Holding convex polyhedra by circular rings (Q1624911)

Let us consider a convex body \(B\) in the Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^3\). Let \(C\) be the set of circles in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) that do not contain interior points of \(B\). \(\Gamma,\Gamma'\in C\) are \textit{isotopic over \(B\)} if one of them can be continuously and congruently transformed into the other and the set of way-points of the transformation does not contain any point of the interior of \(B\). \(\Gamma\in C\) is \textit{attached to \(B\)} if it contains some point of the boundary of \(B\), and \(\Gamma\) \textit{holds} \(B\) if it cannot be isotopic over \(B\) to any circle that does not contain any point of \(B\). \(B\) is \textit{circle-free} if no circle holds \(B\). The expression \textit{\(A\) holds \(B\)} can be used in other contexts. For instance, if \(A\) is a polyhedron, this means that \(A\) is a cage for \(B\). Section 1 of this paper is devoted to a survey of results related to convex bodies that are (or are not) held by circles, polyhedra or strings. The rest of the paper is focused on circles that hold convex polyhedra. In Section 2 the authors introduce the notions of \textit{trunk of a convex polyhedron} (which is a nonempty set of those edges of a convex polyhedron that are cut by a single plane passing through no vertex) and \textit{transversal disk of a trunk} (that is a disk that intersects all the edges of a trunk) in order to present the statements of the ``Symmetrization Lemma'' and the ``Isotopic Lemma''. Such Lemmas are proved in Section 4. Using these notions and lemmas, some new proofs of known results are presented in Section 3. For instance, it is proved that every triangular right prism with equal edges is not circle-free. Some bounds for the diameter of circles that hold a regular tetrahedron, a cube or a regular octahedron are justified. A sufficient condition for a right pyramid to be held by a circle, and sufficient and necessary condition for a right pyramid with equilateral base to be circle-free are exposed. Besides, there are some new results about circles moving to isotopic ones over regular polyhedra. This very interesting paper includes twenty figures that help the reader.