An acyclicity theorem for cell complexes in d dimensions
Herbert Edelsbrunner · 1989
Let C be a cell complex in d-dimensional Euclidean space whose faces are obtained by orthogonal projection of the faces of a convex polytope in d + 1 dimensions. For example, the Delaunay triangulation of a finite point set is such a cell complex. This paper shows that the in_front/behind relation defined for the faces of C with respect to any fixed viewpoint x is acyclic. This result has applications to hidden line/surface removal and other problems in computational geometry.