Three techniques for obtaining algebraic circle packings (Q464663)

The authors prove that finite circle packings in the plane or the sphere have algebraic realizations in the sense that all of the tangency points, centers and radii of the circles can be made algebraic. They also provide new proofs of the following two results due to McCaughan. A flat conformal torus that admits a circle packing whose contact graph triangulates the torus has algebraic modulus. A compact Riemann surface of constant curvature \(-1\) that admits a circle packing whose contact graph triangulates the surface is isomorphic to the quotient of hyperbolic plane by a subgroup of \(PSL_2(\mathbb R \cap \overline{\mathbb Q})\).NEWLINENEWLINETo prove each of these statements the authors use one of the following results: Tarski's theorem on real-closed fields, Thurston's result on finite covolume discrete subgroups of \(PSL_2(\mathbb C)\), and, finally, a result from real algebraic geometry on isolated points of real algebraic varieties.