Simon Lepkin (Binghamton)

Solid Angles

Abstract for the Combinatorics Seminar 2011 March 6

Solid angles are a generalization into higher dimensions of the 2-dimensional angles we know and love. When we add up the solid angles subtended by a polytope P at each (1/t)-fractional lattice point in P, we get a useful measure of P called the solid angle sum. This sum has a number of nice properties, one of which easily implies Pick's Theorem about polygons!