Static Equilibria of Rigid Bodies Dice Pebbles and the Poincare Hopf Theorem英文电子书.pdf

J. Nonlinear Sci. Vol. 16: pp. 255–281 (2006) DOI: 10.1007/s00332-005-0691-8 © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. Static Equilibria of Rigid Bodies: Dice, Pebbles, and the Poincar´e-Hopf Theorem P. L. V´arkonyi and G. Domokos Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Mechanics, Materials and Structures, H-1111 Muegyetem rkp. 1-3, Budapest, Hungary and Center for Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics, Budapest, Hungary vpeter@mit.bme.hu domokos@bagira.iit.bme.hu Received February 1 , 2005; revised manuscript accepted for publication January 23, 2006 Online publication May 22, 2006 Communicated by J. E. Marsden Summary. By appealing to the Poincar´e-Hopf Theorem on topological invariants, we introduce a global classification scheme for homogeneous, convex bodies based on the number and type of their equilibria. We show that beyond trivially empty classes all other classes are non-empty in the case of three-dimensional bodies; in particular we prove the existence of a body with just one stable and one unstable equilibrium. In the case of two-dimensional bodies the situation is radically different: the class with one stable and one unstable equilibrium is empty (Domokos, Papadopoulos, Ruina, J. Elasticity 36 [1994], 59–66). We also show that the latter result is equivalent to the classical Four- Vertex Theorem in differential geometry. We illustrate the introduced equivalence classes by various types of dice and statistical experimental results concerning pebbles on the seacoast. Key words. Static equilibria, rigid bodies, monostatic bodies, pebble shapes. MSC numbers. 74G55, 37J05. 1. Introduction In this paper we study the number and type of static equilibria of homogeneous, convex bodies resting on a horizontal surface without friction in the presence of uniform gravity. Static equilibria of rigid bodies have been