Frameworks with coordinated edge motions

Authors: Bernd Schulze, Hattie Serocold, and Louis Theran
Journal: SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 364, 2022.
Full text: arXiv DOI

We develop a rigidity theory for bar-joint frameworks in Euclidean \(d\)-space in which specified classes of edges are allowed to change length in a coordinated fashion that requires differences of lengths to be preserved within each class. Rigidity for these coordinated frameworks is a generic property, and we characterize the rigid graphs in terms of redundant rigidity in the standard \(d\)-dimensional rigidity matroid. We also interpret our main results in terms of matroid unions.