exists a Delaunay cell decomposition for a given (topological) cell decomposition and given intersection angles of the circles, whether it is unique and how it may be constructed. Somewhat more generally, we allow cone-like singularities in the centers and intersection points of the circles. We prove existence and uniqueness theorems for the solution of the circle pattern problem using a variational principle. The functionals (one for the euclidean, one for the hyperbolic case) are convex functions of the radii of the circles. The analogous functional for the spherical case is not convex, hence this case is treated by stereographic projection to the plane. From the existence and uniqueness of circle patterns in the sphere, we derive a strengthened version of Steinitz' theorem on the geometric realizability of abstract polyhedra. We derive the variational principles of Colin de Verdi\`ere, Br\"agger, and Rivin for circle packings and circle patterns from our variational principles. In the case of Br\"agger's and Rivin's functionals. Leibon's functional for hyperbolic circle patterns cannot be derived directly from our functionals. But we construct yet another functional from which both Leibon's and our functionals can be derived. We present Java software to compute and visualize circle patterns.Comment: PhD thesis, iv+94 pages, many figures (mostly vector graphics

Universality theorems for inscribed polytopes and Delaunay triangulations

We prove that every primary basic semialgebraic set is homotopy equivalent to the set of inscribed realizations (up to M\"obius transformation) of a polytope. If the semialgebraic set is moreover open, then, in addition, we prove that (up to homotopy) it is a retract of the realization space of some inscribed neighborly (and simplicial) polytope. We also show that all algebraic extensions of $\mathbb{Q}$ are needed to coordinatize inscribed polytopes. These statements show that inscribed polytopes exhibit the Mn\"ev universality phenomenon. Via stereographic projections, these theorems have a direct translation to universality theorems for Delaunay subdivisions. In particular, our results imply that the realizability problem for Delaunay triangulations is polynomially equivalent to the existential theory of the reals.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

On the convergence of the affine hull of the Chv\'atal-Gomory closures

Given an integral polyhedron P and a rational polyhedron Q living in the same n-dimensional space and containing the same integer points as P, we investigate how many iterations of the Chv\'atal-Gomory closure operator have to be performed on Q to obtain a polyhedron contained in the affine hull of P. We show that if P contains an integer point in its relative interior, then such a number of iterations can be bounded by a function depending only on n. On the other hand, we prove that if P is not full-dimensional and does not contain any integer point in its relative interior, then no finite bound on the number of iterations exists.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures - the introduction has been extended and an extra chapter has been adde