English

On the infinitesimal rigidity of polyhedra with vertices in convex position

Differential Geometry 2010-10-19 v1 Metric Geometry

Abstract

Let PR3P \subset \R^3 be a polyhedron. It was conjectured that if PP is weakly convex (i. e. its vertices lie on the boundary of a strictly convex domain) and decomposable (i. e. PP can be triangulated without adding new vertices), then it is infinitesimally rigid. We prove this conjecture under a weak additional assumption of codecomposability. The proof relies on a result of independent interest concerning the Hilbert-Einstein function of a triangulated convex polyhedron. We determine the signature of the Hessian of that function with respect to deformations of the interior edges. In particular, if there are no interior vertices, then the Hessian is negative definite.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0711.1981,
  title  = {On the infinitesimal rigidity of polyhedra with vertices in convex position},
  author = {Ivan Izmestiev and Jean-Marc Schlenker},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0711.1981},
  year   = {2010}
}

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12 pages