In mathematics, a regular 4-polytope or regular polychoron is a regular four-dimensional polytope. They are the four-dimensional analogues of the regular polyhedra in three dimensions and the regular polygons in two dimensions.

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The tesseract is one of 6 convex regular 4-polytopes

There are six convex and ten star regular 4-polytopes, giving a total of sixteen.

History

The convex regular 4-polytopes were first described by the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli in the mid-19th century.[1] He discovered that there are precisely six such figures.

Schläfli also found four of the regular star 4-polytopes: the grand 120-cell, great stellated 120-cell, grand 600-cell, and great grand stellated 120-cell. He skipped the remaining six because he would not allow forms that failed the Euler characteristic on cells or vertex figures (for zero-hole tori: F  E + V = 2). That excludes cells and vertex figures such as the great dodecahedron {5,5/2} and small stellated dodecahedron {5/2,5}.

Edmund Hess (18431903) 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.

Construction

The existence of a regular 4-polytope is constrained by the existence of the regular polyhedra which form its cells and a dihedral angle constraint

to ensure that the cells meet to form a closed 3-surface.

The six convex and ten star polytopes described are the only solutions to these constraints.

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}.

Regular convex 4-polytopes

The regular convex 4-polytopes are the four-dimensional analogues of the Platonic solids in three dimensions and the convex regular polygons in two dimensions.

Each convex regular 4-polytope is bounded by a set of 3-dimensional cells which are all Platonic solids of the same type and size. These are fitted together along their respective faces (face-to-face) in a regular fashion, forming the surface of the 4-polytope which is a closed, curved 3-dimensional space (analogous to the way the surface of the earth is a closed, curved 2-dimensional space).

Properties

Like their 3-dimensional analogues, the convex regular 4-polytopes can be naturally ordered by size as a measure of 4-dimensional content (hypervolume) for the same radius. Each greater polytope in the sequence is rounder than its predecessor, enclosing more content within the same radius.[2] The 4-simplex (5-cell) has the smallest content, and the 120-cell has the largest.

More information , ...
Regular convex 4-polytopes
Symmetry group A4 B4 F4 H4
Name 5-cell

Hyper-tetrahedron
5-point

16-cell

Hyper-octahedron
8-point

8-cell

Hyper-cube
16-point

24-cell


24-point

600-cell

Hyper-icosahedron
120-point

120-cell

Hyper-dodecahedron
600-point

Schläfli symbol {3, 3, 3} {3, 3, 4} {4, 3, 3} {3, 4, 3} {3, 3, 5} {5, 3, 3}
Coxeter mirrors
Mirror dihedrals 𝝅/3 𝝅/3 𝝅/3 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/3 𝝅/3 𝝅/4 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/4 𝝅/3 𝝅/3 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/3 𝝅/4 𝝅/3 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/3 𝝅/3 𝝅/5 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/5 𝝅/3 𝝅/3 𝝅/2 𝝅/2 𝝅/2
Graph Thumb Thumb Thumb Thumb Thumb Thumb
Vertices 5 tetrahedral 8 octahedral 16 tetrahedral 24 cubical 120 icosahedral 600 tetrahedral
Edges 10 triangular 24 square 32 triangular 96 triangular 720 pentagonal 1200 triangular
Faces 10 triangles 32 triangles 24 squares 96 triangles 1200 triangles 720 pentagons
Cells 5 tetrahedra 16 tetrahedra 8 cubes 24 octahedra 600 tetrahedra 120 dodecahedra
Tori 1 5-tetrahedron 2 8-tetrahedron 2 4-cube 4 6-octahedron 20 30-tetrahedron 12 10-dodecahedron
Inscribed 120 in 120-cell 675 in 120-cell 2 16-cells 3 8-cells 25 24-cells 10 600-cells
Great polygons 2 squares x 3 4 rectangles x 4 4 hexagons x 4 12 decagons x 6 100 irregular hexagons x 4
Petrie polygons 1 pentagon x 2 1 octagon x 3 2 octagons x 4 2 dodecagons x 4 4 30-gons x 6 20 30-gons x 4
Long radius
Edge length
Short radius
Area
Volume
4-Content
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The following table lists some properties of the six convex regular 4-polytopes. The symmetry groups of these 4-polytopes are all Coxeter groups and given in the notation described in that article. The number following the name of the group is the order of the group.

