Schläfli-Hess polychoron

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One of ten Schläfli-Hess polychora by orthographic projection.
One of ten Schläfli-Hess polychora by orthographic projection.

In four dimensional geometry, Schläfli-Hess polychora are the complete set of 10 regular self-intersecting star polychora (Four dimensional polytopes). They are named in honor of their discoverers: Ludwig Schläfli and Edmund Hess. They are all represented by a Schläfli symbol {p, q,r} including pentagrammic (5/2) elements.

Like the set of regular nonconvex polyhedra, the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra, the Schläfli-Hess polychora, are the set of regular nonconvex polychora. Allowing for regular star polygons as faces, edge figures and vertex figures, these 10 polychora add to the set of six regular convex 4-polytopes. All may be derived as stellations of the 120-cell {5,3,3} or the 600-cell {3,3,5}.

Contents

[edit] History

Four of the were found by Ludwig Schläfli while the other six were skipped because he would not allow forms that failed the Euler characteristic on cells or vertex figures (For zero-hole toruses: F+V-E=2). That excludes cells and vertex figures as {5,5/2}, and {5/2,5}.

Edmund Hess (1843-1903) published the complete list in his 1883 German book Einleitung in die Lehre von der Kugelteilung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer Anwendung auf die Theorie der Gleichflächigen und der gleicheckigen Polyeder.

Their names given here were given by John Horton Conway, extending Cayley's names for the Kepler-Poinsot solids, along with stellated and great, he adds a grand modifier.
He offered these operational definitions:

  1. stellation - replaces edges by longer edges in same lines. (Example: Pentagon face stellates into a pentagram)
  2. greatening - replaces the faces by large ones in same planes.
  3. aggrandizement - replaces the cells by large ones in same 3-spaces.

[edit] Table of elements

Note:

The cell polyhedra, face polygons are given by their Schläfli symbol. Also the regular polygonal edge figures, regular and polyhedral vertex figures are given similarly.

Name
Wireframe Solid Schläfli
{p, q,r}
Coxeter-Dynkin
Cells
{p, q}
Faces
{p}
Edges
{r}
Vertices
{q, r}
χ Symmetry group Dual
{r, q,p}
Icosahedral 120-cell {3,5,5/2}
Image:CD_ring.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.png
120
{3,5}
1200
{3}
720
{5/2}
120
{5,5/2}
480 H4 Small stellated 120-cell
Great 120-cell {5,5/2,5}
Image:CD_ring.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.png
120
{5,5/2}
720
{5}
720
{5}
120
{5/2,5}
0 H4 Self-dual
Grand 120-cell {5,3,5/2}
Image:CD_ring.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.png
120
{5,3}
720
{5}
720
{5/2}
120
{3,5/2}
0 H4 Great stellated 120-cell
Small stellated 120-cell {5/2,5,3}
Image:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_ring.png
120
{5/2,5}
720
{5/2}
1200
{3}
120
{5,3}
-480 H4 Icosahedral 120-cell
Great grand 120-cell {5,5/2,3}
Image:CD_ring.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.png
120
{5,5/2}
720
{5}
1200
{3}
120
{5/2,3}
-480 H4 Great icosahedral 120-cell
Great stellated 120-cell {5/2,3,5}
Image:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_ring.png
120
{5/2,3}
720
{5/2}
720
{5}
120
{3,5}
0 H4 Grand 120-cell
Grand stellated 120-cell {5/2,5,5/2}
Image:CD_ring.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.png
120
{5/2,5}
720
{5/2}
720
{5/2}
120
{5,5/2}
0 H4 Self-dual
Great icosahedral 120-cell {3,5/2,5}
Image:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_ring.png
120
{3,5/2}
1200
{3}
720
{5}
120
{5/2,5}
480 H4 Great grand 120-cell
Grand 600-cell {3,3,5/2}
Image:CD_ring.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_dot.png
600
{3,3}
1200
{3}
720
{5/2}
120
{3,5/2}
0 H4 Great grand stellated 120-cell
Great grand stellated 120-cell {5/2,3,3}
Image:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_3.pngImage:CD_dot.pngImage:CD_5-2.pngImage:CD_ring.png
120
{5/2,3}
720
{5/2}
1200
{3}
600
{3,3}
0 H4 Grand 600-cell

[edit] Existence

The existence of a regular polychoron {p,q,r} is constrained by the existence of the regular polyhedra {p,q},{q,r} and a dihedral angle contraint:

  • \sin(\frac{\pi}{p}) \sin(\frac{\pi}{r}) < \cos(\frac{\pi}{q})

The 10 star polytopes above are the only solutions that exist.

There are four nonconvex Schläfli symbols {p, q,r} that have valid cells {p, q} and vertex figures {q, r}, and pass the dihedral test, but fail to produce finite figures: {3,5/2,3}, {4,3,5/2}, {5/2,3,4}, {5/2,3,5/2}.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Edmund Hess, (1883) Einleitung in die Lehre von der Kugelteilung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung ihrer Anwendung auf die Theorie der Gleichflächigen und der gleicheckigen Polyeder [1].
  • Kaleidoscopes: Selected Writings of H.S.M. Coxeter, edited by F. Arthur Sherk, Peter McMullen, Anthony C. Thompson, Asia Ivic Weiss, Wiley-Interscience Publication, 1995, ISBN 978-0-471-01003-6 [2]
    • (Paper 10) H.S.M. Coxeter, Star Polytopes and the Schlafli Function f(α,β,γ) [Elemente der Mathematik 44 (2) (1989) 25-36]
  • Coxeter, Regular Polytopes, 3rd. ed., Dover Publications, 1973. ISBN 0-486-61480-8. (Table I(ii): 16 regular polytopes {p, q,r} in four dimensions, pp. 292-293)
  • H. S. M. Coxeter, Regular Complex Polytopes, 2nd. ed., Cambridge University Press 1991. ISBN 978-0521394901. [3]
  • Peter McMullen and Egon Schulte, Abstract Regular Polytopes, 2002, PDF
  • John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, Chaim Goodman-Strass, The Symmetry of Things 2008, ISBN 978-1-56881-220-5 (Chapter 24, Regular Star-polytopes, pp. 404-408)

[edit] External links

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