We show that the edge graph of a 6-dimensional polytope with 12 facets has diameter at most 6, thus verifying the d-step conjecture of Klee and Walkup in the case of d=6. This implies that for all pairs (d,n) with n-d \leq 6 the diameter of the edge graph of a d-polytope with n facets is bounded by 6, which proves the Hirsch conjecture for all n-d \leq 6. We show this result by showing this bound for a more general structure -- so-called matroid polytopes -- by reduction to a small number of satisfiability problems.
In this note we prove that the number of combinatorial types of $d$-polytopes with $d+1+α$ vertices and $d+1+β$ facets is bounded by a constant independent of $d$.
The secondary polytope of a point configuration A is a polytope whose face poset is isomorphic to the poset of all regular subdivisions of A. While the vertices of the secondary polytope - corresponding to the triangulations of A - are very well studied, there is not much known about the facets of the secondary polytope. The splits of a polytope, subdivisions with exactly two maximal faces, are the simplest examples of such facets and the first that were systematically investigated. The present paper can be seen as a continuation of these studies and as a starting point of an examination of th…
We report here a computation giving the complete list of facets for the cut polytopes over several very symmetric graphs with $15-30$ edges, including $K_8$, $K_{3,3,3}$, $K_{1,4,4}$, $K_{5,5}$, some other $K_{l,m}$, $K_{1,l,m}$, $Prism_7, APrism_6$, Möbius ladder $M_{14}$, Dodecahedron, Heawood and Petersen graphs. For $K_8$, it shows that the huge lists of facets of the cut polytope $CUTP_8$ and cut cone $CUT_8$, given in [CR] is complete. We also confirm the conjecture that any facet of $CUTP_8$ is adjacent to a triangle facet. The lists of facets for $K_{1,l,m}$ with $(l,m)=(4,4),(3,5),(3,…
We give an algorithm that constructs the Hasse diagram of the face lattice of a convex polytope P from its vertex-facet incidences in time O(min{n,m}*a*f), where n is the number of vertices, m is the number of facets, a is the number of vertex-facet incidences, and f is the total number of faces of P. This improves results of Fukuda and Rosta (1994), who described an algorithm for enumerating all faces of a d-polytope in O(min{n,m}*d*f^2) steps. For simple or simplicial d-polytopes our algorithm can be specialized to run in time O(d*a*f). Furthermore, applications of the algorithm to other ato…
We study the extension complexity of polytopes with few vertices or facets. On the one hand, we provide a complete classification of $d$-polytopes with at most $d+4$ vertices according to their extension complexity: Out of the super-exponentially many $d$-polytopes with $d+4$ vertices, all have extension complexity $d+4$ except for some families of size $θ(d^2)$. On the other hand, we show that generic realizations of simplicial/simple $d$-polytopes with $d+1+α$ vertices/facets have extension complexity at least $2 \sqrt{d(d+α)} -d + 1$, which shows that for all $d>(\frac{α-1}{2})^2$ there are…
We prove that, apart from some well-known low-dimensional examples, any compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytope has a pair of disjoint facets. This is one of very few known general results concerning combinatorics of compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes. We also obtain a similar result for simple non-compact polytopes.
Symmetric edge polytopes, a.k.a. PV-type adjacency polytopes, associated with undirected graphs have been defined and studied in several seemingly independent areas including number theory, discrete geometry, and dynamical systems. In particular, the authors are motivated by the study of the algebraic Kuramoto equations of unmixed form whose Newton polytopes are the symmetric edge polytopes. The interplay between the geometric structure of symmetric edge polytopes and the topological structure of the underlying graphs has been a recurring theme in recent studies. In particular, ``facet/face su…
The Monotone Upper Bound Problem (Klee, 1965) asks if the number M(d,n) of vertices in a monotone path along edges of a d-dimensional polytope with n facets can be as large as conceivably possible: Is M(d,n) = M_{ubt}(d,n), the maximal number of vertices that a d-polytope with n facets can have according to the Upper Bound Theorem? We show that in dimension d=4, the answer is ``yes'', despite the fact that it is ``no'' if we restrict ourselves to the dual-to-cyclic polytopes. For each n>=5, we exhibit a realization of a polar-to-neighborly 4-dimensional polytope with n facets and a Hamilton pa…
We consider compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes whose Coxeter diagram contains a unique dotted edge. We prove that such a polytope in d-dimensional hyperbolic space has at most d+3 facets. In view of results of Lannér, Kaplinskaja, Esselmann, and the second author, this implies that compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes with a unique pair of non-intersecting facets are completely classified. They do exist only up to dimension 6 and in dimension 8.
