On triangulations with fixed areas

Ivan Frolov
November 13, 2023

Abstract
arXiv:2311.05775v1 [math.CO] 7 Nov 2023

We prove that the number of dissections of a given polygon into triangles with
fixed areas of faces is finite and that an equidissection is algebraic as long as the
vertices of the original polygon have algebraic coordinates.

A dissection of a polygon P in R2 is a partition into triangles. A dissection is called an

equidissection if all triangles have equal areas. By a triangulation we mean a dissection
which has no vertices on the boundary of P except for the vertices of P and such that
the intersection of any two triangles is either a common edge, a common vertex, or the
empty set.
Motivated by a question asked by R. Kenyon in [3] we prove the following.

Theorem 1. The number of triangulations of a polygon P in R2 with fixed number of

faces and fixed areas of faces is finite.

Our method also allows apllies to a question of Kasimatis and Stein ([2], p.293, ques-
tion 5), giving the following.

Theorem 2. Suppose that all vertices of a polygon P have algebraic coordinates. If a

triangulation of P is an equidissection, then the coordinates of all vertices of this trian-
gulation are algebraic.

Remark. We believe that in Theorems 1 and 2 it is unnecessary to assume the dissection

to be triangulation. However, our argument has to be modified to include more technical
details.

Let (xi , yi ) be the coordinates of a point vi . The oriented area of a triangle v1 v2 v3

satisfies
x x x
1 1 2 3
Sv1 v2 v3 = y1 y2 y3
2
1 1 1
This formula allows to define the oriented area of a triangle v1 v2 v3 , where vi ∈ C2 . For n
points v1 , . . . , vn ∈ C2 we can define the oriented area of the ’polygon’ v1 . . . vn as
n
X
Sv1 ...vn = Svi vi+1 p (1)
i=1

where vn+1 = v1 and p ∈ C2 is arbitrary. The result does not depend on p and coincides
with the usual area if v1 . . . vn is a polygon in R2 oriented anticlockwise.

1
 Consider a polygon v1 . . . vn in R2 and a triangulation of it with vertices v1 , . . . , vn ,
vn+1 , . . . , vN . We will fix the combinatorial type of the triangulation, i.e. the planar
graph G on vertices v1 , . . . , vN .
We consider the standard embedding R2 → CP2 : (x, y) → [x : y : 1] and define
the configuration space of triangulations with given areas as the algebraic subvariety
X ⊂ (CP2 )N −n cut by equations

xi xj xk
2Svi vj vk zi zj zk = yi yj yk (2)
zi zj zk

for each triangle vi vj vk of G, where [xi : yi : zi ] are coordinates on (CP2 )N −n for i > n
and constants for i ≤ n, and Svi vj vk is a constant (the area of the triangle vi vj vk ).

Proposition 3. The variety X consists of finitely many points.

Proof. For each n < i ≤ N consider the projection πi : X → CP2 sending a point in the
configuration space to [xi : yi : zi ]. It suffices to prove that πi (X) is finite for all i. Assume
the contrary, i.e. there exist n < m ≤ N such that πm (X) is not finite.
Lemma 4. Under the assumptions above πm (X) intersects the line at infinity.
Proof. As an image of a projective variety is always Zariski closed ([1], Theorem 3.12),
πm (X) is a closed algebraic subvariety of CP2 . Since it has infinitely many points, its
dimension is at least 1. So πm (X) intersects the line at infinity ([1], Proposition 11.4).
By Lemma 4 we may choose a collection of points un+1 , . . . , uN ∈ CP2 satisfying (2)
such that um is at infinity, i.e. satisfies zm = 0. For convenience we denote ui = vi for
1 ≤ i ≤ n. After renumbering the indices we may assume that the points u1 , . . . , um−1 lie
in C2 and the points um , . . . , uN lie at infinity. Let H ′ be the subgraph of G consisting of
vertices v1 , . . . , vm−1 and all edges between them. Let H be the connected component of
H ′ containing v1 , . . . vn .
Let f be a face of H. Since H is connected, the boundary of f is connected. Let
vi1 . . . vit be the closed path around the boundary of f anticlockwise (one vertex may
appear several times, one edge may appear twice in this path).
Lemma 5. If f is not a face of G, then the points ui1 , . . . , uit are collinear.
Proof. Note that the equation (2) implies that if vi vj vk is a face of G and at least one of
the points ui , uj , uk is at infinity, then ui , uj , uk are collinear.

vi8 = vi2 vi7 = vi5

vi9

vi1 vi6

vj2 = vkq vk2 vj1 = vk1

vi3 v i4

2
 For each 1 ≤ s < t let vis vis+1 vjs be the face of G contained in f . We claim that uj1 =
uj2 . Indeed, let the faces of G covering the angle vi1 vi2 vi3 of f be vi1 vi2 vk1 , vk1 vi2 vk2 , . . .,
vkq vi2 vi3 where k1 = j1 and kq = j2 . Since f is not a face of G, all points vkℓ lie in the
interior of f . So all points ukℓ lie at infinity, but ui2 does not. Since vkℓ vi2 vkℓ+1 is a face
of G, the points ukℓ , ui2 , ukℓ+1 are collinear, which is only possible if ukℓ = ukℓ+1 . Thus
uj1 = uk1 = uk2 = . . . = ukq = uj2 .
The same argument shows that ujs−1 = ujs for all s. Therefore all ujs are the same
point u at infinity. By induction on s it follows that uis lies on the line ui1 u for every s.
Denote the area of f by Sf , it is equal to Svi1 ...vit interpreted according to (1). Denote
Sf′ = Sui1 ...uit . Lemma 5 implies that Sf′ = 0 if f is not a face of G. If f is a face of G,
′
then (2) implies P that Sf = Sf .
We have f Sf = Sv1 ...vn , sum taken over all bounded faces of H oriented anticlock-
wise. Since it is a polynomial equation on the coordinates of the points vi , it is true when
vi are replaced by arbitrary points of C2 . For every vertex vi of H the point ui lies in C2 ,
hence X X
Sf = Sv1 ...vn = Sf′
sum taken over all bounded faces of H. Now, for every f we have Sf ≥ Sf′ with strict
inequality for at least one f , giving a contradiction.
Theorem 1 follows immediately from Proposition 3.
To deduce Theorem 2 we observe that the area of P is algebraic, so the areas of all
faces are algebraic. Hence the variety X is defined over Q and we are done by the following
well-known fact.

Lemma 6. If an algebraic variety defined over Q has finitely many points over C, then
all these points are defined over Q.

Acknowledgements. The author is grateful to Dmitrii Korshunov, Misha Verbitsky

and Ilya I. Bogdanov for interesting discussions.

References
[1] J. Harris. Algebraic Geometry: A First Course. Graduate Texts in Mathematics.
Springer, 1992.

[2] E.A. Kasimatis and S.K. Stein. Equidissections of polygons. Discrete Mathematics,
85(3):281–294, 1990.

[3] R. Kenyon. Available at https://gauss.math.yale.edu/~rwk25/openprobs/

index.html; a 9 December 2019 version cached by the Wayback Machine.