Semiconfiguration Spaces of Planar Linkages
arXiv:math/9810130
Abstract
This paper characterizes which subsets of C^n can be the set of positions of n points on a linkage in the complex plane C. For example, assuming compactness they are just compact semialgebraic sets. Noncompact configuration spaces are semialgebraics sets invariant under the Euclidean group, with compact quotient.
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