We give a full classification of vertex-transitive zonotopes. We prove that a vertex-transitive zonotope is a $$\Gamma $$ Γ -permutahedron for some finite reflection group $$\Gamma \subset {{\,\mathrm{O}\,}}(\mathbb {R}^d)$$ Γ ⊂ O ( R d ) . The same holds true for zonotopes in which all vertices are on a common sphere, and all edges are of the same length. The classification of these then follows from the classification of finite reflection groups. We prove that root systems can be characterized as those centrally symmetric sets of vectors, for which all intersections with half-spaces, that contain exactly half the vectors, are congruent. We provide a further sufficient condition for a centrally symmetric set to be a root system.

Motivated by the search for reduced polytopes, we consider the following question: For which polytopes exists a vertex-facet assignment, that is, a matching between vertices and non-incident facets, so that the matching covers either all vertices, or all facets? We provide general conditions for the existence of such an assignment. We conclude that such exist for all simple and simplicial polytopes, as well as all polytopes of dimension $$d\le 6$$ d ≤ 6 . We construct counterexample in all dimensions $$d\ge 7$$ d ≥ 7 .

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In 3-dimensional Euclidean space there exist two exceptional polyhedra, the rhombic dodecahedron and the rhombic triacontahedron, the only known polytopes (besides polygons) that are edge-transitive without being vertex-transitive. We show that these polyhedra do not have higher-dimensional analogues, that is, that in dimension d ≥ 4, edgetransitivity of convex polytopes implies vertex-transitivity.More generally, we give a classification of all convex polytopes which at the same time have all edges of the same length, an edge in-sphere and a bipartite edge-graph. We show that any such polytope in dimension d ≥ 4 is vertex-transitive.