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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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470 <strong>Geometry</strong> of Numbers<br />

(ii) If cells F ∈ C <strong>and</strong> G ∈ D have non-empty intersection, then F is dual to a<br />

suitable face of G <strong>and</strong> G is dual to a suitable face of F.<br />

Given a Delone set, consider the corresponding Dirichlet–Voronoĭ <strong>and</strong> Delone<br />

tilings. It can be shown that the complexes which arise from these tilings are dual<br />

to each other. For a proof, in the case of simplicial complexes, see Rogers [846]<br />

Chap. 8.<br />

The Number of Facets of a Parallelohedron<br />

There is not much information available on parallelohedra. The following is an<br />

immediate consequence of Minkowski’s theorem 30.2 on the number of neighbours<br />

of a convex body in a lattice packing. For a few other properties of parallelohedra, see<br />

the Venkov–McMullen characterization of translative tiles <strong>and</strong> thus of parallelohedra<br />

in Sect. 32.2. See also the short report on the conjecture of Voronoĭ in Sect. 32.3 <strong>and</strong><br />

the result of Ryshkov <strong>and</strong> Bol’shakova [869] cited in Sect. 32.2 later.<br />

Proposition 32.4. The number of facets of a parallelohedron in E d is at<br />

most 2 d+1 − 2.<br />

This result was extended by Delone [258] to an estimate for the number of facets<br />

of a stereohedron. For further information on stereohedra, see Delone <strong>and</strong> S<strong>and</strong>akova<br />

[260]. Compare also the report of Schulte [918].<br />

32.2 The Venkov–Alex<strong>and</strong>rov–McMullen Characterization of Translative Tiles<br />

From the viewpoint of geometry <strong>and</strong> crystallography it is of interest to study tilings<br />

by translates <strong>and</strong> congruent copies of a given convex polytope, the prototile. A major<br />

problem in this context is to characterize the prototiles of translative tilings <strong>and</strong><br />

tilings by congruent copies. A different problem is to find out whether a prototile<br />

which tiles by translation or by congruent copies, actually is a parallelohedron, i.e. it<br />

is a lattice tile, or a stereohedron, that is, it tiles by means of a crystallographic group.<br />

For translative tilings both problems were solved in a satisfying way by Venkov,<br />

Alex<strong>and</strong>rov <strong>and</strong> McMullen. For tilings by congruent copies the first problem remains<br />

unsolved while the second problem, which goes back to Hilbert’s 18 th problem, in<br />

general has a negative answer. This was proved by Reinhardt.<br />

Alex<strong>and</strong>rov [16], p. 349 (English edition), described the problem of characterizing<br />

parallelohedra as follows:<br />

The problem consists in finding all possible parallelohedra. This first implies finding<br />

all possible types of structures of parallelohedra <strong>and</strong>, second, describing the metric<br />

characteristics for such types which, if enjoyed by a polyhedron, ensure that it is a<br />

parallelohedron.<br />

This problem is interesting not only in itself but also by its connections with crystallography<br />

<strong>and</strong> number theory. It was first solved by the great Russian crystallographer<br />

E.S. Fedorov in 1890 ...

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