Cell decomposition of polytopes by bending (Q1120831)

Let P be a convex d-polytope and H a hyperplane meeting P but not any vertex of P. It is shown that a cell decomposition of P exists consisting of the convex hulls of pairs of faces of P, such that the faces in each pair are separated by H and their dimensions sum to d-1. To prove this result the authors introduce the idea of ``bending a polytope around hyperplane'', yielding a \(d+1\)-polytope, which, when flattened back into d-space, gives rise to the sought cell decomposition. A similar technique shows that the region between two convex d-polytopes (either disjoint or one contained in the other) may be likewise cell- decomposed by using pairs of faces, one of each polytope.