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Steffen's polyhedron was believed to have the least number of vertices among polyhedra that can flex without self-intersections. Maksimov clarified that the pentagonal bipyramid with one face subdivided into three is the only polyhedron with fewer vertices for which the existence of a self-intersection-free flex was open. Since subdividing a face into three does not change the mobility, we focus on flexible pentagonal bipyramids. When a bipyramid flexes, the distance between the two opposite vertices of the two pyramids changes; associating the position of the bipyramid to this distance yields an algebraic map that determines a nontrivial extension of rational function fields. We classify flexible pentagonal bipyramids with respect to the Galois group of this field extension and provide examples for each class, building on a construction proposed by Nelson. Surprisingly, one of our constructions yields a flexible pentagonal bipyramid that can be extended to an embedded flexible polyhedron with 8 vertices. The latter hence solves the open question., Comment: 31 pages

We study reflection-symmetric realisations of symmetric graphs in the plane that allow a continuous symmetry and edge-length preserving deformation. To do so, we identify a necessary combinatorial condition on graphs with reflection-symmetric flexible realisations. This condition is based on a specific type of edge colouring, where edges are assigned one of three colours in a symmetric way. From some of these colourings we also construct concrete reflection-symmetric realisations with their corresponding symmetry preserving motion. We study also a specific class of reflection-symmetric realisations consisting of triangles and parallelograms.

This article considers the problem of 3-dimensional genome reconstruction for single-cell data, and the uniqueness of such reconstructions in the setting of haploid organisms. We consider multiple graph models as representations of this problem, and use techniques from graph rigidity theory to determine identifiability. Biologically, our models come from Hi-C data, microscopy data, and combinations thereof. Mathematically, we use unit ball and sphere packing models, as well as models consisting of distance and inequality constraints. In each setting, we describe and/or derive new results on realisability and uniqueness. We then propose a 3D reconstruction method based on semidefinite programming and apply it to synthetic and real data sets using our models.

Consider a collection of points and the sets of slopes or directions of the lines between pairs of points. It is known that the algebraic matroid on this set of elements is the well studied 2-dimensional rigidity matroid. This article analyzes a construction on top of the set of slopes given by an angle constraint system of incidences and angles. In this setting we provide a matricial rigidity formulation of the problem for colored graphs, an algebro-geometric reformulation, precise necessary conditions and a combinatorial characterization of the generic behaviour for a special case., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

We explore the rigidity of generic frameworks in 3-dimensions whose underlying graph is close to being planar. Specifically we consider apex graphs, edge-apex graphs and their variants and prove independence results in the generic 3-dimensional rigidity matroid adding to the short list of graph classes for which 3-dimensional rigidity is understood. We then analyse global rigidity for these graph classes and use our results to deduce bounds on the maximum likelihood threshold of graphs in these nearly planar classes., Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables

A graph is $d$-rigid if for any generic realisation of the graph in $\mathbb{R}^d$ (equivalently, the $d$-dimensional sphere $\mathbb{S}^d$), there are only finitely many non-congruent realisations in the same space with the same edge lengths. By extending this definition to complex realisations in a natural way, we define $c_d(G)$ to be the number of equivalent $d$-dimensional complex realisations of a $d$-rigid graph $G$ for a given generic realisation, and $c^*_d(G)$ to be the number of equivalent $d$-dimensional complex spherical realisations of $G$ for a given generic spherical realisation. Somewhat surprisingly, these two realisation numbers are not always equal. Recently developed algorithms for computing realisation numbers determined that the inequality $c_2(G) \leq c_2^*(G)$ holds for any minimally 2-rigid graph $G$ with 12 vertices or less. In this paper we confirm that, for any dimension $d$, the inequality $c_d(G) \leq c_d^*(G)$ holds for every $d$-rigid graph $G$. This result is obtained via new techniques involving coning, the graph operation that adds an extra vertex adjacent to all original vertices of the graph., Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures

We introduce a recursive procedure for computing the number of realizations of a minimally rigid graph on the sphere up to rotations. We accomplish this by combining two ingredients. The first is a framework that allows us to think of such realizations as of elements of a moduli space of stable rational curves with marked points. The second is the idea of splitting a minimally rigid graph into two subgraphs, called calligraphs, that admit one degree of freedom and that share only a single edge and a further vertex. This idea has been recently employed for realizations of graphs in the plane up to isometries. The key result is that we can associate to a calligraph a triple of natural numbers with a special property: whenever a minimally rigid graph is split into two calligraphs, the number of realizations of the former equals the product of the two triples of the latter, where this product is specified by a fixed quadratic form. These triples and quadratic form codify the fact that we express realizations as intersections of two curves on the blowup of a sphere along two pairs of complex conjugate points.

