A discrete Gauss-Bonnet type theorem (Q427169)

The article gives a generalization of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem on planar domains \(G\) with boundary curve \(C\) NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\int_C \kappa(s)ds = 2\pi \chi(G),NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(\chi\) is the Euler characteristic, to graphs whose vertices belong to a background lattice \(X=\{(k+l/2, \sqrt{3}l/2: \, k,l\in\mathbb{Z}\}\), which plays the role of the 2-dimensional plane. The underlying idea is to relate curvature and topology. The author defines several concepts in the discrete setup, including those of dimension, interior and boundary points (a topology), domain, smoothness and finiteness of a domain, curvature, etc. The author remarks that his definition of curvature \(K(p)\) at a boundary vertex \(p\) in a domain \(G\) is analogous to the differential geometric one. The main result is the formula NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\sum_{p\in C} K(p) = 12\chi(G),NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(G\) is a finite smooth domain (in the discrete sense) with boundary \(C\). The author also proves a theorem for the combinatorial Piuseux curvature and discusses briefly higher-order curvatures.