English

Mobility of geometric constraint systems with extrusion symmetry

Metric Geometry 2024-07-22 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

If we take a (bar-joint) framework, prepare an identical copy of this framework, translate it by some vector τ\tau, and finally join corresponding points of the two copies, then we obtain a framework with `extrusion' symmetry in the direction of τ\tau. This process may be repeated tt times to obtain a framework whose underlying graph has Z2t\mathbb{Z}_2^t as a subgroup of its automorphism group and which has `tt-fold extrusion' symmetry. We show that while tt-fold extrusion symmetry is not a point-group symmetry, the rigidity matrix of a framework with tt-fold extrusion symmetry can still be transformed into a block-decomposed form in the analogous way as for point-group symmetric frameworks. This allows us to use Fowler-Guest-type character counts to analyse the mobility of such frameworks. We show that this entire theory also extends to the more general point-hyperplane frameworks with tt-fold extrusion symmetry. Moreover, we show that under suitable regularity conditions the infinitesimal flexes we detect with our symmetry-adapted counts extend to finite (continuous) motions. Finally, we establish an algorithm that checks for finite motions via linearly displacing framework points along velocity vectors of infinitesimal motions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.12740,
  title  = {Mobility of geometric constraint systems with extrusion symmetry},
  author = {John Owen and Bernd Schulze},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.12740},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

37 pages, 14 figures