First Families of Regular Polygons and their Mutations

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Publication:6281379

arXiv1612.09295MaRDI QIDQ6281379FDOQ6281379


Authors: G. Hughes Edit this on Wikidata


Publication date: 29 December 2016

Abstract: Every regular N-gon generates a canonical family of regular polygons which are conforming to the bounds of the 'star polygons' determined by N. These star polygons are formed from truncated extended edges of the N-gon and the intersection points ('star' points) determine a scaling which defines the parameters of the family. In 'First Families of Regular Polygons' (arXiv:1503.05536) we showed that this scaling forms a basis for the maximal real subfield of the cyclotomic field of N. The traditional generator for this subfield is 2cos(2Pi/N) so it has order Phi(N)/2 where Phi is the Euler totient function. This order is known as the 'algebraic complexity' of N. The family of regular polygons shares this same scaling and complexity, so members of this family are an intrinsic part of any regular polygon - and we call them the First Family of N. Here we start from first principles and give a formal derivation of the First Families showing how each star[k] point of N defines a scale[k] and also an S[k] 'tile' of the family. Under a piecewise isometry such as the outer-billiards map the 'singularity set' W can be formed by iterating the extended edges of N and we show that W can be reduced to a 'shear and rotation' which preserves the S[k], so the 'web' W can be regarded as the disjoint union (coproduct) of the local webs of the S[k]. These local webs are still very complex but we show in Lemma 4.1 that the center of each S[k] has a constant step-k orbit around N. These 'resonant' orbits set bounds on global orbits and establish a connection between geometry and dynamics. We can now make predictions about the geometry of the S[1] and S[2] tiles on the edges of N and give a plausible explanation for the '4k+1' conjecture of arXiv:1311.6763 about extended families of tiles when N = 8k+2. Each 8k+j family has unique edge geometry and this geometry is shared by neighboring S[k] tiles.













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