Uniform polyhedron


A uniform polyhedron has regular polygons as faces and is vertex-transitive. It follows that all vertices are congruent.
Uniform polyhedra may be regular, quasi-regular, or semi-regular. The faces and vertices need not be convex, so many of the uniform polyhedra are also star polyhedra.
There are two infinite classes of uniform polyhedra, together with 75 others:
Hence 5 + 13 + 4 + 53 = 75.
There are also many degenerate uniform polyhedra with pairs of edges that coincide, including one found by John Skilling called the great disnub dirhombidodecahedron.
Dual polyhedra to uniform polyhedra are face-transitive and have regular vertex figures, and are generally classified in parallel with their dual polyhedron. The dual of a regular polyhedron is regular, while the dual of an Archimedean solid is a Catalan solid.
The concept of uniform polyhedron is a special case of the concept of uniform polytope, which also applies to shapes in higher-dimensional space.

Definition

define uniform polyhedra to be vertex-transitive polyhedra with regular faces. They define a polyhedron to be a finite set of polygons such that each side of a polygon is a side of just one other polygon, such that no non-empty proper subset of the polygons has the same property. By a polygon they implicitly mean a polygon in 3-dimensional Euclidean space; these are allowed to be non-convex and to intersect each other.
There are some generalizations of the concept of a uniform polyhedron. If the connectedness assumption is dropped, then we get uniform compounds, which can be split as a union of polyhedra, such as the compound of 5 cubes. If we drop the condition that the realization of the polyhedron is non-degenerate, then we get the so-called degenerate uniform polyhedra. These require a more general definition of polyhedra. gave a rather complicated definition of a polyhedron, while
gave a simpler and more general definition of a polyhedron: in their terminology, a polyhedron is a 2-dimensional abstract polytope with a non-degenerate 3-dimensional realization. Here an abstract polytope is a poset of its "faces" satisfying various condition, a realization is a function from its vertices to some space, and the realization is called non-degenerate if any two distinct faces of the abstract polytope have distinct realizations.
Some of the ways they can be degenerate are as follows:

Regular convex polyhedra

The 57 nonprismatic nonconvex forms, with exception of the great dirhombicosidodecahedron, are compiled by Wythoff constructions within Schwarz triangles.

Convex forms by Wythoff construction

The convex uniform polyhedra can be named by Wythoff construction operations on the regular form.
In more detail the convex uniform polyhedron are given below by their Wythoff construction within each symmetry group.
Within the Wythoff construction, there are repetitions created by lower symmetry forms. The cube is a regular polyhedron, and a square prism. The octahedron is a regular polyhedron, and a triangular antiprism. The octahedron is also a rectified tetrahedron. Many polyhedra are repeated from different construction sources, and are colored differently.
The Wythoff construction applies equally to uniform polyhedra and uniform tilings on the surface of a sphere, so images of both are given. The spherical tilings including the set of hosohedrons and dihedrons which are degenerate polyhedra.
These symmetry groups are formed from the reflectional point groups in three dimensions, each represented by a fundamental triangle, where p > 1, q > 1, r > 1 and.
The remaining nonreflective forms are constructed by alternation operations applied to the polyhedra with an even number of sides.
Along with the prisms and their dihedral symmetry, the spherical Wythoff construction process adds two regular classes which become degenerate as polyhedra : the dihedra and the hosohedra, the first having only two faces, and the second only two vertices. The truncation of the regular hosohedra creates the prisms.
Below the convex uniform polyhedra are indexed 1–18 for the nonprismatic forms as they are presented in the tables by symmetry form.
For the infinite set of prismatic forms, they are indexed in four families:
  1. Hosohedra H2...
  2. Dihedra D2...
  3. Prisms P3...
  4. Antiprisms A3...

    Summary tables

Johnson nameParentTruncatedRectifiedBitruncated
Birectified
CantellatedOmnitruncated
Snub
Coxeter diagram



Extended
Schläfli symbol
Extended
Schläfli symbol		tr2t2rrrtrsr
Extended
Schläfli symbol		t0t0,1t1t1,2t2t0,2t0,1,2ht0,1,2
Wythoff symbol
q | p 22 q | p2 | p q2 p | qp | q 2p q | 2p q 2 || p q 2
Vertex figurepqq.2p.2p2p.2q.2qqpp.4.q.44.2p.2q3.3.p.3.q
Tetrahedral

3.3.3
3.6.6
3.3.3.3
3.6.6
3.3.3
3.4.3.4
4.6.6
3.3.3.3.3
Octahedral

4.4.4
3.8.8
3.4.3.4
4.6.6
3.3.3.3
3.4.4.4
4.6.8
3.3.3.3.4
Icosahedral

5.5.5
3.10.10
3.5.3.5
5.6.6
3.3.3.3.3
3.4.5.4
4.6.10
3.3.3.3.5

And a sampling of dihedral symmetries:

