Rigidity of generalized Thurston's sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary

Motivated by Guo-Luo's generalized circle packings on surfaces with boundary \cite{GL2}, we introduce the generalized Thurston's sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary. Then we investigate the rigidity of the generalized Thurston's sphere packings. We prove that the generalized Thurston's sphere packings are locally determined by the combinatorial scalar curvatures. We further prove the infinitesimal rigidity that the generalized Thurston's sphere packings can not be deformed while keeping the combinatorial Ricci curvatures fixed.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2309.0120

Combinatorial curvature flows with surgery for inversive distance circle packings on surfaces

Inversive distance circle packings introduced by Bowers-Stephenson are natural generalizations of Thurston's circle packings on surfaces. To find piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces with prescribed combinatorial curvatures, we introduce the combinatorial Calabi flow, the fractional combinatorial Calabi flow and the combinatorial $p$-th Calabi flow for the Euclidean inversive distance circle packings. Due to the singularities possibly developed by these combinatorial curvature flows, the longtime existence and convergence of these combinatorial curvature flows have been a difficult problem for a long time. To handle the potential singularities along these combinatorial curvature flows, we do surgery along these flows by edge flipping under the weighted Delaunay condition. Using the discrete conformal theory recently established by Bobenko-Lutz for decorated piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces, we prove the longtime existence and global convergence for the solutions of these combinatorial curvature flows with surgery. This provides effective algorithms for finding piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces with prescribed combinatorial curvatures

A discrete uniformization theorem for decorated piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces, II

In this paper, we study a natural discretization of the smooth Gaussian curvature on surfaces, which is defined as the quotient of the angle defect and the area of a geodesic disk at a vertex of a polyhedral surface. It is proved that each decorated piecewise Euclidean metric on surfaces with nonpositive Euler number is discrete conformal to a decorated piecewise Euclidean metric with this discrete curvature constant. We further investigate the prescribing combinatorial curvature problem for a parametrization of this discrete curvature and prove some Kazdan-Warner type results. The main tools are Bobenko-Lutz's discrete conformal theory for decorated piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces and variational principles with constraints

On the classification of discrete conformal structures on surfaces

Glickenstein \cite{Glickenstein} and Glickenstein-Thomas \cite{GT} introduced the discrete conformal structures on surfaces in an axiomatic approach and studied its classification. In this paper, we give a full classification of the discrete conformal structures on surfaces, which completes Glickenstein-Thomas' classification. As a result, we find some new classes of discrete conformal structures on surfaces, including some of the generalized circle packing metrics introduced by Guo-Luo \cite{GL2}. The relationships between the discrete conformal structures on surfaces and the 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry are also discussed

Rigidity and deformation of generalized sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary

Motivated by Guo-Luo's generalized circle packings on surfaces with boundary \cite{GL2}, we introduce the generalized sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary. Then we investigate the rigidity of the generalized sphere packing metrics. We prove that the generalized sphere packing metric is determined by the combinatorial scalar curvature. To find the hyper-ideal polyhedral metrics on 3-dimensional manifolds with prescribed combinatorial scalar curvature, we introduce the combinatorial Ricci flow and combinatorial Calabi flow for the generalized sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary. Then we study the longtime existence and convergence for the solutions of these combinatorial curvature flows.Comment: To appear in CVPD

A discrete uniformization theorem for decorated piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces

In this paper, we introduce a new discretization of the Gaussian curvature on surfaces, which is defined as the quotient of the angle defect and the area of some dual cell of a weighted triangulation at the conic singularity. A discrete uniformization theorem for this discrete Gaussian curvature is established on surfaces with non-positive Euler number. The main tools are Bobenko-Lutz's discrete conformal theory for decorated piecewise Euclidean metrics on surfaces and variational principles with constraints