Partitioning the triangles of the cross polytope into surfaces

Abstract

We present a constructive proof that there exists a decomposition of the 2-skeleton of the k-dimensional cross polytope $\beta^k$ into closed surfaces of genus $g \leq 1$, each with a transitive automorphism group given by the vertex transitive $\mathbb{Z}_{2k}$-action on $\beta^k$. Furthermore we show that for each $k \equiv 1,5(6)$ the 2-skeleton of the (k-1)-simplex is a union of highly symmetric tori and M\"obius strips.