Global Rigidity of Triangulated Manifolds

MaRDI QIDQ6505700arXivFDO

Authors James Cruickshank, Bill Jackson, Shin-Ichi Tanigawa

Published in arXiv

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Planar graphs; geometric and topological aspects of graph theory (05C10) Combinatorial aspects of simplicial complexes (05E45) Combinatorial properties of polytopes and polyhedra (number of faces, shortest paths, etc.) (52B05) Rigidity and flexibility of structures (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C25)

Abstract: We prove that if $G$ is the graph of a connected triangulated $(d-1)$-manifold, for $dgeq3$, then $G$ is generically globally rigid in $mathbb{R}^d$ if and only if it is $(d+1)$-connected and, if $d=3$, $G$ is not planar. The special case $d=3$ resolves a conjecture of Connelly. Our results actually apply to a much larger class of simplicial complexes, namely the circuits of the simplicial matroid. We also give two significant applications of our main theorems. We show that that the characterisation of pseudomanifolds with extremal edge numbers given by the Lower Bound Theorem extends to circuits of the simplicial matroid. We also prove the generic case of a conjecture of Kalai concerning the reconstructability of a polytope from its space of stresses. The proofs of our main results adapt earlier ideas of Fogelsanger and Whiteley to the setting of global rigidity. In particular we resolve a special case of Whiteley's vertex splitting conjecture for global rigidity.

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