2-frieze patterns and the cluster structure of the space of polygons (Q714919)

In this paper the authors study the space of 2-frieze patterns which are generalization of the classical Coxeter-Conway frieze patterns. They show that the space of 2-frieze patterns is a cluster manifold and study its algebraic and arithmetic properties. The geometric realization of this space is the space \(\mathcal{C}_n\) of n-gons in the projective plane (over \(\mathbb{C}\) or over \(\mathbb{R}\)) modulo projective equivalence which is a close relative of the moduli space \(M_{0,n}\) of genus zero curves with \(n\) marked points. The main idea is to identify the space \(\mathcal{C}_n\) with the space \(\mathcal{F}_n\) of combinatorial objects which are called 2-friezes. It is shown that \(\mathcal{C}_n\) is isomorphic to \(\mathcal{F}_n\), provided \(n\) is not a multiple of 3. This isomorphism leads to remarkable coordinate systems on \(\mathcal{C}_n\) and equips \(\mathcal{C}_n\) with the structure of a cluster manifold.