Deformations of associahedra and visibility graphs

Given an arbitrary polygon P with holes, we construct a polytopal complex analogous to the associahedron based on convex diagonalizations of P . This polytopal complex is shown to be contractible, and a geometric realization is provided based on the theory of secondary polytopes. We then reformulate a combinatorial deformation theory and present an open problem based on visibility which is a close cousin to the Carpenter’s Rule theorem of computational geometry.