More information Names, Image ...
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John Conway advocated the names simplex, orthoplex, tesseract, octaplex or polyoctahedron (pO), tetraplex or polytetrahedron (pT), and dodecaplex or polydodecahedron (pD).[3]

Norman Johnson advocated the names n-cell, or pentachoron, hexadecachoron, tesseract or octachoron, icositetrachoron, hexacosichoron, and hecatonicosachoron (or dodecacontachoron), coining the term polychoron being a 4D analogy to the 3D polyhedron, and 2D polygon, expressed from the Greek roots poly ("many") and choros ("room" or "space").[4][5]

The Euler characteristic for all 4-polytopes is zero, we have the 4-dimensional analogue of Euler's polyhedral formula:

where Nk denotes the number of k-faces in the polytope (a vertex is a 0-face, an edge is a 1-face, etc.).

The topology of any given 4-polytope is defined by its Betti numbers and torsion coefficients.[6]

As configurations

A regular 4-polytope can be completely described as a configuration matrix containing counts of its component elements. The rows and columns correspond to vertices, edges, faces, and cells. The diagonal numbers (upper left to lower right) say how many of each element occur in the whole 4-polytope. The non-diagonal numbers say how many of the column's element occur in or at the row's element. For example, there are 2 vertices in each edge (each edge has 2 vertices), and 2 cells meet at each face (each face belongs to 2 cells), in any regular 4-polytope. The configuration for the dual polytope can be obtained by rotating the matrix by 180 degrees.[7][8]

More information , ...
5-cell
{3,3,3}
16-cell
{3,3,4}
8-cell
{4,3,3}
24-cell
{3,4,3}
600-cell
{3,3,5}
120-cell
{5,3,3}
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Visualization

The following table shows some 2-dimensional projections of these 4-polytopes. Various other visualizations can be found in the external links below. The Coxeter-Dynkin diagram graphs are also given below the Schläfli symbol.

More information A4 = [3,3,3], B4 = [4,3,3] ...
A4 = [3,3,3]B4 = [4,3,3]F4 = [3,4,3]H4 = [5,3,3]
5-cell16-cell8-cell24-cell600-cell120-cell
{3,3,3}{3,3,4}{4,3,3}{3,4,3}{3,3,5}{5,3,3}
Solid 3D orthographic projections
Thumb
Tetrahedral
envelope

(cell/vertex-centered)
Thumb
Cubic envelope
(cell-centered)
Thumb
Cubic envelope
(cell-centered)
Thumb
Cuboctahedral
envelope

(cell-centered)
Thumb
Pentakis icosidodecahedral
envelope

(vertex-centered)
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Truncated rhombic
triacontahedron
envelope

(cell-centered)
Wireframe Schlegel diagrams (Perspective projection)
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Cell-centered
Thumb
Cell-centered
Thumb
Cell-centered
Thumb
Cell-centered
Thumb
Vertex-centered
Thumb
Cell-centered
Wireframe stereographic projections (3-sphere)
Thumb Thumb Thumb Thumb Thumb Thumb
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Regular star (Schläfli–Hess) 4-polytopes

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This shows the relationships among the four-dimensional starry polytopes. The 2 convex forms and 10 starry forms can be seen in 3D as the vertices of a cuboctahedron.[9]
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A subset of relations among 8 forms from the 120-cell, polydodecahedron (pD). The three operations {a,g,s} are commutable, defining a cubic framework. There are 7 densities seen in vertical positioning, with 2 dual forms having the same density.

