Université De Provence

In 1970, E. M. Andreev published a classification of all three dimensional compact hyperbolic polyhedra having non-obtuse dihedral angles [3]. Given a combinatorial description of a polyhedron, C, Andreev’s Theorem provides five classes of linear inequalities, depending on C, for the dihedral angles, which are necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a hyperbolic polyhedron realizing C with the assigned dihedral angles. Andreev’s Theorem also shows that the resulting polyhedron is unique, up to hyperbolic isometry. Andreev’s Theorem is both an interesting statement about the geometry of hyperbolic 3 dimensional space, as well as a fundamental tool used in the proof for Thurston’s Hyperbolization Theorem for 3 dimensional Haken manifolds. It is also remarkable to what level the proof of Andreev’s Theorem resembles (in a simpler way) the proof of Thurston. ∼ Andreev’s Classification of Hyperbolic Polyhedra ∼ 5 We correct a fundamental error in Andreev’s proof of existence and also provide a readable new proof of the other parts of the proof of Andreev’s Theorem, because Andreev’s paper has the reputation of being “unreadable”. We also provide a classification of hyperbolic tetrahedra which is a special case that is not covered by Andreev’s Theorem, and effectively a different manner of result, because in this case the set of possible dihedral angles is non-convex, even in the case where these angles are non-obtuse. Disciplin: Mathématiques