Math.GT] 29 Nov 2017 Embedded in Skeletons (Or Scaffoldings) of the Canonical Cubical Honeycombs of an Euclidean Or Hyperbolic Space

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Math.GT] 29 Nov 2017 Embedded in Skeletons (Or Scaffoldings) of the Canonical Cubical Honeycombs of an Euclidean Or Hyperbolic Space Topological surfaces as gridded surfaces in geometrical spaces. Juan Pablo D´ıaz,∗ Gabriela Hinojosa, Alberto Verjosvky, y November 27, 2017 Abstract In this paper we study topological surfaces as gridded surfaces in the 2-dimensional scaffolding of cubic honeycombs in Euclidean and hy- perbolic spaces. Keywords: Cubulated surfaces, gridded surfaces, euclidean and hyperbolic honeycombs. AMS subject classification: Primary 57Q15, Secondary 57Q25, 57Q05. 1 Introduction The category of cubic complexes and cubic maps is similar to the simplicial category. The only difference consists in considering cubes of different di- mensions instead of simplexes. In this context, a cubulation of a manifold is a cubical complex which is PL homeomorphic to the manifold (see [4], [7], [12]). In this paper we study the realizations of cubulations of manifolds arXiv:1703.06944v2 [math.GT] 29 Nov 2017 embedded in skeletons (or scaffoldings) of the canonical cubical honeycombs of an euclidean or hyperbolic space. In [1] it was shown the following theorem: ∗This work was supported by FORDECYT 265667 (M´exico) yThis work was partially supported by CONACyT (M´exico),CB-2009-129280 and PA- PIIT (Universidad Nacional Aut´onomade M´exico)#IN106817. 1 Theorem 1.1. Let M; N ⊂ Rn+2, N ⊂ M, be closed and smooth subman- ifolds of Rn+2 such that dimension (M) = n + 1 and dimension (N) = n. Suppose that N has a trivial normal bundle in M (i.e., N is a two-sided hy- persurface of M). Then there exists an ambient isotopy of Rn+2 which takes M into the (n+1)-skeleton of the canonical cubulation C of Rn+2 and N into the n-skeleton of C. In particular, N can be deformed by an ambient isotopy into a cubical manifold contained in the canonical scaffolding of Rn+2. In particular, the previous theorem establishes that smooth knotted surfaces in R4 are isotopic to cubulated 2-knots in the 4-dimensional cubic honeycomb. Orientable smooth closed surfaces are cubulated manifolds. Definition 1.2. Let S be a topological 2-manifold embedded in either Rn or Hn. We say that S is a geometrically gridded surface if it is contained in the 2-skeleton of either the canonical cubulation f4; 3n−2; 4g of Rn, the hyper- bolic cubic honeycomb f4; 3; 5g of the hyperbolic space H3 or the hyperbolic cubic honeycomb f4; 3; 3; 5g of the hyperbolic space H4. Here geometrically means that the surface is gridded by isometric pieces of regular euclidean or hyperbolic squares and it is placed in the corresponding skeleton in the scaffolding S2 of a regular cubic euclidean or hyperbolic honeycomb C. If it is understood the type of squares we simply say that S is a gridded surface. A gridded surface S on S2 of C in Rn is a piecewise linear surface such that each linear piece is a unit square with its vertices in the Zn-lattice of Rn. n However in the case of hyperbolic spaces H the description of the vertices is more complicated since the vertices belong to an orbit of a non-abelian n discrete group acting by isometries on hyperbolic space H as we will see in the next sections. We remark that our gridded surfaces are in a natural way length spaces [2]. Hilbert (1901, [9]) proved that there is no regular smooth isometric immer- sion X : H2 ! R3. Efimov (1961, [5]) generalizad this nonexistence theorem of Hilbert to the case of complete surfaces of nonpositive curvature; more precisely, he showed that there is no C2-isometric immersion of a complete, two dimensional, Riemannian manifold M ⊂ R3 whose curvature satisfies K ≤ c < 0. However, J. Nash (1956, [18]) proved that any Ck-manifold n k n 3 (M ; g) can be C -isometrically immersed into R where q ≥ 2 n(n+1)(n+9) and k ≥ 3. This implies that the hyperbolic space can be embedded into a high dimensional Euclidean space; for instance, we can find a C3-isometric 2 embedding of H2 into R99 (see [8], [18]). In this paper we study topological surfaces as geometrically gridded surfaces in the scaffolding of cubic honeycombs in Euclidean and hyperbolic spaces. We prove that connected orientable surfaces can be gridded in R3 or H3 and all the surfaces, orientable or not, can be gridded in R4 or H4. 2 Preliminaries This section consists of two topics. The first studies the type of “scaffolding" (i.e.. the 2-skeleton of an Euclidean or hyperbolic honeycomb) in which we can embed a surface in order to make it a gridded surface. For this purpose we start studying the regular cubic honeycombs of dimensions 3 and 4 in the Euclidean and hyperbolic cases. In the second topic we will revise the theorem of topological classification of non-compact surfaces, in particular non-compact surfaces with Cantor sets of ends of planar and nonplanar type, and also with Cantor sets of non- orientable ends. 2.1 Regular cubic honeycombs We are interested in geometrically regular cubic honeycombs which are ge- ometric spaces filled with hypercubes which are euclidean or hyperbolic hy- percubes. We denote these honeycombs by their Schl¨afflisymbols. For a cube the symbol is f4; 3g. This means that the faces of the regular cube are squares with Schl¨afflisymbol f4g and that there are 3 squares around each vertex. These cubic honeycombs have Schl¨afflisymbols which describe their geometry and start by f4; 3; :::g: 2.1.1 Euclidean cubic honeycombs f4; 3n−2; 4g The canonical cubulation Cn of Rn is its decomposition into n-dimensional cubes which are the images of the unit n-cube In = [0; 1]n by translations by vectors with integer coefficients. Then all vertices of Cn have integers in their coordinates. 3 Any cubulation of Rn is obtained by applying a conformal transformation to the canonical cubulation. Remember that a conformal transformation is of the form x 7! λA(x) + a; where λ 6= 0; a 2 Rn;A 2 SO(n). Any n−cubulation has the same combinatorial structure as honeycomb. The regular hypercubic honeycomb whose Schl¨afflisymbol is f4; 3n−2; 4g is a cubu- lation of Rn which is its decomposition into a collection Cn of right-angled n-dimensional hypercubes f4; 3n−2g called the cells such that any two are either disjoint or meet in one common k−face of some dimension k. This provides Rn with the structure of a cubic complex whose category is similar to the simplicial category PL. The combinatorial structure of the regular honeycomb f4; 3; 4g is as follows: there are 6 edges, 12 squares and 8 cubes which are incident for each vertex and there are 4 squares and 4 cubes which are incident for each edge. The combinatorial structure of the regular honeycomb f4; 3; 3; 4g is as fol- lows: there are 8 edges, 24 squares, 32 cubes and 16 hypercubes which are incident for each vertex; there are 6 squares, 32 cubes and 16 hypercubes which are incident for each edge and there are 4 cubes and 4 hypercubes which are incident for each square. Figure 1: The 3-dimensional cubic kaleidoscopic honeycomb f4; 3; 4g. This Figure is courtesy of Roice Nelson [13]. 