Circle patterns on surfaces of finite topological type revisited (Q2189537)

This paper considers circle patterns on surfaces of finite topological type. The main result states the existence of circle patterns with prescribed combinatorial type and overlap angles under some suitable conditions and thus derives some generalizations of Thurston's circle pattern theorem and Marden-Rodin theorem. Specifically, a major progress of the generalized circle pattern theorem is relaxing the requirement of non-obtuse prescribed angles in works of Thurston, Marden-Rodin, Bowers-Stephenson and others. To complete the proof, the authors established some new observations on three-circle configurations and made the use of topological degree theory.