Decomposability of polytopes (Q2482208): Difference between revisions

A polytope \(P\) is said to be decomposable if it is equal to a Minkowski sum \(Q+R\) of two polytopes \(Q\) and \(R\) which are not homothetic to \(P\), all other polytopes are referred to as indecomposable. For instance it is known that a polytope is indecomposable if all of its 2-faces are triangular, see [\textit{G. C. Shephard}, Mathematika, Lond. 10, 89--95 (1963; Zbl 0121.39002)]. Weaker conditions sufficient for the indecomposability were analyzed in [\textit{M. Kallay}, Isr. J. Math. 41, 235--243 (1982; Zbl 0498.52004), \textit{W. Meyer}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 190, 77--86 (1974; Zbl 0255.52003), \textit{P. McMullen}, Isr. J. Math. 58, 321--323 (1987; Zbl 0638.52003), \textit{D. Yost}, Mathematika 38, No.~1, 134--155 (1991; Zbl 0761.52011)]. The authors propose an original way to prove the mentioned results and deduce new sufficient conditions for the indecomposability.