4 Definition 2.1. The k-skeleton of the canonical cubulation Cn of Rn, de- noted by Ck, consists of the union of the k-skeletons of the hypercubes in Cn, i.e., the union of all cubes of dimension k contained in the n-cubes in Cn. We will call the 2-skeleton C2 of Cn the canonical scaffolding of Rn. 2.1.2 Hyperbolic cubic honeycombs f4; 3; 5g and f4; 3; 3; 5g A gridded surface is a surface made of congruent squares contained in the corresponding scaffoldings which have disjoint interiors and are glued only in their edges, two squares are either disjoint or share one edge or a ver- tex. Around each vertex there is a circular circuit of squares (the squared star of the vertex). The condition of regularity of platonic solids in the 3- dimensional case implies that the number of squares around each vertex is a constant k > 2. If k = 3 then the regular gridded surface is the cube f4; 3g which is homeomorphic to a sphere S2. If k = 4 then the regular surface is the gridded plane f4; 4g which is isometric to the Euclidean plane R2. If k > 4 then the regular surfaces are the gridded hyperbolic planes which are denoted by f4; 5g; f4; 6g; :::. These gridded hyperbolic planes are length spaces [2] and are isometric, as length metric spaces to the hyperbolic plane H2. Analogously, we consider regular gridded 3-manifolds made of congruent cubes in scaffoldings which are disjoint and glued only in their boundary squares, two cubes are either disjoint or meet at a vertex an edge or a square. There is a circular circuit of cubes around each edge and one spherical cir- cuit of cubes around each vertex as PL 3-manifolds. For each edge there is the same number of cubes k > 2. If k = 3 then the regular gridded 3- manifold is the hypercube f4; 3; 3g which is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere S3. If k = 4 then the regular gridded 3-manifold is the cubic space f4; 3; 4g which is isometric to the Euclidean space R3. If k = 5 then the regular grid- ded 3-manifold is the cubic hyperbolic 3-space f4; 3; 5g which is isometric as a length space to the hyperbolic 3-space H3 [2]. Finally we construct regular gridded 4-manifolds made of congruent hyper- cubes contained in the corresponding scaffoldings which are disjoint and glued only in their boundary cubes, two hypercubes are either disjoint, or meet along a boundary cube of some dimension.
Recommended publications
  • Petrie Schemes
    Canad. J. Math. Vol. 57 (4), 2005 pp. 844–870 Petrie Schemes Gordon Williams Abstract. Petrie polygons, especially as they arise in the study of regular polytopes and Coxeter groups, have been studied by geometers and group theorists since the early part of the twentieth century. An open question is the determination of which polyhedra possess Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. The current work explores combinatorial structures in abstract polytopes, called Petrie schemes, that generalize the notion of a Petrie polygon. It is established that all of the regular convex polytopes and honeycombs in Euclidean spaces, as well as all of the Grunbaum–Dress¨ polyhedra, pos- sess Petrie schemes that are not self-intersecting and thus have Petrie polygons that are simple closed curves. Partial results are obtained for several other classes of less symmetric polytopes. 1 Introduction Historically, polyhedra have been conceived of either as closed surfaces (usually topo- logical spheres) made up of planar polygons joined edge to edge or as solids enclosed by such a surface. In recent times, mathematicians have considered polyhedra to be convex polytopes, simplicial spheres, or combinatorial structures such as abstract polytopes or incidence complexes. A Petrie polygon of a polyhedron is a sequence of edges of the polyhedron where any two consecutive elements of the sequence have a vertex and face in common, but no three consecutive edges share a commonface. For the regular polyhedra, the Petrie polygons form the equatorial skew polygons. Petrie polygons may be defined analogously for polytopes as well. Petrie polygons have been very useful in the study of polyhedra and polytopes, especially regular polytopes.
