The angle defect for arbitrary polyhedra (Q1267335)

The Gauss-Bonnet Theorem for surfaces uses the angle defect to measure curvature. In the present paper, by making use of a natural stratification, the angle defect is generalized to arbitrary polyhedra in all dimensions. A Gauss-Bonnet type theorem is then proved for arbitrary polyhedra in terms of a modified Euler characteristic based on this stratification. The modified Euler characteristic, in general, is different from the classical one.