3-manifolds from Platonic solids. (Q1426492): Difference between revisions

This paper gives the classification, up to isometry, of orientable 3-manifolds that are obtained by gluing isometrically the faces of a Platonic solid in spherical, hyperbolic or Euclidean space. A Platonic solid is a compact set whose boundary is a Platonic polyhedron (i.e. with isometry group the corresponding finite orthogonal group: the dodecahedral group for a dodecahedron, etc.). By symmetry, all faces are isometric. Then Poincaré's theorem gives the condition on the dihedral angle to guarantee that the result of face pairing is a manifold of constant curvature (spherical, hyperbolic or Euclidean). In the hyperbolic setting, ideal polyhedra are allowed, so that the volume of the solid is finite. The author gives first the finite list of platonic solids in each geometry that are involved in this construction (there is a one parameter family of angles for each combinatorial type, but only finitely many satisfy the requirements of Poincaré's gluing theorem). Then he finds the list of corresponding manifolds obtained by gluing faces. For some of the Platonic solids, the list of manifolds was already known. Coxeter groups are used to give the classification, as well as computer assistance. Manifolds are distinguished by standard invariants like homology, fundamental group and volume.