When is an origami set a ring?

Abstract

Starting with a flat sheet of paper, points can be constructed as the intersection of two folds. The set of constructible points clearly depends on which folds are admissible. In this paper, we study the situation where a fold is admissible if its slope is admissible and it contains an already constructed or a generator point. We give an explicit characterization of the set of constructible points. We also state several criteria for this set to be a ring. This answers questions originally raised by Erik Demaine and discussed by Butler et al. and Buhler et al.