Combinatorics of Bricard's octahedra (Q2656156)

To define an octahedron in \(\mathbb R^3\) one starts by a graph \(G_{oct}\) with six vertices \(\{1,2,\ldots, 6\}\) and set of edges \(E_{oct}\) containing all sets \(\{i,j\}\) with \(i,j\in\{1,2,\ldots,6\}\) except \(\{1,2\}\), \(\{3,4\}\), \(\{5,6\}\). A realization of \(G_{oct}\) is a map \(\rho:\{1,2,\ldots,6\}\to \mathbb R^3\), while a labeling is a map \(\lambda: E_{oct}\to\mathbb R_{>0}\); \(\rho\) and \(\lambda\) are compatible if \(\lambda(\{i,j\})\) is the norm of \(\rho(i)-\rho(j)\). Two realizations are congruent if they differ by an isometry of \(\mathbb R^3\). A flex of a realization \(\rho\) is a continuous map \(f:[0,1)\to (\mathbb R^3)^6\) such that \(f(0)=\rho\), \(f(0)\) and \(f(t)\) induce the same labeling for any \(t\), but \(f(t_1)\) and \(f(t_2)\) are not congruent for any \(t_1\neq t_2\). To a given \(\rho\) one can associate an algebraic variety \(W\subset(\mathbb R^3)^6\), whose elements are the realizations \(\rho'\) inducing the same labeling \(\lambda\) as \(\rho\). A motion of \(\rho\) is any irreducible component \(W_0\) of \(W\) containing infinitely many realizations \(\rho'\) two by two non congruent. If such a motion exists, the octahedron is said to be flexible; it cannot be convex. The motions of an octahedron were classified by Bricard in a series of articles at the beginning of the last century: there are three families of flexible octahedra, two of them have a symmetry, with respect to a line or to a plane, while the description of the third one is more involved. In this article the Authors give a new proof of this classification, based on their previous results about flexible graphs on the sphere [the authors, SIAM J. Discrete Math. 35, No. 1, 325--361 (2021; Zbl 1460.05185)]. In the first part of the article they prove some basic facts about motions of an octahedron, and they provide the classification using combinatorial objects called octahedral and pyramidal flexibility functions and some rules relating them; in the second part they apply their theory to explain the rules previously introduced.