    [Show full text]
  • Uniform Panoploid Tetracombs
    Uniform Panoploid Tetracombs George Olshevsky TETRACOMB is a four-dimensional tessellation. In any tessellation, the honeycells, which are the n-dimensional polytopes that tessellate the space, Amust by definition adjoin precisely along their facets, that is, their ( n!1)- dimensional elements, so that each facet belongs to exactly two honeycells. In the case of tetracombs, the honeycells are four-dimensional polytopes, or polychora, and their facets are polyhedra. For a tessellation to be uniform, the honeycells must all be uniform polytopes, and the vertices must be transitive on the symmetry group of the tessellation. Loosely speaking, therefore, the vertices must be “surrounded all alike” by the honeycells that meet there. If a tessellation is such that every point of its space not on a boundary between honeycells lies in the interior of exactly one honeycell, then it is panoploid. If one or more points of the space not on a boundary between honeycells lie inside more than one honeycell, the tessellation is polyploid. Tessellations may also be constructed that have “holes,” that is, regions that lie inside none of the honeycells; such tessellations are called holeycombs. It is possible for a polyploid tessellation to also be a holeycomb, but not for a panoploid tessellation, which must fill the entire space exactly once. Polyploid tessellations are also called starcombs or star-tessellations. Holeycombs usually arise when (n!1)-dimensional tessellations are themselves permitted to be honeycells; these take up the otherwise free facets that bound the “holes,” so that all the facets continue to belong to two honeycells. In this essay, as per its title, we are concerned with just the uniform panoploid tetracombs.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Application of the Honeycomb Conjecture to the Bee's Honeycomb
    On the Application of the Honeycomb Conjecture to the Bee’s Honeycomb∗y Tim Räzz July 29, 2014 Abstract In a recent paper, Aidan Lyon and Mark Colyvan have proposed an explanation of the structure of the bee’s honeycomb based on the mathematical Honeycomb Conjecture. This explanation has instantly become one of the standard examples in the philosophical debate on mathematical explanations of physical phenomena. In this critical note, I argue that the explanation is not scientifically adequate. The reason for this is that the explanation fails to do justice to the essen- tially three-dimensional structure of the bee’s honeycomb. Contents 1 Introduction 2 2 Lyon’s and Colyvan’s Explanation 2 3 Baker: A Philosophical Motivation 3 4 Why the Explanation Fails 4 4.1 The Explanation is Incomplete . .4 4.2 The Honeycomb Conjecture Is (Probably) Irrelevant . .7 ∗Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Mark Colyvan, Matthias Egg, Michael Esfeld, Martin Gasser, Marion Hämmerli, Michael Messerli, Antoine Muller, Christian Sachse, Tilman Sauer, Raphael Scholl, two anonymous referees, and the participants of the phi- losophy of science research seminar in the fall of 2012 in Lausanne for discussions and comments on previous drafts of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, grants (100011-124462/1), (100018- 140201/1) yThis is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Philosophia Mathematica following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version, Räz, T. (2013): On the Application of the Honeycomb Conjecture to the Bee’s Honeycomb.
    [Show full text]
  • Convex Polytopes and Tilings with Few Flag Orbits
    Convex Polytopes and Tilings with Few Flag Orbits by Nicholas Matteo B.A. in Mathematics, Miami University M.A. in Mathematics, Miami University A dissertation submitted to The Faculty of the College of Science of Northeastern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 14, 2015 Dissertation directed by Egon Schulte Professor of Mathematics Abstract of Dissertation The amount of symmetry possessed by a convex polytope, or a tiling by convex polytopes, is reflected by the number of orbits of its flags under the action of the Euclidean isometries preserving the polytope. The convex polytopes with only one flag orbit have been classified since the work of Schläfli in the 19th century. In this dissertation, convex polytopes with up to three flag orbits are classified. Two-orbit convex polytopes exist only in two or three dimensions, and the only ones whose combinatorial automorphism group is also two-orbit are the cuboctahedron, the icosidodecahedron, the rhombic dodecahedron, and the rhombic triacontahedron. Two-orbit face-to-face tilings by convex polytopes exist on E1, E2, and E3; the only ones which are also combinatorially two-orbit are the trihexagonal plane tiling, the rhombille plane tiling, the tetrahedral-octahedral honeycomb, and the rhombic dodecahedral honeycomb. Moreover, any combinatorially two-orbit convex polytope or tiling is isomorphic to one on the above list. Three-orbit convex polytopes exist in two through eight dimensions. There are infinitely many in three dimensions, including prisms over regular polygons, truncated Platonic solids, and their dual bipyramids and Kleetopes. There are infinitely many in four dimensions, comprising the rectified regular 4-polytopes, the p; p-duoprisms, the bitruncated 4-simplex, the bitruncated 24-cell, and their duals.
