Certain hyperbolic regular polygonal tiles are isoperimetric (Q2230955)

Let \(A_k=(k-6)\pi/3\) and \(P_k=2k \cosh^{-1}(\cos(\pi/k)/(\sqrt{3}/2))\) for real \(k > 6\). For integers \(k\), \(A_k\) and \(P_k\) are area and perimeter of a regular \(k\)-gon \(R_k\) with angles of \(2\pi/3\) in the hyperbolic plane. The authors study finite curvilinear polygonal tilings of closed hyperbolic surfaces \(S\). These are embedded multigraphs on \(S\) with no vertices of degree \(0\) or \(1\) such that all edges are curves and all faces are open topological disks. The main result says that, for every real \(k >6\) and every curvilinear polygonal tiling of a closed hyperbolic surface with \(N\) tiles of average area \(A_k\) and each with perimeter at most \(P_k\), the number \(k\) is an integer and every tile is congruent to \(R_k\) when vertices with angle \(\pi\) are ignored. In particular, if \(k \ge 7\) is an integer and if there is a finite tiling by congruent copies of one single tile of area \(A_k\) that is not congruent to \(R_k\), then its perimeter is larger than \(P_k\).