In this note we study the uniqueness problem for collections of pennies and marbles. More generally, consider a collection of unit $d$-spheres that may touch but not overlap. Given the existence of such a collection, one may analyse the contact graph of the collection. In particular we consider the uniqueness of the collection arising from the contact graph. Using the language of graph rigidity theory, we prove a precise characterisation of uniqueness (global rigidity) in dimensions 2 and 3 when the contact graph is additionally chordal. We then illustrate a wide range of examples in these cases. That is, we illustrate collections of marbles and pennies that can be perturbed continuously (flexible), are locally unique (rigid) and are unique (globally rigid). We also contrast these examples with the usual generic setting of graph rigidity., Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures

A framework, which is a (possibly infinite) graph with a realization of its vertices in the plane, is called flexible if it can be continuously deformed while preserving the edge lengths. We focus on flexibility of frameworks in which 4-cycles form parallelograms. For the class of frameworks considered in this paper (allowing triangles), we prove that the following are equivalent: flexibility, infinitesimal flexibility, the existence of at least two classes of an equivalence relation based on 3- and 4-cycles and being a non-trivial subgraph of the Cartesian product of graphs. We study the algorithmic aspects and the rotationally symmetric version of the problem. The results are illustrated on frameworks obtained from tessellations by regular polygons.

In this paper we consider the class of graphs which are redundantly $d$-rigid and $(d+1)$-connected but not globally $d$-rigid, where $d$ is the dimension. This class arises from counterexamples to a conjecture by Bruce Hendrickson. It seems that there are relatively few graphs in this class for a given number of vertices. Using computations we show that $K_{5,5}$ is indeed the smallest counterexample to the conjecture., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

A recent result of Cioab\u{a}, Dewar and Gu implies that any $k$-regular Ramanujan graph with $k\geq 8$ is globally rigid in $\mathbb{R}^2$. In this paper, we extend these results and prove that any $k$-regular Ramanujan graph of sufficiently large order is globally rigid in $\mathbb{R}^2$ when $k\in \{6, 7\}$, and when $k\in \{4,5\}$ if it is also vertex-transitive. These results imply that the Ramanujan graphs constructed by Morgenstern in 1994 are globally rigid. We also prove several results on other types of framework rigidity, including body-bar rigidity, body-hinge rigidity, and rigidity on surfaces of revolution. In addition, we use computational methods to determine which Ramanujan graphs of small order are globally rigid in $\mathbb{R}^2$., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures

A calligraph is a graph that for almost all edge length assignments moves with one degree of freedom in the plane, if we fix an edge and consider the vertices as revolute joints. The trajectory of a distinguished vertex of the calligraph is called its coupler curve. To each calligraph we uniquely assign a vector consisting of three integers. This vector bounds the degrees and geometric genera of irreducible components of the coupler curve. A graph, that up to rotations and translations admits finitely many, but at least two, realizations into the plane for almost all edge length assignments, is a union of two calligraphs. We show that this number of realizations is equal to a certain inner product of the vectors associated to these two calligraphs. As an application we obtain an improved algorithm for counting numbers of realizations, and by counting realizations we characterize invariants of coupler curves., Comment: This is the accepted version of the manuscript