    [Show full text]
  • Coloring Uniform Honeycombs
    Bridges 2009: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture Coloring Uniform Honeycombs Glenn R. Laigo, [email protected] Ma. Louise Antonette N. De las Peñas, [email protected] Mathematics Department, Ateneo de Manila University Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines René P. Felix, [email protected] Institute of Mathematics, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines Abstract In this paper, we discuss a method of arriving at colored three-dimensional uniform honeycombs. In particular, we present the construction of perfect and semi-perfect colorings of the truncated and bitruncated cubic honeycombs. If G is the symmetry group of an uncolored honeycomb, a coloring of the honeycomb is perfect if the group H consisting of elements that permute the colors of the given coloring is G. If H is such that [ G : H] = 2, we say that the coloring of the honeycomb is semi-perfect . Background In [7, 9, 12], a general framework has been presented for coloring planar patterns. Focus was given to the construction of perfect colorings of semi-regular tilings on the hyperbolic plane. In this work, we will extend the method of coloring two dimensional patterns to obtain colorings of three dimensional uniform honeycombs. There is limited literature on colorings of three-dimensional honeycombs. We see studies on colorings of polyhedra; for instance, in [17], a method of coloring shown is by cutting the polyhedra and laying it flat to produce a pattern on a two-dimensional plane. In this case, only the faces of the polyhedra are colored. In [6], enumeration problems on colored patterns on polyhedra are discussed and solutions are obtained by applying Burnside's counting theorem.
    [Show full text]
  • Designing Modular Sculpture Systems
    Bridges 2017 Conference Proceedings Designing Modular Sculpture Systems Christopher Carlson Wolfram Research, Inc 100 Trade Centre Drive Champaign, IL, 61820, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract We are interested in the sculptural possibilities of closed chains of modular units. One such system is embodied in MathMaker, a set of wooden pieces that can be connected end-to-end to create a fascinating variety of forms. MathMaker is based on a cubic honeycomb. We explore the possibilities of similar systems based on octahedral- tetrahedral, rhombic dodecahedral, and truncated octahedral honeycombs. Introduction The MathMaker construction kit consists of wooden parallelepipeds that can be connected end-to-end to make a great variety of sculptural forms [1]. Figure 1 shows on the left an untitled sculpture by Koos Verhoeff based on that system of modular units [2]. MathMaker derives from a cubic honeycomb. Each unit connects the center of one cubic face to the center of an adjacent face (Figure 1, center). Units connect via square planar faces which echo the square faces of cubes in the honeycomb. The square connecting faces can be matched in 4 ways via 90° rotation, so from any position each adjacent cubic face is accessible. A chain of MathMaker units jumps from cube to adjacent cube, adjacent units never traversing the same cube. A variant of MathMaker called “turned cross mitre” has units whose square cross-sections are rotated 45° about their central axes relative to the standard MathMaker units (Figure 1, right). Although the underlying cubic honeycomb structure is the same, the change in unit yields structures with strikingly different visual impressions.
    [Show full text]
  • Regular Totally Separable Sphere Packings Arxiv:1506.04171V1
    Regular Totally Separable Sphere Packings Samuel Reid∗ September 5, 2018 Abstract The topic of totally separable sphere packings is surveyed with a focus on regular constructions, uniform tilings, and contact number problems. An enumeration of all 2 3 4 regular totally separable sphere packings in R , R , and R which are based on convex uniform tessellations, honeycombs, and tetracombs, respectively, is presented, as well d as a construction of a family of regular totally separable sphere packings in R that is not based on a convex uniform d-honeycomb for d ≥ 3. Keywords: sphere packings, hyperplane arrangements, contact numbers, separability. MSC 2010 Subject Classifications: Primary 52B20, Secondary 14H52. 