A novel symmetry in nanocarbons: pre-constant discrete principal curvature structure (Q6587974)

\textit{M. Kotani} et al. [Comput. Aided Geom. Design 58, 24--54 (2017; Zbl 1381.65013)] proposed a new discrete surface theory on trivalent embedded graphs in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). An embedded graph can be seen as a mathematical model of atomic configurations, with vertices representing atoms and edges representing interactions or bondings between atoms. In that work, they defined the Gauss curvature and the mean curvature of discrete surfaces, which satisfy properties corresponding to the classical surface theory.\N\NIn the paper under review, the authors investigate the differential geometrical properties of the \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\)-polymers by analyzing the atomic configuration data in terms of the discrete geometrical tools introduced in the paper cited above. The carbon atoms in the \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\)-polymer resemble the boundary surface of a solid of revolution what may be decomposed from a continuum geometrical viewpoint into three regions according the Gauss curvature to be positive, null or negative, but numerical analysis in this paper shows that it cannot be seen as a surface of constant mean curvature. However, the geometrical analysis of the first-principles computational results leads to a novel property that shows almost constant discrete principal curvature due to its discrete nature. This property is called pre-constant discrete principal curvature (pCDPC).\N\NThe authors investigate the geometrical properties of the several kinds of the nanocarbons: \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\), \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\)-dimers and nanotubes and find that the pCDPC also holds in all of those nanocarbons. This is interesting since it has never been described that those nanocarbons have the pCDPC. The authors point out that these geometrical properties can be regarded as a novel discrete geometrical symmetry hidden in the nanocarbons and so this paper can be considered a report of this symmetry.\N\NIn Section 2 the mathematical preliminaries are given. The shapes of the \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\)-polymers are obtained using the first-principles calculations in Section 3. In Section 4 and 5 the geometrical properties of the \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\)-polymers, \(\mathrm{C}_{60}\)-dimers and nanotubes are shown by the discrete geometrical analysis. The authors discuss their results in Section 6 and present the conclusions and perspectives in Section 7.\N\NFor the entire collection see [Zbl 1546.53005].