We complete the classification of compact hyperbolic Coxeter $d$-polytopes with $d+4$ facets for $d=4$ and $5$. By previous work of Felikson and Tumarkin, the only remaining dimension where new polytopes may arise is $d=6$. We derive a new method for generating the combinatorial type of these polytopes via the classification of point set order types. In dimensions $4$ and $5$, there are $348$ and $51$ polytopes, respectively, yielding many new examples for further study. We furthermore provide new upper bounds on the dimension $d$ of compact hyperbolic Coxeter polytopes with $d+k$ facets for $…
We give a complete enumeration of all 2-neighborly $d$-polytopes with $d+9$ and less facets. All of them are realized as 0/1-polytopes, except a 6-polytope $P_{6,10,15}$ with 10 vertices and 15 facets, and pyramids over $P_{6,10,15}$. In particular, we update the lower bounds for the number of facets of a 2-neighborly $d$-polytope $P$ and showed that the number of facets of $P$ is not less than the number of its vertices $f_0(P)$ for $f_0(P) \le d + 10$.
In the classical setting, a convex polytope is said to be semiregular if its facets are regular and its symmetry group is transitive on vertices. This paper studies semiregular abstract polytopes, which have abstract regular facets, still with combinatorial automorphism group transitive on vertices. We analyze the structure of the automorphism group, focusing in particular on polytopes with two kinds of regular facets occurring in an "alternating" fashion. In particular we use group amalgamations to prove that given two compatible n-polytopes P and Q, there exists a universal abstract semiregu…
Blind and Mani (1987) proved that the entire combinatorial structure (the vertex-facet incidences) of a simple convex polytope is determined by its abstract graph. Their proof is not constructive. Kalai (1988) found a short, elegant, and algorithmic proof of that result. However, his algorithm has always exponential running time. We show that the problem to reconstruct the vertex-facet incidences of a simple polytope P from its graph can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem that is strongly dual to the problem of finding an abstract objective function on P (i.e., a shelling or…
Understanding the face structure of the balanced minimal evolution (BME) polytope, especially its top-dimensional facets, is crucially important to phylogenetic applications. We show that BME polytope has a sub-lattice of its poset of faces which is isomorphic to a quotient of the well-studied permutoassociahedron. This sub-lattice corresponds to compatible sets of splits displayed by phylogenetic trees, and extends the lattice of faces of the BME polytope found by Hodge, Haws, and Yoshida. Each of the maximal elements in our new poset of faces corresponds to a single split of the leaves. Near…
The cut polytope of a graph arises in many fields. Although much is known about facets of the cut polytope of the complete graph, very little is known for general graphs. The study of Bell inequalities in quantum information science requires knowledge of the facets of the cut polytope of the complete bipartite graph or, more generally, the complete k-partite graph. Lifting is a central tool to prove certain inequalities are facet inducing for the cut polytope. In this paper we introduce a lifting operation, named triangular elimination, applicable to the cut polytope of a wide range of graphs.…
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 $d\le 6$. We construct counterexample in all dimensions $d\ge 7$.
