Polyhedra obtained from Coxeter groups and quaternions
Abstract
We note that all regular and semiregular polytopes in arbitrary dimensions can be obtained from the Coxeter-Dynkin diagrams. The vertices of a regular or semiregular polytope are the weights obtained as the orbit of the Coxeter-Weyl group acting on the highest weight representing a selected irreducible representation of the Lie group. This paper, in particular, deals with the determination of the vertices of the Platonic and Archimedean solids from the Coxeter diagrams A3, B3, and H3 in the context of the quaternionic representations of the root systems and the Coxeter-Weyl groups. We use Lie algebraic techniques in the derivation of vertices of the polyhedra and show that the polyhedra possessing the tetrahedral, octahedral, and icosahedral symmetries are related to the Coxeter-Weyl groups representing the symmetries of the diagrams of A3, B3, and H3, respectively. This technique leads to the determination of the vertices of all Platonic and Archimedean solids except two chiral polyhedra, snubcuboctahedron and snubicosidodecahedron.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Mathematical Physics
- Pub Date:
- November 2007
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 2007JMP....48k3514K
- Keywords:
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- 02.20.Sv;
- 02.40.-k;
- Lie algebras of Lie groups;
- Geometry differential geometry and topology