A Short Lecture on Topological Crystallography and a Discrete Surface Theory

Abstract

This is an unrefereed lecture note based on lectures in 'Introductory Workshop on Discrete Differential Geometry' at Korea University on January 21--24, 2019. In this note, we discuss topological crystallography, which is a mathematical theory of crystal structures. The most symmetric structure among all placements of the graph is obtained by a variational principle in topological crystallography. We also discuss a theory of trivalent discrete surfaces in $3$-dimensional Euclidean space, which are mathematical models of crystal/molecular structures.