Symmetry in Regular Polyhedra Seen as 2D Möbius Transformations: Geodesic and Panel Domes Arising from 2D Diagrams

Abstract

This paper shows a methodology for reducing the complex design process of space structures to an adequate selection of points lying on a plane. This procedure can be directly implemented in a bi-dimensional plane when we substitute (i) Euclidean geometry by bi-dimensional projection of the elliptic geometry and (ii) rotations/symmetries on the sphere by Möbius transformations on the plane. These graphs can be obtained by sites, specific points obtained by homological transformations in the inversive plane, following the analogous procedure defined previously in the three-dimensional space. From the sites, it is possible to obtain different partitions of the plane, namely, power diagrams, Voronoi diagrams, or Delaunay triangulations. The first would generate geo-tangent structures on the sphere; the second, panel structures; and the third, lattice structures.

Keywords

• symmetry
• polyhedra
• space structures
• stereographic projection
• Möbius transformations