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Cubic honeycomb

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Cubic honeycomb

The cubic honeycomb or cubic cellulation is the only regular space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space, made up of cubic cells. It has 4 cubes around every edge, and 8 cubes around each vertex. Its vertex figure is a regular octahedron. It is a self-dual tessellation with Schläfli symbol {4,3,4}. John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a cubille.

Contents

A geometric honeycomb is a space-filling of polyhedral or higher-dimensional cells, so that there are no gaps. It is an example of the more general mathematical tiling or tessellation in any number of dimensions.

Honeycombs are usually constructed in ordinary Euclidean ("flat") space, like the convex uniform honeycombs. They may also be constructed in non-Euclidean spaces, such as hyperbolic uniform honeycombs. Any finite uniform polytope can be projected to its circumsphere to form a uniform honeycomb in spherical space.

Cartesian coordinates

The Cartesian coordinates of the vertices are:

for all integral values: i,j,k, with edges parallel to the axes and with an edge length of 1.

It is part of a multidimensional family of hypercube honeycombs, with Schläfli symbols of the form {4,3,...,3,4}, starting with the square tiling, {4,4} in the plane.

It is one of 28 uniform honeycombs using convex uniform polyhedral cells.

Isometries of simple cubic lattices

Simple cubic lattices can be distorted into lower symmetries, represented by lower crystal systems:

Uniform colorings

There is a large number of uniform colorings, derived from different symmetries. These include:

It is related to the regular 4-polytope tesseract, Schläfli symbol {4,3,3}, which exists in 4-space, and only has 3 cubes around each edge. It's also related to the order-5 cubic honeycomb, Schläfli symbol {4,3,5}, of hyperbolic space with 5 cubes around each edge.

It is in a sequence of polychora and honeycomb with octahedral vertex figures.

It in a sequence of regular polytopes and honeycombs with cubic cells.

The [4,3,4], , Coxeter group generates 15 permutations of uniform tessellations, 9 with distinct geometry including the alternated cubic honeycomb. The expanded cubic honeycomb (also known as the runcinated tesseractic honeycomb) is geometrically identical to the cubic honeycomb.

The [4,31,1], , Coxeter group generates 9 permutations of uniform tessellations, 4 with distinct geometry including the alternated cubic honeycomb.

This honeycomb is one of five distinct uniform honeycombs constructed by the A ~ 3 Coxeter group. The symmetry can be multiplied by the symmetry of rings in the Coxeter–Dynkin diagrams:

Rectified cubic honeycomb

The rectified cubic honeycomb or rectified cubic cellulation is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of octahedra and cuboctahedra in a ratio of 1:1.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a cuboctahedrille, and its dual oblate octahedrille.

Symmetry

There are four uniform colorings for the cells of this honeycomb with reflective symmetry, listed by their Coxeter group, and Wythoff construction name, and the Coxeter diagram below.

This honeycomb can be divided on trihexagonal tiling planes, using the hexagon centers of the cuboctahedra, creating two triangular cupolae. This scaliform honeycomb is represented by Coxeter diagram , and symbol s3{2,6,3}, with coxeter notation symmetry [2+,6,3].

.

Truncated cubic honeycomb

The truncated cubic honeycomb or truncated cubic cellulation is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of truncated cubes and octahedra in a ratio of 1:1.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a truncated cubille, and its dual pyramidille.

Symmetry

There is a second uniform coloring by reflectional symmetry of the Coxeter groups, the second seen with alternately colored truncated cubic cells.

Bitruncated cubic honeycomb

The bitruncated cubic honeycomb or bitruncated cubic cellulation is a space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space made up of truncated octahedra. It has 4 truncated octahedra around each vertex. Being composed entirely of truncated octahedra, it is cell-transitive. It is also edge-transitive, with 2 hexagons and one square on each edge, and vertex-transitive. It is one of 28 uniform honeycombs.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a truncated octahedrille in his Architectonic and catoptric tessellation list, with its dual called an oblate tetrahedrille, also called a disphenoid tetrahedral honeycomb. Although a regular tetrahedron can not tessellate space alone, this dual has identical disphenoid tetrahedron cells with isosceles triangle faces.

It can be realized as the Voronoi tessellation of the body-centred cubic lattice. Lord Kelvin conjectured that a variant of the bitruncated cubic honeycomb (with curved faces and edges, but the same combinatorial structure) is the optimal soap bubble foam. However, the Weaire–Phelan structure is a less symmetrical, but more efficient, foam of soap bubbles.

Symmetry

The vertex figure for this honeycomb is a disphenoid tetrahedron, and it is also the Goursat tetrahedron (fundamental domain) for the A ~ 3 Coxeter group. This honeycomb has four uniform constructions, with the truncated octahedral cells having different Coxeter groups and Wythoff constructions. These uniform symmetries can be represented by coloring differently the cells in each construction.

