Chiral polyhedra in 3-dimensional geometries and from a Petrie-Coxeter construction (Q2230917)

This paper deals with skeletal polyhedra (briefly polyhedra) \({\mathscr P}\) in \({\mathscr X}\in\{{\mathbb E}^3, {\mathbb H}^3, {\mathbb P}^3\}\), the three-dimensional Euclidean, hyperbolic, or projective space. The axioms for a skeletal polyhedron are recalled, and such a polyhedron is called regular if its symmetry group (the group of isometries of \({\mathscr X}\) that preserve \({\mathscr P}\)) is transitive on the flags, and it is called chiral if the symmetry group induces two orbits on the flags such that adjacent flags belong to different orbits. There are similar notions with the symmetry group replaced by the combinatorial automorphism group. The first part of the paper extends structural results on regular and chiral polyhedra, due to \textit{E. Schulte} [Discrete Comput. Geom. 34, No. 2, 181--229 (2005; Zbl 1090.52009)] from Euclidean to hyperbolic and projective spaces. For example: if \({\mathscr P}\) is a chiral polyhedron in \({\mathscr X}\) with helical faces, then it is combinatorially regular. The second part uses the Petrie-Coxeter construction and skeletal \(4\)-polytopes with planar faces in \({\mathscr X}\) to produce many examples of chiral polyhedra with helical faces in the spherical space \({\mathbb S}^3\). They are described in detail and illustrated by remarkable figures.