1 Introduction In the 1940s, P. Erd¨osintroduced the notion of a separable set of domains in the plane, which gained the attention of H. Hadwiger in [1]. G.F. T´othand L.F. T´othextended this notion to totally separable domains and proved the densest totally separable arrangement of congruent copies of a domain is given by a lattice packing of the domains generated by the side-vectors of a parallelogram of least area containing a domain [2]. Totally separable domains are also mentioned by G. Kert´eszin [3], where it is proved that a cube of volume V contains a totally separable set of N balls of radius r with V ≥ 8Nr3. Further results and references regarding separability can be found in a manuscript of J. Pach and G. Tardos [4]. arXiv:1506.04171v1 [math.MG] 6 Jun 2015 This manuscript continues the study of separability in the context of regular unit sphere packings, i.e., infinite sets of unit spheres 1 [ d−1 P = xi + S i=1 ∗University of Calgary, Centre for Computational and Discrete Geometry (Department of Math- ematics & Statistics), and Thangadurai Group (Department of Chemistry), Calgary, AB, Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Polyhedra and Packings from Hyperbolic Honeycombs
    Polyhedra and packings from hyperbolic honeycombs Martin Cramer Pedersena,1 and Stephen T. Hydea aDepartment of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia Edited by Robion C. Kirby, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved May 25, 2018 (received for review November 29, 2017) We derive more than 80 embeddings of 2D hyperbolic honey- Disc Packings and Triangular Patterns combs in Euclidean 3 space, forming 3-periodic infinite polyhedra The density of 2D hard disc packing is characterized by the ratio with cubic symmetry. All embeddings are “minimally frustrated,” of the total area of the packed objects to the area of the embed- formed by removing just enough isometries of the (regular, ding space. Thus, the hexagonal “penny packing” of equal discs but unphysical) 2D hyperbolic honeycombs f3, 7g, f3, 8g, f3, 9g, 2 realizes the maximal packing density in the plane, E (24, 25). f3, 10g, and f3, 12g to allow embeddings in Euclidean 3 space. Dense packings of equal discs on the surface of the 2 sphere, Nearly all of these triangulated “simplicial polyhedra” have sym- 2, are more subtle, since the sphere’s finite area means that metrically identical vertices, and most are chiral. The most sym- S optimal solutions depend on the disc radius. The formal defini- metric examples include 10 infinite “deltahedra,” with equilateral tion of packing density for equal discs in the third homogeneous triangular faces, 6 of which were previously unknown and some 2 of which can be described as packings of Platonic deltahedra. We 2D space—the hyperbolic plane, H —is also complicated by the describe also related cubic crystalline packings of equal hyper- nature of that space.
    [Show full text]
  • This Is a Set of Activities Using Both Isosceles and Equilateral Triangles
    This is a set of activities using both Isosceles and Equilateral Triangles. 3D tasks Technical information This pack includes 25 Equilateral Triangles and 25 Isosceles Triangles. You will also need a small tube of Copydex. If you are new to making models with Copydex we suggest you start by watching www.atm.org.uk/Using-ATM-MATs Different polyhedra to make Kit A: 4 Equilateral Triangle MATs. Place one triangle on your desk and join the other three triangles to its three sides, symmetrically. Now add glue to one edge of each of the three added triangles so that all can be joined into a polyhedron This is your first polyhedron. Kit B: 3 Isosceles triangles and 1 equilateral triangle Kit C: 4 Isosceles triangles Kit D: 6 Equilateral Triangles Kit E: 6 Isosceles Triangles Kit F: 3 Equilateral and 3 Isosceles Triangles. (are there different possible polyhedra this time?) Kit G: 8 Equilateral Triangles. One possibility is a Regular Octahedron, but is there more than one Octahedron? Kit H: 4 Equilateral and 4 Isosceles Triangles (are there different possible polyhedra this time?) Kit I: 2 Equilateral Triangles and 6 Isosceles Triangles Kit J: Go back to the Regular Octahedron (from Kit G) and add a Regular Tetrahedron to one of its faces, then add another … until four have been added. Keep track (in a table) of how many faces and vertices the Regular Octahedron and the next four polyhedra have. Hint: if you spaced the added Tetrahedra equally around the Octahedron you will find a bigger version of a previously made solid.
