Cross-polytope

In geometry, a cross-polytope, orthoplex, hyperoctahedron, or cocube is a regular, convex polytope that exists in any number of dimensions. The vertices of a cross-polytope are all the permutations of (±1, 0, 0, …, 0). The cross-polytope is the convex hull of its vertices. Its facets are simplexes of the previous dimension, while the cross-polytope's vertex figure is another cross-polytope from the previous dimension.

The n-dimensional cross-polytope can also be defined as the closed unit ball (or, according to some authors, its boundary) in the ℓ₁-norm on Rⁿ:

$\{x\in\mathbb R^n : \|x\|_1 \le 1\}.$

In 1 dimension the cross-polytope is simply the line segment [−1, +1], in 2 dimensions it is a square (or diamond) with vertices {(±1, 0), (0, ±1)}. In 3 dimensions it is an octahedron—one of the five convex regular polyhedra known as the Platonic solids. Higher-dimensional cross-polytopes are generalizations of these.

2 dimensions square		3 dimensions octahedron		4 dimensions 16-cell

The cross-polytope is the dual polytope of the hypercube. The 1-skeleton of a n-dimensional cross-polytope is a Turán graph T(2n,n).

4 dimensions

The 4-dimensional cross-polytope also goes by the name hexadecachoron or 16-cell. It is one of six convex regular 4-polytopes. These polychora were first described by the Swiss mathematician Ludwig Schläfli in the mid-19th century.

Higher dimensions

The cross polytope family is one of three regular polytope families, labeled by Coxeter as β_n, the other two being the hypercube family, labeled as γ_n, and the simplices, labeled as α_n. A fourth family, the infinite tessellations of hypercubes, he labeled as δ_n.

The n-dimensional cross-polytope has 2n vertices, and 2ⁿ facets (n−1 dimensional components) all of which are n−1 simplices. The vertex figures are all n − 1 cross-polytopes. The Schläfli symbol of the cross-polytope is {3,3,…,3,4}.

The number of k-dimensional components (vertices, edges, faces, …, facets) in an n-dimensional cross-polytope is given by (see binomial coefficient):

$2^{k+1}{n \choose {k+1}}$

The volume of the n-dimensional cross-polytope is

$\frac{2^n}{n!}.$

There are many possible orthographic projections that can show the cross-polytopes as 2-dimensional graphs. Petrie polygon projections map the points into a regular 2n-gon or lower order regular polygons. A second projection takes the 2(n-1)-gon petrie polygon of the lower dimension, seen as a bipyramid, projected down the axis, with 2 vertices mapped into the center.

Cross-polytope elements

n	βn k11	Name(s) Graph	Graph 2n-gon	Graph 2(n-1)-gon	Schläfli	Coxeter-Dynkin diagrams	Vertices	Edges	Faces	Cells	4-faces	5-faces	6-faces	7-faces	8-faces	9-faces
1	β1	Line segment 1-orthoplex			{}		2
2	β2 −111	Bicross square 2-orthoplex			{4} {} x {}		4	4
3	β3 011	Tricross octahedron 3-orthoplex			{3,4} {30,1,1}		6	12	8
4	β4 111	Tetracross 16-cell 4-orthoplex			{3,3,4} {31,1,1}		8	24	32	16
5	β5 211	Pentacross 5-orthoplex			{33,4} {32,1,1}		10	40	80	80	32
6	β6 311	Hexacross 6-orthoplex			{34,4} {33,1,1}		12	60	160	240	192	64
7	β7 411	Heptacross 7-orthoplex			{35,4} {34,1,1}		14	84	280	560	672	448	128
8	β8 511	Octacross 8-orthoplex			{36,4} {35,1,1}		16	112	448	1120	1792	1792	1024	256
9	β9 611	Enneacross 9-orthoplex			{37,4} {36,1,1}		18	144	672	2016	4032	5376	4608	2304	512
10	β10 711	Decacross 10-orthoplex			{38,4} {37,1,1}		20	180	960	3360	8064	13440	15360	11520	5120	1024
...
n	βn k11	n-cross n-orthoplex			{3n − 2,4} {3n − 3,1,1}	... ...	2n 0-faces, ... $2^{k+1}{n\choose k+1}$ k-faces ..., 2n (n-1)-faces

The vertices of an axis-aligned cross polytope are all at equal distance from each other in the Manhattan distance (L¹ norm). Kusner's conjecture states that this set of 2d points is the largest possible equidistant set for this distance.

See also

• List of regular polytopes
• Hyperoctahedral group, the symmetry group of the cross-polytope

References

• Coxeter, H. S. M. (1973). Regular Polytopes (3rd ed. ed.). New York: Dover Publications. pp. 121–122. ISBN 0-486-61480-8.  p. 296, Table I (iii): Regular Polytopes, three regular polytopes in n-dimensions (n>=5)

External links

• Weisstein, Eric W., "Cross polytope" from MathWorld.
• Polytope Viewer (Click <polytopes...> to select cross polytope.)
• Olshevsky, George, Cross polytope at Glossary for Hyperspace.