A natural problem in combinatorial rigidity theory concerns the determination of the rigidity or flexibility of bar-joint frameworks in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that admit some non-trivial symmetry. When $d=2$ there is a large literature on this topic. In particular, it is typical to quotient the symmetric graph by the group and analyse the rigidity of symmetric, but otherwise generic frameworks, using the combinatorial structure of the appropriate group-labelled quotient graph. However, mirroring the situation for generic rigidity, little is known combinatorially when $d\geq 3$. Nevertheless in the periodic case, a key result of Borcea and Streinu characterises when a quotient graph can be lifted to a rigid periodic framework in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We develop an analogous theory for symmetric frameworks in $\mathbb{R}^d$. The results obtained apply to all finite and infinite 2-dimensional point groups, and then in arbitrary dimension they concern a wide range of infinite point groups, sufficiently large finite groups and groups containing translations and rotations. For the case of finite groups we also derive results concerning the probability of assigning group labels to a quotient graph so that the resulting lift is symmetrically rigid in $\mathbb{R}^d$., Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures

Finding necessary conditions for the geometry of flexible polyhedra is a classical problem that has received attention also in recent times. For flexible polyhedra with triangular faces, we showed in a previous work the existence of cycles with a sign assignment for their edges, such that the signed sum of the edge lengths along the cycle is zero. In this work, we extend this result to flexible non-triangular polyhedra., Comment: 9 pages

We show that if a polyhedron in the three-dimensional affine space with triangular faces is flexible, i.e., can be continuously deformed preserving the shape of its faces, then there is a cycle of edges whose lengths sum up to zero once suitably weighted by 1 and -1. We do this via elementary combinatorial considerations, made possible by a well-known compactification of the three-dimensional affine space as a quadric in the four-dimensional projective space. The compactification is related to the Euclidean metric, and allows us to use a simple degeneration technique that reduces the problem to its one-dimensional analogue, which is trivial to solve.

A rectangle in the plane can be continuously deformed preserving its edge lengths, but adding a diagonal brace prevents such a deformation. Bolker and Crapo characterized combinatorially which choices of braces make a grid of squares infinitesimally rigid using a bracing graph: a bipartite graph whose vertices are the columns and rows of the grid, and a row and column are adjacent if and only if they meet at a braced square. Duarte and Francis generalized the notion of the bracing graph to rhombic carpets, proved that the connectivity of the bracing graph implies rigidity and stated the other implication without proof. Nagy Kem gives the equivalence in the infinitesimal setting. We consider continuous deformations of braced frameworks consisting of a graph from a more general class and its placement in the plane such that every 4-cycle forms a parallelogram. We show that rigidity of such a braced framework is equivalent to the non-existence of a special edge coloring, which is in turn equivalent to the corresponding bracing graph being connected., Comment: 20 pages, a supporting Jupyter notebook available on-line on https://jan.legersky.cz/bracingFrameworks

We re-prove the classification of flexible octahedra, obtained by Bricard at the beginning of the XX century, by means of combinatorial objects satisfying some elementary rules. The explanations of these rules rely on the use of a well-known creation of modern algebraic geometry, the moduli space of stable rational curves with marked points, for the description of configurations of graphs on the sphere. Once one accepts the objects and the rules, the classification becomes elementary (though not trivial) and can be enjoyed without the need of a very deep background on the topic., Comment: 40 pages, 23 figures. Animations of flexible octahedra available at https://jan.legersky.cz/project/bricard_octahedra/

In this paper we present the SageMath package FlexRiLoG (short for flexible and rigid labelings of graphs). Based on recent results the software generates motions of graphs using special edge colorings. The package computes and illustrates the colorings and the motions. We present the structure and usage of the package.

Edge lengths of a graph are called flexible if there exist infinitely many non-congruent realizations of the graph in the plane satisfying these edge lengths. It has been shown recently that a graph has flexible edge lengths if and only if the graph has a special type of edge coloring called NAC-coloring. We address the question how to determine all possible proper flexible edge lengths from the set of all NAC-colorings of a graph. We do so using restrictions to 4-cycle subgraphs.

We study the existence of an $n$-fold rotationally symmetric placement of a symmetric graph in the plane allowing a continuous deformation that preserves the symmetry and the distances between adjacent vertices. We show that such a flexible placement exists if and only if the graph has a NAC-colouring satisfying an additional property on the symmetry; a NAC-colouring is a surjective edge colouring by two colours such that every cycle is either monochromatic, or there are at least two edges of each colour.