    [Show full text]
  • Cannonballs and Honeycombs, Volume 47, Number 4
    fea-hales.qxp 2/11/00 11:35 AM Page 440 Cannonballs and Honeycombs Thomas C. Hales hen Hilbert intro- market. “We need you down here right duced his famous list of away. We can stack the oranges, but 23 problems, he said we’re having trouble with the arti- a test of the perfec- chokes.” Wtion of a mathe- To me as a discrete geometer Figure 1. An matical problem is whether it there is a serious question be- optimal can be explained to the first hind the flippancy. Why is arrangement person in the street. Even the gulf so large between of equal balls after a full century, intuition and proof? is the face- Hilbert’s problems have Geometry taunts and de- centered never been thoroughly fies us. For example, what cubic tested. Who has ever chatted with about stacking tin cans? Can packing. a telemarketer about the Riemann hy- anyone doubt that parallel rows pothesis or discussed general reciprocity of upright cans give the best arrange- laws with the family physician? ment? Could some disordered heap of cans Last year a journalist from Plymouth, New waste less space? We say certainly not, but the Zealand, decided to put Hilbert’s 18th problem to proof escapes us. What is the shape of the cluster the test and took it to the street. Part of that prob- of three, four, or five soap bubbles of equal vol- lem can be phrased: Is there a better stacking of ume that minimizes total surface area? We blow oranges than the pyramids found at the fruit stand? bubbles and soon discover the answer but cannot In pyramids the oranges fill just over 74% of space prove it.
    [Show full text]
  • Hyperbolic Pascal Pyramid Arxiv:1511.02067V2 [Math.CO] 9
    Hyperbolic Pascal pyramid L´aszl´oN´emeth∗ Abstract In this paper we introduce a new type of Pascal's pyramids. The new object is called hyperbolic Pascal pyramid since the mathematical background goes back to the regular cube mosaic (cubic honeycomb) in the hyperbolic space. The definition of the hyperbolic Pascal pyramid is a natural generalization of the definition of hyperbolic Pascal triangle ([2]) and Pascal's arithmetic pyramid. We describe the growing of hyperbolic Pascal pyramid considering the numbers and the values of the elements. Further figures illustrate the stepping from a level to the next one. Key Words: Pascal pyramid, cubic honeycomb, regular cube mosaic in hyperbolic space. MSC code: 52C22, 05B45, 11B99. 1 Introduction There are several approaches to generalize the Pascal's arithmetic triangle (see, for instance [3]). A new type of variations of it is based on the hyperbolic regular mosaics denoted by Schl¨afli’ssymbol fp; qg, where (p−2)(q−2) > 4 ([5]). Each regular mosaic induces a so called hyperbolic Pascal triangle (see [2, 7]), following and generalizing the connection between the classical Pascal's triangle and the Euclidean regular square mosaic f4; 4g. For more details see [2], but here we also collect some necessary information. The hyperbolic Pascal triangle based on the mosaic fp; qg can be figured as a digraph, where the vertices and the edges are the vertices and the edges of a well defined part of arXiv:1511.02067v2 [math.CO] 9 Nov 2015 lattice fp; qg, respectively, and the vertices possess a value that give the number of different shortest paths from the base vertex to the given vertex.
    [Show full text]
  • Families of Tessellations of Space by Elementary Polyhedra Via Retessellations of Face-Centered-Cubic and Related Tilings
    PHYSICAL REVIEW E 86, 041141 (2012) Families of tessellations of space by elementary polyhedra via retessellations of face-centered-cubic and related tilings Ruggero Gabbrielli* Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Computational Science, Department of Physics, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy and Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA Yang Jiao† Physical Science in Oncology Center and Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA Salvatore Torquato‡ Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics, Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA (Received 7 August 2012; published 22 October 2012) The problem of tiling or tessellating (i.e., completely filling) three-dimensional Euclidean space R3 with polyhedra has fascinated people for centuries and continues to intrigue mathematicians and scientists today. Tilings are of fundamental importance to the understanding of the underlying structures for a wide range of systems in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences. In this paper, we enumerate and investigate the most comprehensive set of tilings of R3 by any two regular polyhedra known to date. We find that among all of the Platonic solids, only the tetrahedron and octahedron can be combined to tile R3. For tilings composed of only congruent tetrahedra and congruent octahedra, there seem to be only four distinct ratios between the sides of the two polyhedra. These four canonical periodic tilings are, respectively, associated with certain packings of tetrahedra (octahedra) in which the holes are octahedra (tetrahedra).
    [Show full text]