Rigidity with few locations

Abstract

Graphs triangulating the $2$-sphere are generically rigid in $3$-space, due to Gluck-Dehn-Alexandrov-Cauchy. We show there is a \emph{finite} subset $A$ in $3$-space so that the vertices of each graph $G$ as above can be mapped into $A$ to make the resulted embedding of $G$ infinitesimally rigid. This assertion extends to the triangulations of any fixed compact connected surface, where the upper bound obtained on the size of $A$ increases with the genus. The assertion fails, namely no such finite $A$ exists, for the larger family of all graphs that are generically rigid in $3$-space and even in the plane.

11 pages, to appear in Isr. J. Math