Star unfolding convex polyhedra via quasigeodesic loops (Q977183)

The authors construct a new general method of unfolding the surface of any convex polyhedron \(\mathcal{P}\) to a simple planar polygon. Its foundation consists in their extension of the concept of star unfolding to be based on a quasigeodesic loop \(\mathcal{Q}\) rather than on a point. The star unfolding is presented as a four steps algorithm with inputs \(\mathcal{P}\) and \(\mathcal{Q}\), as it follows: (0) Cut \(\mathcal{P}\) along \(\mathcal{Q}\) and produce the half-surfaces \(P_{1}\) and \(P_{2}\); (1) For each half-surface \(P_{k}\), select shortest path \(sp(v_{i})\) from each vertex \(v_{i}\in P_{k}\) to \(\mathcal{Q}\); (2) Cut along all \(sp(v_{i})\) and flatten each half-surface; (3) Rejoin the two flattened halves at a segment \(s\subset \mathcal{Q}\).