The least-area tetrahedral tile of space (Q2306060)

Face-to-face tilings of the 3-dimensional Euclidean space with congruent tetrahedra are considered. A tiling is orientation-preserving if any two tiles are equivalent under an orientation-preserving isometry of the space. In 1922, \textit{D. M. Y. Sommerville} [``Space-filling tetrahedra in Euclidean space'', Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc. 41, 49--57 (1922; \url{doi:10.1017/S001309150007783X})] determined a list of four tetrahedra that admit orientation-preserving face-to-face tilings of the space, and this list is complete. In 2014, \textit{P. Gallagher} et al. [Undergrad. Math J. 15, No. 1, 209--236 (2014; Zbl 1398.52026)] investigated surface-area minimizing tiles and showed that the least-area, face-to-face tetrahedral tile of unit volume is Sommerville's type \(4v\) if the tiling is orientation preserving. In the paper under review, the authors prove that, even without the constraint that the tiling is orientation preserving, the same Sommerville's type \(4v\) is uniquely the least-surface-area, face-to-face tetrahedral tile of unit volume. The difficulty is that there are no list of all tetrahedral tiles. The authors characterize a subclass of tetrahedra that includes all possible candidates for surface area minimization, and examine them. Many proofs are computer-assisted.