Scribability problems for polytopes
Abstract
In this paper we study various scribability problems for polytopes. We begin with the classical $k$-scribability problem proposed by Steiner and generalized by Schulte, which asks about the existence of $d$-polytopes that cannot be realized with all $k$-faces tangent to a sphere. We answer this problem for stacked and cyclic polytopes for all values of $d$ and $k$. We then continue with the weak scribability problem proposed by Grünbaum and Shephard, for which we complete the work of Schulte by presenting non weakly circumscribable $3$-polytopes. Finally, we propose new $(i,j)$-scribability problems, in a strong and a weak version, which generalize the classical ones. They ask about the existence of $d$-polytopes that can not be realized with all their $i$-faces "avoiding" the sphere and all their $j$-faces "cutting" the sphere. We provide such examples for all the cases where $j-i \le d-3$.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- August 2015
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1508.03537
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1508.03537
- Bibcode:
- 2015arXiv150803537C
- Keywords:
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- Mathematics - Metric Geometry;
- Mathematics - Combinatorics
- E-Print:
- 25 pages, 11 figures. v2: minor changes