Abstract.We give a self-contained introduction to the theory of secondary polytopes and geometric bistellar flips in triangulations of polytopes and point sets, as well as a review of some of the known results and connections to algebraic geometry, topological combinatorics, and other areas.As a new result, we announce the construction of a point set in general position with a disconnected space of triangulations. This shows, for the first time, that the poset of strict polyhedral subdivisions of a point set is not always connected.
Mathematics Subject Classification (2000). Primary 52B11; Secondary 52B20.