Decompositions of a polygon into centrally symmetric pieces (Q350249)

The paper under review deals with centrally symmetric convex polygons and their particular dissections called irreducible edge-to-edge decompositions, see [\textit{À.G. Horvath}, Bolyai Soc. Math. Stud. 6, 327--334 (1997; Zbl 0886.52007)]. The authors address the question how much combinatorially different irreducible edge-to-edge decompositions may admit an arbitrarily given centrally symmetric convex polygon. For the case of hexagons the answer was obtained earlier by Horváth: it turns out that, up to combinatorial equivalence, there are exactly six irreducible edge-to-edge decompositions of an arbitrary centrally symmetric hexagon. Generalizing this statement, the following theorem is proved. Theorem. Let \(P\) be an arbitrary centrally symmetric \(2k\)-gon, \(k\geq 4\). Then the number of the combinatorial classes of the irreducible edge-to-edge decomposition of \(P\) into centrally symmetric parts is at most \(\frac{6N(4N+1)!}{N!(3N+3)!}\), where \(N=\left[\frac{2k^3(2k-3)^2}{(2-\sqrt{2})\pi^2}\right]\). The authors pay particular attention to the case of \(k=4\) and describe a list of \(111\) combinatorially different irreducible edge-to-edge decompositions of centrally symmetric convex octagons. Moreover, it is shown that this list is exhaustive in the sense that any irreducible edge-to-edge decomposition of an arbitrary centrally symmetric convex octagon is combinatorially equivalent to one of 111 decompositions presented in the list.