Zipper unfolding of domes and prismoids

Abstract

We study Hamiltonian unfolding—cutting a convex polyhedron along a Hamiltonian path of edges to unfold it without overlap—of two classes of polyhedra. Such unfoldings could be implemented by a single zipper, so they are also known as zipper edge unfoldings. First we consider domes, which are simple convex polyhedra. We find a family of domes whose graphs are Hamiltonian, yet any Hamiltonian unfolding causes overlap, making the domes Hamiltonian-ununfoldable. Second we turn to prismoids, which are another family of simple convex polyhedra. We show that any nested prismoid is Hamiltonian-unfoldable, and that for general prismoids, Hamiltonian unfoldability can be tested in polynomial time.