Fuglede's spectral set conjecture for convex polytopes (Q2363707)

It is said that a convex polytope \(\Omega\) in \(\mathbb R^d\) is spectral if the space \(L^2(\Omega)\) admits an orthogonal basis consisting of exponential functions. A conjecture, which goes back to Fuglede (1974), states that \(\Omega\) is spectral if and only if it can tile the space by translations. It is known that if \(\Omega\) tiles then it is spectral, but the converse was proved only in dimension \(d = 2\), by Iosevich, Katz and Tao. Kolountzakis's result asserts that if a convex polytope \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^d\) is spectral, then it must be centrally symmetric. It is proved in the paper under review that also all the facets of \(\Omega\) are centrally symmetric. These conditions are necessary for \(\Omega\) to tile by translations. The authors also develop an approach which allows them to prove that in dimension \(d = 3\) any spectral convex polytope \(\Omega\) indeed tiles by translations. This confirms Fuglede's conjecture for convex polytopes in \(\mathbb R^3\).