Space vectors forming rational angles
Metric Geometry
2020-12-01 v1 Algebraic Geometry
Number Theory
Abstract
We classify all sets of nonzero vectors in such that the angle formed by each pair is a rational multiple of . The special case of four-element subsets lets us classify all tetrahedra whose dihedral angles are multiples of , solving a 1976 problem of Conway and Jones: there are one-parameter families and sporadic tetrahedra, all but three of which are related to either the icosidodecahedron or the root lattice. The proof requires the solution in roots of unity of a -symmetric polynomial equation with monomials (the previous record was monomials).
Cite
@article{arxiv.2011.14232,
title = {Space vectors forming rational angles},
author = {Kiran S. Kedlaya and Alexander Kolpakov and Bjorn Poonen and Michael Rubinstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.14232},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
30 pages. Associated code at https://github.com/kedlaya/tetrahedra