Coxeter polytopes with a unique pair of non-intersecting facets

We consider compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes whose Coxeter diagram contains a unique dotted edge. We prove that such a polytope in d-dimensional hyperbolic space has at most d+3 facets. In view of results by Kaplinskaja [I.M. Kaplinskaya, Discrete groups generated by reflections in the faces of simplicial prisms in Lobachevskian spaces, Math. Notes 15 (1974) 88-91] and the second author [P. Tumarkin, Compact hyperbolic Coxeter n-polytopes with n+3 facets, Electron. J. Combin. 14 (2007), R69, 36 pp.], this implies that compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes with a unique pair of non-intersecting facets are completely classified. They do exist only up to dimension 6 and in dimension 8.     

Essential hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes

We introduce a notion of an essential hyperbolic Coxeter polytope as a polytope which fits some minimality conditions. The problem of classification of hyperbolic reflection groups can be easily reduced to classification of essential Coxeter polytopes. We determine a potentially large combinatorial class of polytopes containing, in particular, all the compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes of dimension at least 6 which are known to be essential, and prove that this class contains finitely many polytopes only. We also construct an effective algorithm of classifying polytopes from this class, realize it in the four-dimensional case, and formulate a conjecture on finiteness of the number of essential polytopes.     

The classification of compact hyperbolic Coxeterd-polytopes withd+2 facets

This paper provides a list of all compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes the combinatorial type of which is the product of two simplices of dimension greater than 1. Combined with results of Kaplinskaja ([Ka]) this completes the classification of compact hyperbolic Coxeterd-polytopes withd+2 facets.     

Hyperbolic Coxeter N-Polytopes with n+2 Facets

In this paper, we classify all the hyperbolic noncompact Coxeter polytopes of finite volume whose combinatorial type is either that of a pyramid over a product of two simplices or a product of two simplices of dimension greater than one. Combined with the results of Kaplinskaja (1974) and Esselmann (1996), this completes the classification of hyperbolic Coxeter N-polytopes of finite volume with n+2 facets.     

An illustrated theory of hyperbolic virtual polytopes

The paper gives an illustrated introduction to the theory of hyperbolic virtual polytopes and related counterexamples to A.D. Alexandrov’s conjecture.      

Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes and Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes as marked poset polytopes

Stanley (1986) showed how a finite partially ordered set gives rise to two polytopes, called the order polytope and chain polytope, which have the same Ehrhart polynomial despite being quite different combinatorially. We generalize his result to a wider family of polytopes constructed from a poset P with integers assigned to some of its elements.Through this construction, we explain combinatorially the relationship between the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes (1950) and the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes (2010, 2005), which arise in the representation theory of the special linear Lie algebra. We then use the generalized Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes of Berenstein and Zelevinsky (1989) to propose conjectural analogues of the Feigin-Fourier-Littelmann-Vinberg polytopes corresponding to the symplectic and odd orthogonal Lie algebras.     

Symmetric generation of Coxeter groups

We provide involutory symmetric generating sets of finitely generated Coxeter groups, fulfilling a suitable finiteness condition, which in particular is fulfilled in the finite, affine and compact hyperbolic cases.      

On volumes of hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes and quadratic forms

In this paper, we compute the covolume of the group of units of the quadratic form ${f_d^n(x) = x_1^2+x_2^2+ \cdots +x_n^2-dx_{n+1}^2}$ with d an odd, square-free, positive integer. Mcleod has determined the hyperbolic Coxeter fundamental domain of the reflection subgroup of the group of units of the quadratic form ${f_3^n}$ . We apply our covolume formula to compute the volumes of these hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes.     

Quotients of polytopes and C-groups

Abstract polytopes are combinatorial and geometrical structures with a distinctive topological flavor, which resemble the convex polytopes. C-groups are generalizations of Coxeter groups and are the automorphism groups of abstract polytopes which are regular. We investigate general properties of quotients of abstract polytopes and C-groups. Supported by NSF Grant DMS-9202071.     

Alcoved Polytopes,I

The aim of this paper is to study alcoved polytopes, which are polytopes arising from affine Coxeter arrangements. This class of convex polytopes includes many classical polytopes, for example, the hypersimplices. We compare two constructions of triangulations of hypersimplices due to Stanley and Sturmfels and explain them in terms of alcoved polytopes. We study triangulations of alcoved polytopes, the adjacency graphs of these triangulations, and give a combinatorial formula for volumes of these polytopes. In particular, we study a class of matroid polytopes, which we call the multi-hypersimplices.     