The SchläfliHess 4-polytopes are the complete set of 10 regular self-intersecting star polychora (four-dimensional polytopes).[10] They are named in honor of their discoverers: Ludwig Schläfli and Edmund Hess. Each is represented by a Schläfli symbol {p,q,r} in which one of the numbers is 5/2. They are thus analogous to the regular nonconvex KeplerPoinsot polyhedra, which are in turn analogous to the pentagram.

Names

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

  1. stellation – replaces edges with longer edges in same lines. (Example: a pentagon stellates into a pentagram)
  2. greatening – replaces the faces with large ones in same planes. (Example: an icosahedron greatens into a great icosahedron)
  3. aggrandizement – replaces the cells with large ones in same 3-spaces. (Example: a 600-cell aggrandizes into a grand 600-cell)

John Conway names the 10 forms from 3 regular celled 4-polytopes: pT=polytetrahedron {3,3,5} (a tetrahedral 600-cell), pI=polyicosahedron {3,5,5/2} (an icosahedral 120-cell), and pD=polydodecahedron {5,3,3} (a dodecahedral 120-cell), with prefix modifiers: g, a, and s for great, (ag)grand, and stellated. The final stellation, the great grand stellated polydodecahedron contains them all as gaspD.

Symmetry

All ten polychora have [3,3,5] (H4) hexacosichoric symmetry. They are generated from 6 related Goursat tetrahedra rational-order symmetry groups: [3,5,5/2], [5,5/2,5], [5,3,5/2], [5/2,5,5/2], [5,5/2,3], and [3,3,5/2].

Each group has 2 regular star-polychora, except for two groups which are self-dual, having only one. So there are 4 dual-pairs and 2 self-dual forms among the ten regular star polychora.

Properties

Note:

The cells (polyhedra), their faces (polygons), the polygonal edge figures and polyhedral vertex figures are identified by their Schläfli symbols.

More information Name Conway (abbrev.), Orthogonal projection ...
Name
Conway (abbrev.)
Orthogonal
projection
Schläfli
Coxeter
C
{p, q}
F
{p}
E
{r}
V
{q, r}
Dens. χ
Icosahedral 120-cell
polyicosahedron (pI)
Thumb {3,5,5/2}
120
{3,5}
1200
{3}
720
{5/2}
120
{5,5/2}
4 480
Small stellated 120-cell
stellated polydodecahedron (spD)
Thumb {5/2,5,3}
120
{5/2,5}
720
{5/2}
1200
{3}
120
{5,3}
4 480
Great 120-cell
great polydodecahedron (gpD)
Thumb {5,5/2,5}
120
{5,5/2}
720
{5}
720
{5}
120
{5/2,5}
6 0
Grand 120-cell
grand polydodecahedron (apD)
Thumb {5,3,5/2}
120
{5,3}
720
{5}
720
{5/2}
120
{3,5/2}
20 0
Great stellated 120-cell
great stellated polydodecahedron (gspD)
Thumb {5/2,3,5}
120
{5/2,3}
720
{5/2}
720
{5}
120
{3,5}
20 0
Grand stellated 120-cell
grand stellated polydodecahedron (aspD)
Thumb {5/2,5,5/2}
120
{5/2,5}
720
{5/2}
720
{5/2}
120
{5,5/2}
66 0
Great grand 120-cell
great grand polydodecahedron (gapD)
Thumb {5,5/2,3}
120
{5,5/2}
720
{5}
1200
{3}
120
{5/2,3}
76 480
Great icosahedral 120-cell
great polyicosahedron (gpI)
Thumb {3,5/2,5}
120
{3,5/2}
1200
{3}
720
{5}
120
{5/2,5}
76 480
Grand 600-cell
grand polytetrahedron (apT)
Thumb {3,3,5/2}
600
{3,3}
1200
{3}
720
{5/2}
120
{3,5/2}
191 0
Great grand stellated 120-cell
great grand stellated polydodecahedron (gaspD)
Thumb {5/2,3,3}
120
{5/2,3}
720
{5/2}
1200
{3}
600
{3,3}
191 0
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See also

Notes

    References

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