On the global rigidity of sphere packings on \(3\)-dimensional manifolds (Q1988516)

The author proves the global rigidity of sphere packings on 3-dimensional manifolds. The main results are as follows: Theorem 1.3: Suppose \((M,T)\) is a closed triangulated 3-manifold. \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] A Euclidean sphere packing metric on \((M,T)\) is determined by its combinatorial scalar curvature \(K:V\to\mathbb{R}\) up to scaling. \item[(2)] A hyperbolic sphere packing metric on \((M,T)\) is determined by its combinatorial scalar curvature \(K:V\to\mathbb{R}\). \end{itemize} Theorem 1.5: Suppose \((M,T)\) is a closed triangulated 3-manifold and \(\bar{R}\) is a given function defined on the vertices of \((M,T)\). \begin{itemize} \item[(1)] In the case of Euclidean background geometry, \begin{itemize} \item[(1a)] if \(\alpha\bar{R}\equiv 0\), there exists at most one Euclidean sphere packing metric in \(\Omega\) with combinatorial \(\alpha\)-curvature equal to \(\bar{R}\) up to scaling. \item[(1b)] if \(\alpha\bar{R}\leq 0\) and \(\alpha\bar{R}\not\equiv 0\), there exists at most one Euclidean sphere packing metric in \(\Omega\) with combinatorial \(\alpha\)-curvature equal to \(\bar{R}\). \end{itemize} \item[(2)] In the case of hyperbolic background geometry, if \(\alpha\bar{R}\leq 0\), there exists at most one hyperbolic sphere packing metric in \(\Omega\) with combinatorial \(\alpha\)-curvature equal to \(\bar{R}\). \end{itemize} Theorem 1.3 is a 3-dimensional analogue of the rigidity theorem of Andreev-Thurston and was conjectured by \textit{D. Cooper} and \textit{I. Rivin} in [Math. Res. Lett. 3, 51--60 (1996; Zbl 0868.51023)]. The combinatorial scalar curvature used in Theorem 1.5 was introduced by \textit{H. Ge} and the author in [``A combinatorial Yamabe problem on two and three dimensional manifolds'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1504.05814}].