Related papers: Scribability problems for polytopes
The thirteen spheres problem is asking if 13 equal size nonoverlapping spheres in three dimensions can touch another sphere of the same size. This problem was the subject of the famous discussion between Isaac Newton and David Gregory in…
Several recent papers have addressed the problem of characterizing the $f$-vectors of cubical polytopes. This is largely motivated by the complete characterization of the $f$-vectors of simplicial polytopes given by Stanley, Billera, and…
We wish to draw attention to an interesting and promising interaction of two theories. On the one hand, it is the theory of \textbf{pseudo-triangulations} which was useful for implicit solution of thecarpenter's rule problem and proved…
In this paper we present a simple technique to derive certificates of non-realizability for an abstract polytopal sphere. Our approach uses a variant of the classical algebraic certificates introduced by Bokowski and Sturmfels in…
It is known that polytopes with at most two nonsimple vertices are reconstructible from their graphs, and that $d$-polytopes with at most $d-2$ nonsimple vertices are reconstructible from their 2-skeletons. Here we close the gap between 2…
Let $\mathscr{X}$ be the boundary complex of a $(d+1)$-polytope, and let $\rho(d+1,k) = \frac{1}{2}[{\lceil (d+1)/2 \rceil \choose d-k} + {\lfloor (d+1)/2 \rfloor \choose d-k}]$. Recently, the author, answering B\'ar\'any's question from…
The cyclic polytope $C(n,d)$ is the convex hull of any $n$ points on the moment curve ${(t,t^2,...,t^d):t \in \reals}$ in $\reals^d$. For $d' >d$, we consider the fiber polytope (in the sense of Billera and Sturmfels) associated to the…
The aim of this paper is to prove isoperimetric inequalities for simplices and polytopes with $d+2$ vertices in Euclidean, spherical and hyperbolic $d$-space. In particular, we find the minimal volume $d$-dimensional hyperbolic simplices…
The Orbit Problem consists of determining, given a matrix $A\in \mathbb{R}^{d\times d}$ and vectors $x,y\in \mathbb{R}^d$, whether there exists $n\in \mathbb{N}$ such that $A^n=y$. This problem was shown to be decidable in a seminal work of…
We construct a large family of neighborly polytopes that can be realized with all the vertices on the boundary of any smooth strictly convex body. In particular, we show that there are superexponentially many combinatorially distinct…
We investigate a novel setting for polytope rigidity, where a flex must preserve edge lengths and the planarity of faces, but is allowed to change the shapes of faces. For instance, the regular cube is flexible in this notion. We present…
We present 35 open problems on combinatorial, geometric and algebraic aspects of k-orbit abstract polytopes. We also present a theory of rooted polytopes that has appeared implicitly in previous work but has not been formalized before.
First, we prove a special case of Knaster's problem, implying that each symmetric convex body in R^3 admits an inscribed cube. We deduce it from a theorem in equivariant topology, which says that there is no S_4-equivariant map from SO(3)…
In 1967, Gr\"unbaum conjectured that the function $$ \phi_k(d+s,d):=\binom{d+1}{k+1}+\binom{d}{k+1}-\binom{d+1-s}{k+1},\; \text{for $2\le s\le d$} $$ provides the minimum number of $k$-faces for a $d$-dimensional polytope (abbreviated as a…
For a $(d-1)$-dimensional simplicial complex $\Delta$ and $1\leq i\leq d$, let $f_{i-1}$ be the number of $(i-1)$-faces of $\Delta$ and $m_i$ be the number of missing $i$-faces of $\Delta$. In the nineties, Kalai asked for a…
We study convex polyhedra in $\mathbb{R}\mathbb{P}^3$ with all their vertices on a sphere. We do not require, in particular, that the polyhedra lie in the interior of the sphere, hence the term "weakly inscribed". Such polyhedra can be…
Generalizing a result (the case $k = 1$) due to M. A. Perles, we show that any polytopal upper bound sphere of odd dimension $2k + 1$ belongs to the generalized Walkup class ${\cal K}_k(2k + 1)$, i.e., all its vertex links are $k$-stacked…
We describe a provably complete algorithm for the generation of a tight, possibly exact superset of all combinatorially distinct simple n-facet polytopes in R^d, along with their graphs, f-vectors, and face lattices. The technique applies…
For a $d$-dimensional polytope with $v$ vertices, $d+1\le v\le2d$, we calculate precisely the minimum possible number of $m$-dimensional faces, when $m=1$ or $m\ge0.62d$. This confirms a conjecture of Gr\"unbaum, for these values of $m$.…
The main goal of this paper is to show that shellability is NP-hard for triangulated d-balls (this also gives hardness for triangulated d-manifolds/d-pseudomanifolds with boundary) as soon as d is at least 3. This extends our earlier work…