Rigidity of thin disk configurations, via fixed-point index

arXiv1302.2380MaRDI QIDQ6239520FDOQ6239520

Publication date: 10 February 2013

Abstract: We prove some rigidity theorems for configurations of closed disks. First, fix two collections

m a t h c a l C

and

i l d e m a t h c a l C

of closed disks in the Riemann sphere

h a t m a t h b b C

, sharing a contact graph which (mostly-)triangulates

h a t m a t h b b C

, so that for all corresponding pairs of intersecting disks

D_{i}, D_{j} i n m a t h c a l C

and

i l d e D_{i}, i l d e D_{j} i n i l d e m a t h c a l C

we have that the overlap angle between

D_{i}

and

D_{j}

agrees with that between

i l d e D_{i}

and

i l d e D_{j}

. We require the extra condition that the collections are "thin", meaning that no pair of disks of

m a t h c a l C

meet in the interior of a third, and similarly for

i l d e m a t h c a l C

. Then

m a t h c a l C

and

i l d e m a t h c a l C

differ by a M"obius or anti-M"obius transformation. We also prove the analogous statements for collections of closed disks in the complex plane

m a t h b b C

, and in the hyperbolic plane

m a t h b b H^{2}

. Our method of proof is elementary and self-contained, relying only on plane topology arguments and manipulations by M"obius transformations. In particular, we generalize a fixed-point argument which was previously applied by Schramm and He to prove the analogs of our theorems in the circle-packing setting, that is, where the disks in question are pairwise interiorwise disjoint. It was previously thought that these methods of proof depended too crucially on the pairwise interiorwise disjointness of the disks for there to be a hope for generalizing them to the setting of configurations of overlapping disks. We end by stating some open problems and conjectures, including conjectured generalizations both of our main result and of our main technical theorem. Specifically, we conjecture that our thinness condition is unnecessary in the statements of our main theorems.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Circle packings and discrete conformal geometry (52C26)

This page was built for publication: Rigidity of thin disk configurations, via fixed-point index

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q6239520)