On combinatorial Gauss-Bonnet Theorem for general Euclidean simplicial complexes

Abstract

For a finitely triangulated closed surface M ², let α_x be the sum of angles at a vertex x. By the well-known combinatorial version of the 2- dimensional Gauss-Bonnet Theorem, it holds Σ_x(2π - α_x) = 2πχ(M ²), where χ denotes the Euler characteristic of M ², α_x denotes the sum of angles at the vertex x, and the sum is over all vertices of the triangulation. We give here an elementary proof of a straightforward higher-dimensional generalization to Euclidean simplicial complexes K without assuming any combinatorial manifold condition. First, we recall some facts on simplicial complexes, the Euler characteristics and its local version at a vertex. Then we define δ(τ) as the normed dihedral angle defect around a simplex τ. Our main result is Σ_τ (-1)^dim(τ)δ(τ) = χ(K), where the sum is over all simplices τ of the triangulation. Then we give a definition of curvature κ(x) at a vertex and we prove the vertex-version Σ _x∈K0 κ(x) = χ(K) of this result. It also possible to prove Morse-type inequalities. Moreover, we can apply this result to combinatorial (n + 1)-manifolds W with boundary B, where we prove that the difference of Euler characteristics is given by the sum of curvatures over the interior of W plus a contribution from the normal curvature along the boundary B:

$$\chi \left( W \right) - \frac{1}{2}\chi \left( B \right) = \sum {_{\tau \in W - B}} {\left( { - 1} \right)^{\dim \left( \tau \right)}} + \sum {_{\tau \in B}} {\left( { - 1} \right)^{\dim \left( \tau \right)}}\rho \left( \tau \right)$$

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