English

A characterisation of generically rigid frameworks on surfaces of revolution

Metric Geometry 2014-06-10 v3 Combinatorics

Abstract

A foundational theorem of Laman provides a counting characterisation of the finite simple graphs whose generic bar-joint frameworks in two dimensions are infinitesimally rigid. Recently a Laman-type characterisation was obtained for frameworks in three dimensions whose vertices are constrained to concentric spheres or to concentric cylinders. Noting that the plane and the sphere have 3 independent locally tangential infinitesimal motions while the cylinder has 2, we obtain here a Laman-Henneberg theorem for frameworks on algebraic surfaces with a 1-dimensional space of tangential motions. Such surfaces include the torus, helicoids and surfaces of revolution. The relevant class of graphs are the (2,1)-tight graphs, in contrast to (2,3)-tightness for the plane/sphere and (2,2)-tightness for the cylinder. The proof uses a new characterisation of simple (2,1)-tight graphs and an inductive construction requiring generic rigidity preservation for 5 graph moves, including the two Henneberg moves, an edge joining move and various vertex surgery moves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1210.7073,
  title  = {A characterisation of generically rigid frameworks on surfaces of revolution},
  author = {Anthony Nixon and John Owen and Stephen Power},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.7073},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

23 pages, 5 figures. Minor revisions - most importantly, the new version has a different title