For reciprocation with respect to a sphere
[sum ]x2=c
in Euclidean n-space, there is a unitary analogue:
Hermitian reciprocation with respect to an antisphere
[sum ]uu=c. This is now applied, for the first time,
to
complex polytopes.
When a regular polytope Π has a palindromic Schläfli symbol,
it is self-reciprocal in the sense that its
reciprocal Π′, with respect to a suitable concentric sphere or
antisphere, is congruent to Π. The present
article reveals that Π and Π′ usually have
together the same vertices as a third polytope Π+ and the
same
facet-hyperplanes as a fourth polytope Π− (where
Π+ and Π− are again regular), so as to
form a
‘compound’,
Π+[2Π]Π−.
When the geometry is real, Π+ is the convex hull of Π
and
Π′, while Π− is their
common content or ‘core’. For instance, when Π is a
regular p-gon {p}, the compound is
formula here
The exceptions are of two kinds. In one, Π+ and
Π− are not regular. The actual cases are when Π
is
an n-simplex {3, 3, ..., 3} with n[ges ]4 or the
real 4-dimensional 24-cell {3, 4, 3}=2{3}2{4}2{3}2 or the complex
4-dimensional Witting polytope 3{3}3{3}3{3}3. The other kind
of exception arises when the vertices of Π
are the poles of its own facet-hyperplanes, so that
Π, Π′, Π+ and Π− all coincide.
Then Π is said to be strongly self-reciprocal.