The manifold of polygons degenerated to segments

Abstract

In this paper we study the space $\mathbb{L}(n)$ of $n$-gons in the plane degenerated to segments. We prove that this space is a smooth real submanifold of ${\mathbb{C}}^n$, and describe its topology in terms of the manifold $\mathbb{M}(n)$ of $n$-gons degenerated to segments and with the first vertex at 0. We show that $\mathbb{M}(n)$ and $\mathbb{L}(n)$ contain straight lines that form a basis of directions in each one of their tangent spaces, and we compute the geodesic equations in these manifolds. Finally, the quotient of $\mathbb{L}(n)$ by the diagonal action of the affine complex group and the re-enumeration of the vertices is described.

17 pages, 1 figure