Suspensions: Volumes, immersibility, and rigidity (Q1905332)

A suspension (or bipyramid) is a polyhedron of \(n\) vertices that has the following combinatorial structure: two pyramids of vertices at points \(N\), \(S\) are built over a closed polygonal line \(L\) of \(n - 2\) links. An abstract suspension is a simplicial complex that has the combinatorial structure described above. As a model of an abstract suspension the author takes a convex polyhedron \(K\) which has the corresponding combinatorial structure. The realization of the abstract polyhedron is then the image \(P(K)\) of \(K\) under a mapping \(P : K \to E^3\) that is continuous on the whole and linear on 2-dimensional faces of the complex \(K\). The author proves that if \(P\) is a local homeomorphism and the number of vertices does not exceed 7, then \(P\) is a complete homeomorphism (embedding) and consequently, it is rigid. The author also proves that if \(P\) is a local homeomorphism such that each of its edges has at most one point of intersection, in total, with all faces non incidental to this edge, then \(P\) is also a complete homeomorphism and it is rigid.