Similarity classes of tetrahedra

Conformal mappings of special domains (30C20) Applications of hypergeometric functions (33C90) Polyhedra and polytopes; regular figures, division of spaces (51M20)

Review text

This paper is concerned with polyhedra with four conical singularities. The main object is the space of shapes of tetrahedra \(\stackrel{\sim}{\Gamma}\), defined as the set of flat metrics with four labeled conical singularities on the \(2\)-sphere, up to equivalence by orientation-preserving similarities which preserve labels of conical singularities, is a \(5\)-dimensional fiber bundle over the \(3\)-labels of conical singularities; the fibers are thrice-punctured \(2\)-spheres obtained by keeping the cone-angles of the tetrahedra fixed. The local geometry considered by \textit{W. P. Thurston} [Geom. Topol. Monogr. 1, 511--549 (1998; Zbl 0931.57010)] endows each fiber with a geometry of constant curvature. The other object of study is the quotient \(\Gamma:= \stackrel{\sim}{\Gamma}\!\!/\!\!\sim\), up to the action of re-labeling the vertices of tetrahedra. By heavy use of hypergeometric functions, the authors present biholomorphisms between \({\mathbb C}\setminus \{0, 1\}\) and a triangular pillowcase punctured at its conical singularities. \(\Gamma\) is shown to be a contractible good orbifold. Analyzing the geometry of \(\stackrel{\sim}{\Gamma}\), the authors conclude that ``the area Hermitian form considered by Thurston is only interesting when it is restricted to the triangular pillowcases corresponding to fixed cone-angles. Familiarity with the authors' [Conform. Geom. Dyn. 15, 50--63 (2011; Zbl 1250.51014)] is a prerequisite.

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