Approximating Riemannian manifolds by polyhedra

Abstract

This is a study on approximating a Riemannian manifold by polyhedra. Our scope is understanding Tullio Regge's [52] article in the restricted Riemannian frame. We give a proof of the Regge theorem along lines close to its original intuition: one can approximate a compact domain of a Riemannian manifold by polyhedra in such a way that the integral of the scalar curvature is approximated by a corresponding polyhedral curvature.