arXiv subjects

Flórián Kovács

Publications and source records attributed to Flórián Kovács.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Conway's spiral and a discrete Gömböc with 21 point masses

We show an explicit construction in 3 dimensions for a convex, mono-monostatic polyhedron (i.e., having exactly one stable and one unstable equilibrium) with 21 vertices and 21 faces. This polyhedron is a 0-skeleton, with equal masses located at each vertex. The above construction serves as an upper bound for the minimal number of faces and vertices of mono-monostatic 0-skeletons and complements the recently provided lower bound of 8 vertices. This is the first known construction of a mono-monostatic polyhedral solid. We also show that a similar construction for homogeneous distribution of mass cannot result in a mono-monostatic solid.

math.MG↗

arXiv2021

Balancing polyhedra

We define the mechanical complexity $C(P)$ of a convex polyhedron $P,$ interpreted as a homogeneous solid, as the difference between the total number of its faces, edges and vertices and the number of its static equilibria, and the mechanical complexity $C(S,U)$ of primary equilibrium classes $(S,U)^E$ with $S$ stable and $U$ unstable equilibria as the infimum of the mechanical complexity of all polyhedra in that class. We prove that the mechanical complexity of a class $(S,U)^E$ with $S, U > 1$ is the minimum of $2(f+v-S-U)$ over all polyhedral pairs $(f,v )$, where a pair of integers is called a polyhedral pair if there is a convex polyhedron with $f$ faces and $v$ vertices. In particular, we prove that the mechanical complexity of a class $(S,U)^E$ is zero if, and only if there exists a convex polyhedron with $S$ faces and $U$ vertices. We also give asymptotically sharp bounds for the mechanical complexity of the monostatic classes $(1,U)^E$ and $(S,1)^E$, and offer a complexity-dependent prize for the complexity of the Gömböc-class $(1,1)^E$.

math.MG↗

arXiv2021

Mono-monostatic polyhedra with uniform point masses have at least 8 vertices

The monostatic property of convex polyhedra (i.e. the property of having just one stable or unstable static equilibrium point) has been in the focus of research ever since Conway and Guy published the proof of the existence of the first such object, followed by the constructions of Bezdek and Reshetov. These examples establish $F\leq 14, V\leq 18$ as the respective \emph{upper bounds} for the minimal number of faces and vertices for a homogeneous mono-stable polyhedron. By proving that no mono-stable homogeneous tetrahedron existed, Conway and Guy established for the same problem the lower bounds for the number of faces and vertices as $F, V \geq 5$ and the same lower bounds were also established for the mono-unstable case. It is also clear that the $F,V \geq 5$ bounds also apply for convex, homogeneous point sets with unit masses at each point (also called polyhedral 0-skeletons) and they are also valid for mono-monostatic polyhedra with exactly on stable and one unstable equilibrium point (both homogeneous and 0-skeletons). Here we present an algorithm by which we improve the lower bound to $V\geq 8$ vertices (implying $f \geq 6$ faces) on mono-unstable and mono-monostable 0-skeletons. Our algorithm appears to be less well suited to compute the lower bounds for mono-stability. We point out these difficulties in connection with the work of Dawson and Finbow who explored the monostatic property of simplices in higher dimensions.

math.MG↗