Descartes' theorem in n dimensions

MaRDI QIDQ1179587zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Branko Grünbaum, G. C. Shephard

Publication date 26 June 1992

Published in L'Enseignement Mathématique. 2e Série (Search for Journal in Brave)

zbMATH Keywords

defectDescartes' Theoremelementary polytopesEuler characteristicEuler's theorem

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Polyhedra and polytopes; regular figures, division of spaces (51M20) Combinatorial properties of polytopes and polyhedra (number of faces, shortest paths, etc.) (52B05) (n)-dimensional polytopes (52B11)

Review text

The authors generalize Descartes' Theorem to ``elementary polyhedra of arbitrary dimension and Euler characteristic and giving a new and much simpler proof: For ``elementary, not necessarily convex, polytopes let \(\chi\) denote the Euler characteristic, \(s_ m\) the sum of the inner angles at the \(m\)-faces, the full angle normalized to 1, and \(\delta_ m=1-s_ m\) the sum of the deficiencies. Descartes' theorem in \(n\) dimensions is \[ \delta_ 0-\delta_ 1+\dots+(-1)^{n-3}\delta_{n- 3}=\chi. \] The main tool in the proof is Gram's theorem \[ s_ 0-s_ 1+\dots+(-1)^{n-2}s_{n-2}=(-1)^ n. \]

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Cited in

(7)

• Polyhedral Gauss-Bonnet theorems and valuations
• Critical points and the angle defect
• A dual for Descartes’ theorem on polyhedra
• The geometric spectrum of a graph and associated curvatures
• Generalized angle vectors, geometric lattices, and flag-angles
• Duality and the Descartes deficiency
• A characterization of the angle defect and the Euler characteristic in dimension 2

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