Combinatorial representation of tetrahedral chains (Q314536)

A tetrahedral chain is a finite or infinite sequence \(T^{(1)},T^{(2)},\ldots\) of regular tetrahedra in Euclidean three space such that the intersection of two consecutive tetrahedra is a common face. It is called proper if its members have mutually disjoint interior. Representations of combinatorial types of tetrahedral chains are given in terms of sequences of three letters \(D,F,U\) and in sequences of certain triplets from \(\{1,2,3,4\}^3\) that encode the reflections mapping \(T^{(i)}\) onto \(T^{(i+1)}\). Geometric results comprise the number of combinatorial types of proper chains of length \(n\) for \(n=3,\ldots,13\) as well as the number and combinatorial types of proper chains of tetrahedra all sharing a common vertex. Another emphasis is on infinite chains with periodic representation.