Circumcenter of Mass and generalized Euler line

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Circumcenter of Mass (CCM), a new affine-invariant center for polygons and polytopes, extending classical concepts like the Euler line, with applications in discrete dynamical systems and geometry.

Contribution

It defines the CCM for polygons and polytopes, explores its properties, and extends the concept to spherical and hyperbolic geometries, also generalizing the Euler line.

Findings

CCM coincides with the circumcenter for inscribed polytopes.

CCM satisfies an analog of Archimedes' Lemma.

The generalized Euler line includes all centers satisfying natural geometric conditions.

Abstract

We define and study a variant of the center of mass of a polygon and, more generally, of a simplicial polytope which we call the Circumcenter of Mass (CCM). The Circumcenter of Mass is an affine combination of the circumcenters of the simplices in a triangulation of a polytope, weighted by their volumes. For an inscribed polytope, CCM coincides with the circumcenter. Our motivation comes from the study of completely integrable discrete dynamical systems, where the CCM is an invariant of the discrete bicycle (Darboux) transformation and of recuttings of polygons. We show that the CCM satisfies an analog of Archimedes' Lemma, a familiar property of the center of mass. We define and study a generalized Euler line associated to any simplicial polytope, extending the previously studied Euler line associated to the quadrilateral. We show that the generalized Euler line for polygons consists of all centers satisfying natural continuity and homogeneity assumptions and Archimedes' Lemma. Finally, we show that CCM can also be defined in the spherical and hyperbolic settings.