Polyhedra with hexagonal and triangular faces and three faces around each vertex
Abstract
We analyze polyhedra composed of hexagons and triangles with three faces around each vertex, and their 3-regular planar graphs of edges and vertices, which we call "trihexes". Trihexes are analogous to fullerenes, which are 3-regular planar graphs whose faces are all hexagons and pentagons. Every trihex can be represented as the quotient of a hexagonal tiling of the plane under a group of isometries generated by $180^\circ$ rotations. Every trihex can also be described with either one or three "signatures": triples of numbers $(s, b, f)$ that describe the arrangement of the rotocenters of these rotations. Simple arithmetic rules relate the three signatures that describe the same trihex. We obtain a bijection between trihexes and equivalence classes of signatures as defined by these rules. Labeling trihexes with signatures allows us to put bounds on the number of trihexes for a given number vertices $v$ in terms of the prime factorization of $v$ and to prove a conjecture concerning trihexes that have no "belts" of hexagons.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- June 2023
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2306.15820
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2306.15820
- Bibcode:
- 2023arXiv230615820G
- Keywords:
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- Mathematics - Combinatorics;
- Mathematics - Geometric Topology;
- 05C10 (Primary) 51M20;
- 52C20;
- 05C30;
- 57M15 (Secondary)
- E-Print:
- 26 pages, 19 figures