Regular $3$-polytopes of order $2^np$

TL;DR

This paper characterizes regular 3-polytopes of order $2^np$, establishing conditions on their Schl"afli types and providing constructions for specific cases, advancing the classification of such polytopes with orders involving powers of two and an odd prime.

Contribution

It proves divisibility conditions on Schl"afli types for regular 3-polytopes of order $2^np$ and constructs examples for various types and orders, extending the understanding of their structure.

Findings

Schl"afli type components are divisible by prime p

Existence of regular 3-polytopes with specific types and orders

Construction methods for polytopes with orders involving powers of two and odd primes

Abstract

In [Problems on polytopes, their groups, and realizations, Periodica Math. Hungarica 53 (2006) 231-255] Schulte and Weiss proposed the following problem: {\em Characterize regular polytopes of orders $2^np$ for $n$ a positive integer and $p$ an odd prime}. In this paper, we first prove that if a $3$-polytope of order $2^np$ has Schl\"afli type $\{k_1, k_2\}$, then $p \mid k_1$ or $p \mid k_2$. This leads to two classes, up to duality, for the Schl\"afli type, namely Type (1) where $k_1=2^sp$ and $k_2=2^t$ and Type (2) where $k_1=2^sp$ and $k_2=2^tp$. We then show that there exists a regular $3$-polytope of order $2^np$ with Type (1) when $s\geq 2$, $t\geq 2$ and $n\geq s+t+1$ coming from a general construction of regular $3$-polytopes of order $2^n\ell_1\ell_2$ with Schl\"afli type $\{2^s\ell_1,2^t\ell_2\}$ where both $\ell_1$ and $\ell_2$ are odd. Furthermore, for $p=3$ and $n \geq 7$, we show that there exists a regular 3-polytope of order $3\cdot2^n$ with type $\{6,2^s\}$ if and only if $2\leq s \leq n-2$ and $s \neq n-3$. For Type (2), we prove that there exists a regular $3$-polytope of order $2^n\cdot 3$ with Schl\"afli type $\{6, 6\}$ when $n \ge 5$ coming from a general construction of regular $3$-polytopes of Schl\"afli type $\{6,6\}$ with orders $192m^3$, $384m^3$ or $768m^3$, for any positive integer $m$.