It is known that any tropical polytope is the image under the valuation map of ordinary polytopes over the Puiseux series field. The latter polytopes are called lifts of the tropical polytope. We prove that any pure tropical polytope is the intersection of the tropical half-spaces given by the images under the valuation map of the facet-defining half-spaces of a certain lift. We construct this lift explicitly, taking into account geometric properties of the given polytope. Moreover, when the generators of the tropical polytope are in general position, we prove that the above property is satisf…
A positroid is a special case of a realizable matroid that arose from the study of the totally nonnegative part of the Grassmannian by Postnikov. In this paper, we study the facets of its matroid polytope and the independent set polytope. This allows one to describe the bases and independent sets directly from the decorated permutation, bypassing the use of the Grassmann necklace. We also describe a criterion for determining whether a given cyclic interval is a flat or not using the decorated permutation, then show how it applies to checking the concordancy of positroids.
The Total Matching Polytope generalizes the Stable Set Polytope and the Matching Polytope. In this paper, we give the perfect formulation for Trees and we derive two new families of valid inequalities, the balanced biclique inequalities which are always facet-defining and the non-balanced lifted biclique inequalities obtained by a lifting procedure, which are facet-defining for bipartite graphs. Finally, we give a complete description for Complete Bipartite Graphs.
A phylogenetic tree is a way to organize a finite set of species, individuals or other sources of related data. The species for which we have existing DNA data make up the set of leaves of the tree. The balanced minimal evolution method of creating phylogenetic trees can be formulated as a linear programming problem, minimizing an inner product over the vertices of the BME polytope. In this paper we undertake the first steps of describing the facets of this polytope.
We have found the minimal difference $Δ(k) = \min\limits_P (f_{d-1}(P) - f_{0}(P))$ between the number of facets and the number of vertices of a $k$-neighborly $d$-polytope $P$ for the case $f_{0}(P) = d+3$: $Δ(2) = 4$, $Δ(3) = 15$, and $Δ(k) = 2 (k^2 - 1)$ for $k \ge 4$.
Mixture models on order relations play a central role in recent investigations of transitivity in binary choice data. In such a model, the vectors of choice probabilities are the convex combinations of the characteristic vectors of all order relations of a chosen type. The five prominent types of order relations are linear orders, weak orders, semiorders, interval orders and partial orders. For each of them, the problem of finding a complete, workable characterization of the vectors of probabilities is crucial---but it is reputably inaccessible. Under a geometric reformulation, the problem ask…
Let $(P,\leq_P)$ and $(Q,\leq_Q)$ be finite partially ordered sets with $|P|=|Q|=d$, and $\mathcal{C}(P) \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and $\mathcal{C}(Q) \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ their chain polytopes. The twinned chain polytope of $P$ and $Q$ is the lattice polytope $Γ(\mathcal{C}(P),\mathcal{C}(Q)) \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ which is the convex hull of $\mathcal{C}(P) \cup (-\mathcal{C}(Q))$. It is known that twinned chain polytopes are Gorenstein Fano polytopes with the integer decomposition property. In the present paper, we study combinatorial properties of twinned chain polytopes. First, we will give t…
Let $G=(V, E)$ be an undirected graph. The spanning trees polytope $P(G)$ is the convex hull of the characteristic vectors of all spanning trees of $G$. In this paper, we describe all facets of $P(G)$ as a consequence of the facets of the bases polytope $P(M)$ of a matroid $M$, i.e., the convex hull of the characteristic vectors of all bases of $M$.
We present a number of complexity results concerning the problem of counting vertices of an integral polytope defined by a system of linear inequalities. The focus is on polytopes with small integer vertices, particularly 0/1 polytopes and half-integral polytopes.
