Unfolding genus-2 orthogonal polyhedra with linear refinement (Q1684951)

An unfolding of a polyhedron is produced by cutting surface in such a way that it can be flattened to a single, connected piece without any overlap. E.g., in an edge unfolding, the cuts are restricted to the polyhedron's edges, whereas in a general unfolding, cuts can be made anywhere on the surface. The class of orthogonal polyhedra consists of polyhedra whose edges and faces all meet at right angles. The authors prove that every orthogonal polyhedron of genus at most 2 can be unfolded without overlap while using only a linear number of orthogonal cuts (parallel to the polyhedron's edges). This can be seen as the first result on unfolding general orthogonal polyhedra beyond genus $\theta$. The presented unfolding algorithm relies on the existence of at most 2 special leaves in what we call the ``unfolding tree'' (which ties back to the genus). Thus, unfolding polyhedra of genus 3 and beyond will require new techniques. The question of whether all orthogonal polyhedra of genus greater than zero can be unfolded is still wide open. However, the authors take a significant step toward this goal.