A combinatorial Yamabe flow in three dimensions (Q556231)

Using the scalar curvature on three-dimensional simplicial complexes defined by \textit{D. Cooper} and \textit{I. Rivin} [Math. Res. Lett. 3, 51--60 (1996; Zbl 0868.51023)], the author defines and studies a three-dimensional version of combinatorial Ricci flows which were first defined on two-dimensional simplicial complexes by \textit{B. Chow} and \textit{F. Luo} [J. Differ. Geom. 63, 97--129 (2003; Zbl 1070.53040)]. It is shown that the evolution of the curvature satisfies a heat equation where the Laplacian is shown to be a geometric analogue of the Laplacian of Riemannian geometry, though the maximum principle does not necessarily hold. Further, a nonsingular flow is shown to converge to a constant curvature metric.