Graphs of three regular and five Uniform 6-polytopes

6-simplex

6-orthoplex, 311

6-cube (Hexeract)

221

Expanded 6-simplex

Rectified 6-orthoplex

6-demicube 131
(Demihexeract)

122

In six-dimensional geometry, a six-dimensional polytope or 6-polytope is a polytope, bounded by 5-polytope facets.

Definition

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A 6-polytope is a closed six-dimensional figure with vertices, edges, faces, cells (3-faces), 4-faces, and 5-faces. A vertex is a point where six or more edges meet. An edge is a line segment where four or more faces meet, and a face is a polygon where three or more cells meet. A cell is a polyhedron. A 4-face is a polychoron, and a 5-face is a 5-polytope. Furthermore, the following requirements must be met:

  • Each 4-face must join exactly two 5-faces (facets).
  • Adjacent facets are not in the same five-dimensional hyperplane.
  • The figure is not a compound of other figures which meet the requirements.

Characteristics

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The topology of any given 6-polytope is defined by its Betti numbers and torsion coefficients.[1]

The value of the Euler characteristic used to characterise polyhedra does not generalize usefully to higher dimensions, and is zero for all 6-polytopes, whatever their underlying topology. This inadequacy of the Euler characteristic to reliably distinguish between different topologies in higher dimensions led to the discovery of the more sophisticated Betti numbers.[1]

Similarly, the notion of orientability of a polyhedron is insufficient to characterise the surface twistings of toroidal polytopes, and this led to the use of torsion coefficients.[1]

Classification

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6-polytopes may be classified by properties like "convexity" and "symmetry".

  • A 6-polytope is convex if its boundary (including its 5-faces, 4-faces, cells, faces and edges) does not intersect itself and the line segment joining any two points of the 6-polytope is contained in the 6-polytope or its interior; otherwise, it is non-convex. Self-intersecting 6-polytope are also known as star 6-polytopes, from analogy with the star-like shapes of the non-convex Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra.
  • A regular 6-polytope has all identical regular 5-polytope facets. All regular 6-polytope are convex.
  • A prismatic 6-polytope is constructed by the Cartesian product of two lower-dimensional polytopes. A prismatic 6-polytope is uniform if its factors are uniform. The 6-cube is prismatic (product of a squares and a cube), but is considered separately because it has symmetries other than those inherited from its factors.
  • A 5-space tessellation is the division of five-dimensional Euclidean space into a regular grid of 5-polytope facets. Strictly speaking, tessellations are not 6-polytopes as they do not bound a "6D" volume, but we include them here for the sake of completeness because they are similar in many ways to 6-polytope. A uniform 5-space tessellation is one whose vertices are related by a space group and whose facets are uniform 5-polytopes.

Regular 6-polytopes

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Regular 6-polytopes can be generated from Coxeter groups represented by the Schläfli symbol {p,q,r,s,t} with t {p,q,r,s} 5-polytope facets around each cell.

There are only three such convex regular 6-polytopes:

There are no nonconvex regular polytopes of 5 or more dimensions.

For the three convex regular 6-polytopes, their elements are:

Name Schläfli
symbol
Coxeter
diagram
Vertices Edges Faces Cells 4-faces 5-faces Symmetry (order)
6-simplex {3,3,3,3,3}             7 21 35 35 21 7 A6 (720)
6-orthoplex {3,3,3,3,4}             12 60 160 240 192 64 B6 (46080)
6-cube {4,3,3,3,3}             64 192 240 160 60 12 B6 (46080)

Uniform 6-polytopes

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Here are six simple uniform convex 6-polytopes, including the 6-orthoplex repeated with its alternate construction.

Name Schläfli
symbol(s)
Coxeter
diagram(s)
Vertices Edges Faces Cells 4-faces 5-faces Symmetry (order)
Expanded 6-simplex t0,5{3,3,3,3,3}             42 210 490 630 434 126 2×A6 (1440)
6-orthoplex, 311
(alternate construction)
{3,3,3,31,1}           12 60 160 240 192 64 D6 (23040)
6-demicube {3,33,1}
h{4,3,3,3,3}
         
           
32 240 640 640 252 44 D6 (23040)
½B6
Rectified 6-orthoplex t1{3,3,3,3,4}
t1{3,3,3,31,1}
           
         
60 480 1120 1200 576 76 B6 (46080)
2×D6
221 polytope {3,3,32,1}           27 216 720 1080 648 99 E6 (51840)
122 polytope {3,32,2}          
or        
72 720 2160 2160 702 54 2×E6 (103680)

The expanded 6-simplex is the vertex figure of the uniform 6-simplex honeycomb,        . The 6-demicube honeycomb,          , vertex figure is a rectified 6-orthoplex and facets are the 6-orthoplex and 6-demicube. The uniform 222 honeycomb,         , has 122 polytope is the vertex figure and 221 facets.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Richeson, D.; Euler's Gem: The Polyhedron Formula and the Birth of Topoplogy, Princeton, 2008.
  • T. Gosset: On the Regular and Semi-Regular Figures in Space of n Dimensions, Messenger of Mathematics, Macmillan, 1900
  • A. Boole Stott: Geometrical deduction of semiregular from regular polytopes and space fillings, Verhandelingen of the Koninklijke academy van Wetenschappen width unit Amsterdam, Eerste Sectie 11,1, Amsterdam, 1910
  • H.S.M. Coxeter:
    • H.S.M. Coxeter, M.S. Longuet-Higgins und J.C.P. Miller: Uniform Polyhedra, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Londne, 1954
    • H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular Polytopes, 3rd Edition, Dover New York, 1973
  • Kaleidoscopes: Selected Writings of H.S.M. Coxeter, edited by F. Arthur Sherk, Peter McMullen, Anthony C. Thompson, Asia Ivic Weiss, Wiley-Interscience Publication, 1995, ISBN 978-0-471-01003-6 [1]
    • (Paper 22) H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular and Semi Regular Polytopes I, [Math. Zeit. 46 (1940) 380-407, MR 2,10]
    • (Paper 23) H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular and Semi-Regular Polytopes II, [Math. Zeit. 188 (1985) 559-591]
    • (Paper 24) H.S.M. Coxeter, Regular and Semi-Regular Polytopes III, [Math. Zeit. 200 (1988) 3-45]
  • N.W. Johnson: The Theory of Uniform Polytopes and Honeycombs, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Toronto, 1966
  • Klitzing, Richard. "6D uniform polytopes (polypeta)".
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Family An Bn I2(p) / Dn E6 / E7 / E8 / F4 / G2 Hn
Regular polygon Triangle Square p-gon Hexagon Pentagon
Uniform polyhedron Tetrahedron OctahedronCube Demicube DodecahedronIcosahedron
Uniform polychoron Pentachoron 16-cellTesseract Demitesseract 24-cell 120-cell600-cell
Uniform 5-polytope 5-simplex 5-orthoplex5-cube 5-demicube
Uniform 6-polytope 6-simplex 6-orthoplex6-cube 6-demicube 122221
Uniform 7-polytope 7-simplex 7-orthoplex7-cube 7-demicube 132231321
Uniform 8-polytope 8-simplex 8-orthoplex8-cube 8-demicube 142241421
Uniform 9-polytope 9-simplex 9-orthoplex9-cube 9-demicube
Uniform 10-polytope 10-simplex 10-orthoplex10-cube 10-demicube
Uniform n-polytope n-simplex n-orthoplexn-cube n-demicube 1k22k1k21 n-pentagonal polytope
Topics: Polytope familiesRegular polytopeList of regular polytopes and compounds