A bar-joint framework $(G,p)$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is rigid if the only edge-length preserving continuous motions of the vertices arise from isometries of $\mathbb{R}^d$. It is known that, when $(G,p)$ is generic, its rigidity depends only on the underlying graph $G$, and is determined by the rank of the edge set of $G$ in the generic $d$-dimensional rigidity matroid $\mathcal{R}_d$. Complete combinatorial descriptions of the rank function of this matroid are known when $d=1,2$, and imply that all circuits in $\mathcal{R}_d$ are generically rigid in $\mathbb{R}^d$ when $d=1,2$. Determining the rank function of $\mathcal{R}_d$ is a long standing open problem when $d\geq 3$, and the existence of non-rigid circuits in $\mathcal{R}_d$ for $d\geq 3$ is a major contributing factor to why this problem is so difficult. We begin a study of non-rigid circuits by characterising the non-rigid circuits in $\mathcal{R}_d$ which have at most $d+6$ vertices., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Final version, with a short corrigendum appended to the end which gives counterexamples to Lemma 18(a) and Conjecture 17

We interpret realizations of a graph on the sphere up to rotations as elements of a moduli space of curves of genus zero. We focus on those graphs that admit an assignment of edge lengths on the sphere resulting in a flexible object. Our interpretation of realizations allows us to provide a combinatorial characterization of these graphs in terms of the existence of particular colorings of the edges. Moreover, we determine necessary relations for flexibility between the spherical lengths of the edges. We conclude by classifying all possible motions on the sphere of the complete bipartite graph with $3+3$ vertices where no two vertices coincide or are antipodal., Comment: 42 pages. This is the accepted version of the manuscript; the final version of this work is https://doi.org/10.1137/19M1289467

We present an algorithm that computes the number of realizations of a Laman graph on a sphere for a general choice of the angles between the vertices. The algorithm is based on the interpretation of such a realization as a point in the moduli space of stable curves of genus zero with marked points, and on the explicit description, due to Keel, of the Chow ring of this space., Comment: 15 pages

We consider realizations of a graph in the plane such that the distances between adjacent vertices satisfy the constraints given by an edge labeling. If there are infinitely many such realizations, counted modulo rigid motions, the labeling is called flexible. The existence of a flexible labeling, possibly non-generic, has been characterized combinatorially by the existence of a so called NAC-coloring. Nevertheless, the corresponding realizations are often non-injective. In this paper, we focus on flexible labelings with infinitely many injective realizations. We provide a necessary combinatorial condition on existence of such a labeling based also on NAC-colorings of the graph. By introducing new tools for the construction of such labelings, we show that the necessary condition is also sufficient up to 8 vertices, but this is not true in general for more vertices.

Computing the number of realizations of a minimally rigid graph is a notoriously difficult problem. Towards this goal, for graphs that are minimally rigid in the plane, we take advantage of a recently published algorithm, which is the fastest available method, although its complexity is still exponential. Combining computational results with the theory of constructing new rigid graphs by gluing, we give a new lower bound on the maximal possible number of (complex) realizations for graphs with a given number of vertices. We extend these ideas to rigid graphs in three dimensions and we derive similar lower bounds, by exploiting data from extensive Gr\"obner basis computations.

For a flexible labeling of a graph, it is possible to construct infinitely many non-equivalent realizations keeping the distances of connected points constant. We give a combinatorial characterization of graphs that have flexible labelings. The characterization is based on colorings of the edges with restrictions on the cycles. Furthermore, we give necessary criteria and sufficient ones for the existence of such colorings.

Laman graphs model planar frameworks which are rigid for a general choice of distances between the vertices. There are finitely many ways, up to isometries, to realize a Laman graph in the plane. In a recent paper we provide a recursion formula for this number of realizations using ideas from algebraic and tropical geometry. Here, we present a concise summary of this result focusing on the main ideas and the combinatorial point of view., Comment: Extended abstract; the long version is arxiv:1701.05500

Laman graphs model planar frameworks that are rigid for a general choice of distances between the vertices. There are finitely many ways, up to isometries, to realize a Laman graph in the plane. Such realizations can be seen as solutions of systems of quadratic equations prescribing the distances between pairs of points. Using ideas from algebraic and tropical geometry, we provide a recursive formula for the number of complex solutions of such systems., Comment: 36 pages