ParentTruncatedRectifiedBitruncated
Birectified
CantellatedOmnitruncated
Snub
Coxeter diagram
Extended
Schläfli symbol
Extended
Schläfli symbol		tr2t2rrrtrsr
Extended
Schläfli symbol		t0t0,1t1t1,2t2t0,2t0,1,2ht0,1,2
Wythoff symbol2 | p 22 2 | p2 | p 22 p | 2p | 2 2p 2 | 2p 2 2 || p 2 2
Vertex figurep22.2p.2pp.2.p.2p.4.42pp.4.2.44.2p.43.3.3.p
Dihedral

Dihedron|
2.4.4
2.2.2.2
4.4.2
2.2
2.4.2.4
4.4.4
3.3.3.2
Dihedral

3.3
2.6.6
2.3.2.3
4.4.3
2.2.2
2.4.3.4
4.4.6
3.3.3.3
Dihedral

4.4		2.8.8
2.4.2.4
4.4.4
2.2.2.2
2.4.4.4
4.4.8
3.3.3.4
Dihedral

5.5		2.10.10
2.5.2.5
4.4.5
2.2.2.2.2
2.4.5.4
4.4.10
3.3.3.5
Dihedral

6.6
2.12.12
2.6.2.6
4.4.6
2.2.2.2.2.2
2.4.6.4
4.4.12
3.3.3.6

(3 3 2) Td tetrahedral symmetry

The tetrahedral symmetry of the sphere generates 5 uniform polyhedra, and a 6th form by a snub operation.
The tetrahedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle with one vertex with two mirrors, and two vertices with three mirrors, represented by the symbol. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group A2 or , as well as a Coxeter diagram:.
There are 24 triangles, visible in the faces of the tetrakis hexahedron, and in the alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(4 3 2) Oh octahedral symmetry

The octahedral symmetry of the sphere generates 7 uniform polyhedra, and a 7 more by alternation. Six of these forms are repeated from the tetrahedral symmetry table above.
The octahedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle counting the mirrors at each vertex. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group B2 or , as well as a Coxeter diagram:.
There are 48 triangles, visible in the faces of the disdyakis dodecahedron, and in the alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(5 3 2) Ih icosahedral symmetry

The icosahedral symmetry of the sphere generates 7 uniform polyhedra, and a 1 more by alternation. Only one is repeated from the tetrahedral and octahedral symmetry table above.
The icosahedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle counting the mirrors at each vertex. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group G2 or , as well as a Coxeter diagram:.
There are 120 triangles, visible in the faces of the disdyakis triacontahedron, and in the alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(p 2 2) Prismatic p,2, I2(p) family (D''p''h dihedral symmetry)

The dihedral symmetry of the sphere generates two infinite sets of uniform polyhedra, prisms and antiprisms, and two more infinite set of degenerate polyhedra, the hosohedra and dihedra which exist as tilings on the sphere.
The dihedral symmetry is represented by a fundamental triangle counting the mirrors at each vertex. It can also be represented by the Coxeter group I2 or , as well as a prismatic Coxeter diagram:.
Below are the first five dihedral symmetries: D2... D6. The dihedral symmetry Dp has order 4n, represented the faces of a bipyramid, and on the sphere as an equator line on the longitude, and n equally-spaced lines of longitude.

(2 2 2) Dihedral symmetry

There are 8 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the square bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(3 2 2) D3h dihedral symmetry

There are 12 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the hexagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(4 2 2) D4h dihedral symmetry

There are 16 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the octagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(5 2 2) D5h dihedral symmetry

There are 20 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the decagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere:

(6 2 2) D6h dihedral symmetry

There are 24 fundamental triangles, visible in the faces of the dodecagonal bipyramid and alternately colored triangles on a sphere.

Wythoff construction operators

OperationSymbolCoxeter
diagram		Description
Snub rectified srThe alternated cantitruncated. All the original faces end up with half as many sides, and the squares degenerate into edges. Since the omnitruncated forms have 3 faces/vertex, new triangles are formed. Usually these alternated faceting forms are slightly deformed thereafter in order to end again as uniform polyhedra. The possibility of the latter variation depends on the degree of freedom.
Snub sAlternated truncation
Cantic snub s2
Alternated cantellation hrrOnly possible in uniform tilings, alternation of
For example,
Half hAlternation of, same as
Cantic h2Same as
Half rectified hrOnly possible in uniform tilings, alternation of, same as or
For example, = or
Quarter qOnly possible in uniform tilings, same as
For example, = or