The angle defect for odd-dimensional simplicial manifolds (Q818698)

The present paper concerns suitable generalizations of the classical curvature function known as angle defect. In [Beitr. Algebra Geom. 39 (2), 379--393 (1998; Zbl 0917.52010)], the author defined the so called generalized angle defect for arbitrary simplicial complexes: it satisfies many basic properties expected for curvature, but it is proved to be not zero at the simplices of every odd-dimensional manifold. The purpose of the present work is to define a variant on the generalized angle defect called ascending stratified curvature (whose definition makes use of a sequence based upon Bernoulli numbers), which is identically zero for any odd-dimensional simplicial complex \(K\) (of dimension \(\geq3\)) such that \(\chi (\text{link}(\eta^i,K))=2\) for all \(i\)-simplices \(\eta^i\) of \(K\), \(i\) being an even integer such that \(0 \leq i \leq n-1\). As a consequence, any odd-dimensional simplicial complex \(K\) (of dimension \(\geq3\)) such that \(\chi (\text{link}(\eta^i,K))=2\) for all \(i\)-simplices \(\eta^i\) of \(K\), \(i\) being an even integer such that \(0 \leq i \leq n-1\), is proved to have zero Euler characteristic. Note that an elementary proof that odd-dimensional polyhedral manifolds have zero Euler characteristic was proved by \textit{T. F. Banchoff} [J. Differ. Geom. 1, 245--256 (1967; Zbl 0164.22903) and Prog. Math. 32, 32--55 (1983; Zbl 0513.53059)] by means of a suitable type of polyhedral curvature.