A characterization of Gram matrices of polytopes (Q1293677)

The author gives a characterization of the Gram matrices of spherical and finite-volume hyperbolic polytopes of a given combinatorial type, without any restriction on the dihedral angles. As in the case of simplices, this is done in terms of the signs of certain (not only principal) minors of the Gram matrix. Both characterizations are consequences of a general result for cones over polytopes in a vector space with a quadratic form given on it. This directly produces the result for spherical polytopes. For the hyperbolic case, it is necessary to study the relative position between the polyhedral cone and the hyperbolic space. Therefore, some extra conditions are required in order to obtain a finite-volume polytope. The classical result for simplices can be obtained as a corollary.