Projection by folding

The bitruncated cubic honeycomb can be orthogonally projected into the planar truncated square tiling by a geometric folding operation that maps two pairs of mirrors into each other. The projection of the bitruncated cubic honeycomb creating two offset copies of the truncated square tiling vertex arrangement of the plane:

Alternated bitruncated cubic honeycomb

The alternated bitruncated cubic honeycomb or bisnub cubic honeycomb can be creating regular icosahedron from the truncated octahedra with irregular tetrahedral cells created in the gaps. There are three constructions from three related Coxeter diagrams: , , and . These have symmetry [4,3+,4], [4,(31,1)+] and [3[4]]+ respectively. The first and last symmetry can be doubled as [[4,3+,4]] and [[3[4]]]+.

This honeycomb is represented in the boron atoms of the α-rhombihedral crystal. The centers of the icosahedra are located at the fcc positions of the lattice.

Cantellated cubic honeycomb

The cantellated cubic honeycomb or cantellated cubic cellulation is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of rhombicuboctahedra, cuboctahedra, and cubes in a ratio of 1:1:3.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a 2-RCO-trille, and its dual quarter oblate octahedrille.

Symmetry

There is a second uniform colorings by reflectional symmetry of the Coxeter groups, the second seen with alternately colored rhombicuboctahedral cells.

Cantitruncated cubic honeycomb

The cantitruncated cubic honeycomb or cantitruncated cubic cellulation is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space, made up of truncated cuboctahedra, truncated octahedra, and cubes in a ratio of 1:1:3.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a n-tCO-trille, and its dual triangular pyramidille.

Images

Four cells exist around each vertex:

It is related to a skew apeirohedron with vertex configuration 4.4.6.6, with the octagons and some of the squares removed. It can be seen as constructed by augmenting truncated cuboctahedral cells, or by augmenting alternated truncated octahedra and cubes.

Symmetry

Cells can be shown in two different symmetries. The linear Coxeter diagram form can be drawn with one color for each cell type. The bifurcating diagram form can be drawn with two types (colors) of truncated cuboctahedron cells alternating.

Alternated cantitruncated cubic honeycomb

The alternated cantitruncated cubic honeycomb or snub rectified cubic honeycomb contains three types of cells: snub cubes, icosahedra (snub tetrahedron), and tetrahedra. In addition the gaps created at the alternated vertices form tetrahedral cells.
Although it is not uniform, constructionally it can be given as Coxeter diagrams or .

Runcic cantitruncated cubic honeycomb

The runcic cantitruncated cubic honeycomb or runcic cubic cellulation contains cells: snub cubes, rhombicuboctahedrons, and cubes. In addition the gaps created at the alternated vertices form an irregular cell.
Although it is not uniform, constructionally it can be given as Coxeter diagram .

Runcitruncated cubic honeycomb

The runcitruncated cubic honeycomb or runcitruncated cubic cellulation is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of rhombicuboctahedra, truncated cubes, octagonal prisms, and cubes in a ratio of 1:1:3:3.

Its name is derived from its Coxeter diagram, with three ringed nodes representing 3 active mirrors in the Wythoff construction from its relation to the regular cubic honeycomb.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a 1-RCO-trille, and its dual square quarter pyramidille.

A related uniform skew apeirohedron exists with the same vertex arrangement, but some of the square and all of the octagons removed. It can be seen as truncated tetrahedra and truncated cubes augmented together.

Omnitruncated cubic honeycomb

The omnitruncated cubic honeycomb or omnitruncated cubic cellulation is a uniform space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of truncated cuboctahedra and octagonal prisms in a ratio of 1:3.

John Horton Conway calls this honeycomb a b-tCO-trille, and its dual eighth pyramidille.

Symmetry

Cells can be shown in two different symmetries. The Coxeter diagram form has two colors of truncated cuboctahedra and octahedral prisms. The symmetry can be doubled by relating the first and last branches of the Coxeter diagram, which can be shown with one color for all the truncated cuboctahedral and octahedral prism cells.

Two related uniform skew apeirohedron exist with the same vertex arrangement. The first has octagons removed, and vertex configuration 4.4.4.6. It can be seen as truncated cuboctahedra and octagonal prisms augmented together. The second can be seen as augmented octagonal prisms.

Alternated omnitruncated cubic honeycomb

A alternated omnitruncated cubic honeycomb or full snub cubic honeycomb can be constructed by alternation of the omnitruncated cubic honeycomb, although it can not be made uniform, but it can be given Coxeter diagram: and has symmetry [[4,3,4]]+. It makes snub cubes from the truncated cuboctahedra, square antiprisms from the octagonal prisms and with new tetrahedral cells created in the gaps.

Truncated square prismatic honeycomb

The truncated square prismatic honeycomb or tomo-square prismatic cellulation is a space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of octagonal prisms and cubes in a ratio of 1:1.

It is constructed from a truncated square tiling extruded into prisms.

It is one of 28 convex uniform honeycombs.

Snub square prismatic honeycomb

The snub square prismatic honeycomb or simo-square prismatic cellulation is a space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb) in Euclidean 3-space. It is composed of cubes and triangular prisms in a ratio of 1:2.

It is constructed from a snub square tiling extruded into prisms.

It is one of 28 convex uniform honeycombs.

References

Cubic honeycomb Wikipedia
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