Immersed spheres made of regular pentagons
Let $M$ be a closed polyhedral surface homeomorphic to the sphere $S^2$ whose faces are all congruent regular pentagons, and suppose that $M$ is immersed in $\mathbb{R}^3$.
For surfaces made of congruent squares, the corresponding question has a positive answer. The Kepler–Poinsot great dodecahedron is an immersed surface with regular pentagonal faces, but it is not a sphere: its Euler characteristic $V - E + F$ is $-6$. Kenyon's question is also of interest for surfaces embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$.
Problem. Must $M$ be the boundary of a solid obtained by gluing solid dodecahedra together along common faces?
Source: Kenyon (2006), re-posed at Oberwolfach (2009); Problem 72 of The Open Problems Project (Demaine, Mitchell and O'Rourke).
Imported from topp.openproblem.net.
Classification
- Primary
- MG — Metric Geometry
- Secondary
- GT
- Keywords
- dodecahedra, polyhedral surface, regular pentagons, The Open Problems Project
Citing this problem
This identifier is permanent. It will not change if the problem is solved, reclassified or withdrawn.
OP-01105, "Immersed spheres made of regular pentagons", clopen.solutions.