Curvature extrema and four-vertex theorems for polygons and polyhedra (Q1781317)

The author defines the curvature at each vertex \(A\) of a polygon (a closed two-dimensional polyhedron) \(M\) to be \(\pi - \angle A\) (\(2\pi - \Sigma\) planar angles of the faces of \(M\) at \(A\)) and \(0\) at any other point of \(M\). Clearly, with the above definition the sum of the curvatures of \(M\) at its vertices is \(2\pi\) (for a polygon) and \(2\pi \chi(M)\), where \(\chi(M)\) is the Euler number of \(M\). One objective of the manuscript under review is to show that the classical four-vertex theorem for simple closed curves (proved A. Kneser in 1912) in the plane can be extended to the discrete case, i.e. to polygons. In 1932, Bose published a global version of the four-vertex theorem for ovals \(\mathcal O\) (H. Kneser had a proof of this version roughly 10 years before Bose) using circles of curvature, i.e. circles touching \(\mathcal O\) at exactly three points. The author states a discrete version also of the global version of the four-vertex theorem. The main focus of the paper is on extremal vertices, cusps and caustics of polygons. The relation \(N_+ - N_{-} = 2\text{ind} (\Gamma) - \text{ind}(K\Gamma)\) is derived, where \(N_{\pm}\) is the number of positive (negative) extremal vertices of the polgon \(\Gamma \), ind is the winding number and \(K\Gamma\) the caustics of \(\Gamma\). Generalizing the results to higher dimensions the notion of a \(D\)-polyhedron is introduced. It is proved that every \(d\)-dimensional closed \(D\)-polyhedron has at least \(2d+2\) extremal \((d-1)\)-faces. The proof of this statement is based on Delaunay triangulations, where the property of being a \(D\)-polyhedron is translated to the assertion that such polyhedrons are subcomplexes of the Delaunay triangulations of their vertex sets.