On hyperbolic virtual polytopes and hyperbolic fans

Hyperbolic virtual polytopes arose originally as polytopal versions of counterexamples to the following A.D.Alexandrov’s uniqueness conjecture: Let K ⊂ ℝ³ be a smooth convex body. If for a constant C, at every point of ∂K, we have R ₁ ≤ C ≤ R ₂ then K is a ball. (R ₁ and R ₂ stand for the principal curvature radii of ∂K.) This paper gives a new (in comparison with the previous construction by Y.Martinez-Maure and by G.Panina) series of counterexamples to the conjecture. In particular, a hyperbolic virtual polytope (and therefore, a hyperbolic hérisson) with odd an number of horns is constructed. Moreover, various properties of hyperbolic virtual polytopes and their fans are discussed.     

On permutation polytopes

In this paper we lay the foundations for the study of permutation polytopes: the convex hull of a group of permutation matrices.We clarify the relevant notions of equivalence, prove a product theorem, and discuss centrally symmetric permutation polytopes. We provide a number of combinatorial properties of (faces of) permutation polytopes. As an application, we classify ?4-dimensional permutation polytopes and the corresponding permutation groups. Classification results and further examples are made available online.We conclude with several questions suggested by a general finiteness result.     

Coxeter Decompositions of Compact Hyperbolic Pyramids and Triangular Prisms

A polyhedron P admits a Coxeter decomposition if P can be tiled by finitely many Coxeter polyhedra such that any two tiles having a common face are symmetric with respect to this face. In this paper, we classify Coxeter decompositions of compact convex pyramids and triangular prisms in the hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^3 $ .     

Small volume closed hyperbolic 4-manifolds

Further examples of non-orientable compact hyperbolic 4-manifoldsof volume 32²/3 arising from torsion-free subgroups of the [5,3, 3, 3] Coxeter group are given. These are the smallest knownclosed hyperbolic 4-manifolds and arise by consideration ofmaps from the [5, 3, 3, 3] Coxeter group onto the simple simplecticgroup S₄(4).     

Incidence-polytopes with toroidal cells

A type of partially ordered structures called incidence-polytopes generalizes the notion of polyhedra in a combinatorial sense. The concept includes all regular polytopes as well as many well-known configurations. We use hyperbolic geometry to derive certain types of incidence-polytopes whose cells are isomorphic to maps of type {4, 4}, {6, 3}, or {3, 6} on a torus. For these structures we give a criterion on the finiteness in terms of groups of 2 × 2 matrices, leading among other things to the explicit recognition of the groups in some interesting special cases.Dedicated to H. S. M. Coxeter on the occasion of his 80th birthday.Research supported by NSERC Canada Grant A8857.     

Open problems on k-orbit polytopes

We present 35 open problems on combinatorial, geometric and algebraic aspects of $k$-orbit abstract polytopes. We also present a theory of rooted polytopes that has appeared implicitly in previous work but has not been formalized before.     

A note on hyperbolic 3-manifolds of the same volume

We describe a method for constructing an arbitrary number of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds of the same volume. In fact we prove that many hyperbolic 3-manifolds of finite volume have an arbitrary number of non-homeomorphic finite convering spaces of the same degree and hence the same volume. This applies, for example, to all hyperbolic 3-manifolds whose universal covering group is a subgroup of finite index in a Coxeter group generated by the reflections in the faces of a hyperbolic Coxeter polyhedron. It also applies to all hyperbolic 3-manifolds of finite volume with at least one cusp.     

Hyperbolic Coxeter groups of large dimension

We construct examples of Gromov hyperbolic Coxeter groups of arbitrarily large dimension. We also extend Vinbergs theorem to show that if a Gromov hyperbolic Coxeter group is a virtual Poincaré duality group of dimension n, then n 61.Coxeter groups acting on their associated complexes have been extremely useful source of examples and insight into nonpositively curved spaces over last several years. Negatively curved (or Gromov hyperbolic) Coxeter groups were much more elusive. In particular their existence in high dimensions was in doubt.In 1987 Gabor Moussong [M] conjectured that there is a universal bound on the virtual cohomological dimension of any Gromov hyperbolic Coxeter group. This question was also raised by Misha Gromov [G] (who thought that perhaps any construction of high dimensional negatively curved spaces requires nontrivial number theory in the guise of arithmetic groups in an essential way), and by Mladen Bestvina [B2].In the present paper we show that high dimensional Gromov hyperbolic Coxeter groups do exist, and we construct them by geometric or group theoretic but not arithmetic means.     

Isotropical linear spaces and valuated Delta-matroids

The spinor variety is cut out by the quadratic Wick relations among the principal Pfaffians of an n×n skew-symmetric matrix. Its points correspond to n-dimensional isotropic subspaces of a 2n-dimensional vector space. In this paper we tropicalize this picture, and we develop a combinatorial theory of tropical Wick vectors and tropical linear spaces that are tropically isotropic. We characterize tropical Wick vectors in terms of subdivisions of Δ-matroid polytopes, and we examine to what extent the Wick relations form a tropical basis. Our theory generalizes several results for tropical linear spaces and valuated matroids to the class of Coxeter matroids of type D.