Related papers: Dissecting brick into bars

We define the (random) $k$-cut number of a rooted graph to model the difficulty of the destruction of a resilient network. The process is as the cut model of Meir and Moon except now a node must be cut $k$ times before it is destroyed. The…

Given a triangulation of a closed topological cube, we show that (under some technical condition) there is an essentially unique tiling of a rectangular parallelepiped by cubes, indexed by the vertices of the triangulation. Moreover, i -…

Monsky proved that a square cannot be dissected into an odd number of triangles of equal area. Stein conjectured that the same holds for any polygon whose edges can be paired into parallel and equal-length segments. We prove Stein's…

The Lagrange theorem on continued fractions states that a number is a quadratic surd if and only if its continued fraction expansion is eventually periodic. The current paper is devoted to a multidimensional generalization of this fact. As…

The minimal infinitesimal rigidity of bar-joint frameworks in the non-Euclidean spaces (R^2, ||.||_q) are characterised in terms of (2,2)-tight graphs. Specifically, a generically placed bar-joint framework (G,p) in the plane is minimally…

In the March 2025 issue of Pour la Science, Jean-Paul Delahaye described a wonderful solution to the following problem: How many ways can you divide a 3 by 2n rectangle into two connected, congruent pieces? We show that this problem can be…

Let $ABC$ be an equilateral triangle. For certain triangles $T$ (the "tile") and certain $N$, it is possible to cut $ABC$ into $N$ copies of $T$. It is known that only certain shapes of $T$ are possible, but until now very little was known…

We consider the classical minimum and maximum cut problems: find a partition of vertices of a graph into two disjoint subsets that minimize or maximize the sum of the weights of edges with endpoints in different subsets. It is known that if…

A method is presented to bend a thin massive line when the curvature is small. The procedure is applied to a homogeneous thin bar with two types of curvatures. One of them mimics a galactic bar with two spiral arms at its tips. It is showed…

We show that a plane continuum X is indecomposable iff X has a sequence (U_n) of not necessarily distinct complementary domains satisfying what we call the double-pass condition: If one draws an open arc A_n in each U_n whose ends limit…

A point in the interior of a planar triangle determines a subdivision into six subtriangles. A triangle with angles commensurable with $\pi$ is called $\pi$-commensurable. For such a triangle a subdivision where each of the subtriangles are…

We study differential splitting fields of quaternion algebras with derivations. A quaternion algebra over a field $k$ is always split by a quadratic extension of $k$. However, a differential quaternion algebra need not be split over any…

We prove that a complete bipartite graph can be decomposed into cycles of arbitrary specified lengths provided that the obvious necessary conditions are satisfied, the length of each cycle is at most the size of the smallest part, and the…

We use a polyhedral criterion for the existence of diagonal splittings to investigate which toric varieties X are diagonally split. Our results are stated in terms of the vector configuration given by primitive generators of the…

There are parallelepipeds with edge lengths, face diagonal lengths and body diagonal lengths all positive integers. In particular, there is a parallelepiped with edge lengths 271, 106, 103, minor face diagonal lengths 101, 266, 255, major…

Let v_1, ..., v_n be unit vectors in R^n such that v_i . v_j = -w for i != j, where -1 <w < 1/(n-1). The points Sum_{i=1..n} lambda_i v_i, where 1 >= lambda_1 >= ... >= lambda_n >= 0, form a ``Hill-simplex of the first type'', denoted by…

In the classic Minimum Bisection problem we are given as input a graph $G$ and an integer $k$. The task is to determine whether there is a partition of $V(G)$ into two parts $A$ and $B$ such that $||A|-|B|| \leq 1$ and there are at most $k$…

We consider decompositions of the real line into pairwise disjoint Borel pieces so that each piece is closed under addition. How many pieces can there be? We prove among others that the number of pieces is either at most 3 or uncountable,…

What is the smallest number of pieces that you can cut an n-sided regular polygon into so that the pieces can be rearranged to form a rectangle? Call it r(n). The rectangle may have any proportions you wish, as long as it is a rectangle.…

Motivated by questions from Ehrhart theory, we present new results on discrete equidecomposability. Two rational polygons $P$ and $Q$ are said to be discretely equidecomposable if there exists a piecewise affine-unimodular bijection…