Universality theorems for configuration spaces of planar linkages (Q1849797)

An abstract linkage is a graph with a positive real number assigned to each edge. A planar realization of the linkage is a map from the vertex set into the plane such that distances between vertex images correspond to the weights assigned to edges. Assume that a distinguished oriented edge of the graph has been chosen and that the initial vertex of this edge is sent to the origin by the realization. The set of such maps is the moduli space of planar realizations of the graph and is a real algebraic subset of \(\mathbb{R}^{2r}\), where \(r\) is the number of vertices in the graph. This paper addresses questions of which real algebraic sets, compact smooth manifolds, and vector-valued polynomial mappings can be moduli spaces for linkages. For example (as a corollary of one of the main results), if \(M\) is a smooth compact manifold there is a linkage whose moduli space is diffeomorphic to a disjoint union of a number of copies of \(M\). (As the authors point out, this result may be an unpublished result of Thurston.) The main theorems are analogs of results for moduli spaces of realizations for abstract arrangements in \(\mathbb{P}^2\) [see \textit{N. Mnev}, in: Topology and geometry. Lect. Notes Math. 1346, 527--543 (1988; Zbl 0667.52006), or the same authors, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 88, 5--95 (1998; Zbl 0982.20023)]. There is a historical section that discusses interest in problems of this type ever since the 18th century invention of the steam engine, for which there was a need to convert periodic linear motion into circular motion.