Convex polyhedra in Lorentzian space-forms (Q700499)

A. D. Alexandrov characterized metrics induced on (the boundaries of) convex polytopes in the Euclidean 3-space, see, for example, the book [\textit{A. D. Aleksandrov}, Convex polyhedra (in Russian). Moscow-Leningrad (1950; Zbl 0041.50901)]. That result reads as follows: a Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(S^2\) with conical singularities is induced by a convex polyhedral embedding in the Euclidean 3-space if and only if \(g\) is flat except at a finite number of singular points \(x_1,\dots,x_n\) where the singular curvature is positive; moreover, the embedding is then unique modulo global isometries. Similar characterizations are known for convex polyhedra in the Lobachevskij and spherical 3-spaces. In the paper under review, the author gives similar results for compact polyhedra in two Lorentzian space-forms, the de-Sitter and the Minkowski spaces \(S^3_1\) and \(E^3_1\). He also describes the induced metrics on complete polyhedra in the de Sitter space \(S^3_1\). The author shows that, in the spaces under consideration, it is necessary to consider induced metrics together with some additional combinatorial data depending on the way the polyhedron is imbedded, namely, on the way the faces `degenerate'.