We investigate how the Minkowski sum of two polytopes affects their graph and, in particular, their diameter. We show that the diameter of the Minkowski sum is bounded below by the diameter of each summand and above by, roughly, the product between the diameter of one summand and the number of vertices of the other. We also prove that both bounds are sharp. In addition, we obtain a result on polytope decomposability. More precisely, given two polytopes P and Q, we show that P can be written as a Minkowski sum with a summand homothetic to Q if and only if P has the same number of vertices as it…
A graph is alpha-critical if its stability number increases whenever an edge is removed from its edge set. The class of alpha-critical graphs has several nice structural properties, most of them related to their defect which is the number of vertices minus two times the stability number. In particular, a remarkable result of Lovász (1978) is the finite basis theorem for alpha-critical graphs of a fixed defect. The class of alpha-critical graphs is also of interest for at least two topics of polyhedral studies. First, Chvátal (1975) shows that each alpha-critical graph induces a rank inequality…
For the Traveling Salesman Polytope on n cities T_n, we construct its approximation Q_k, k=1, 2, . . ., n^(1/3) using a projection of a polytope whose number of facets is polynomial in n (of degree linear in k). We show that T_n is contained in Q_k for each k, and that the scaling of Q_k by k/n+O(1/n) is contained in T_n for each k. We show that certain facets of T_n lie on the boundary of Q_k.
It is known that every integral convex polytope is unimodularly equivalent to a face of some Gorenstein Fano polytope. It is then reasonable to ask whether every normal polytope is unimodularly equivalent to a face of some normal Gorenstein Fano polytope. In the present paper, it is shown that, by giving new classes of normal Gorenstein Fano polytopes, each order polytope as well as each chain polytope of dimension $d$ is unimodularly equivalent to a facet of some normal Gorenstein Fano polytopes of dimension $d + 1$. Furthermore, investigation on combinatorial properties, especially, Ehrhart …
We give a partial description of the (s,t)-p-path polytope of a directed graph D which is the convex hull of the incidence vectors of simple directed (s,t)-paths in D of length p. First, we point out how the (s,t)-p-path polytope is located in the family of path and cycle polyhedra. Next, we give some classes of valid inequalities which are very similar to inequalities which are valid for the p-cycle polytope, that is, the convex hull of the incidence vectors of simple cycles of length p in D. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for these inequalities to be facet defining. Furthermore,…
For a convex body B in a vector space V, we construct its approximation P_k, k=1, 2, . . . using an intersection of a cone of positive semidefinite quadratic forms with an affine subspace. We show that P_k is contained in B for each k. When B is the Symmetric Traveling Salesman Polytope on n cities T_n, we show that the scaling of P_k by n/k+ O(1/n) contains T_n for k no more than n/2. Membership for P_k is computable in time polynomial in n (of degree linear in k). We discuss facets of T_n that lie on the boundary of P_k. We introduce a new measure on each facet defining inequality for T_n in…
We consider the problem of constructing an abstract $(n+1)$-polytope $Q$ with $k$ facets isomorphic to a given $n$-polytope $P$, where $k \geq 3$. In particular, we consider the case where we want $Q$ to be $(n-2,n)$-flat, meaning that every $(n-2)$-face is incident to every $n$-face (facet). We show that if $P$ admits such a flat extension for a given $k$, then the facet graph of $P$ is $(k-1)$-colorable. Conversely, we show that if the facet graph is $(k-1)$-colorable and $k-1$ is prime, then $P$ admits a flat extension for that $k$. We also show that if $P$ is facet-bipartite, then for ever…
Let $P$ be a simple polytope with $n-d = 2$, where $d$ is the dimension and $n$ is the number of facets. The graph of such a polytope is also called a grid. It is known that the directed random walk along the edges of $P$ terminates after $O(\log^2 n)$ steps, if the edges are oriented in a (pseudo-)linear fashion. We prove that the same bound holds for the more general unique sink orientations.
This paper deals with faces and facets of the family-variable polytope and the characteristic-imset polytope, which are special polytopes used in integer linear programming approaches to statistically learn Bayesian network structure. A common form of linear objectives to be maximized in this area leads to the concept of score equivalence (SE), both for linear objectives and for faces of the family-variable polytope. We characterize the linear space of SE objectives and establish a one-to-one correspondence between SE faces of the family-variable polytope, the faces of the characteristic-imset…
The study of ordering polytopes has been essential to the solution of various challenging combinatorial optimization problems. For instance, the incorporation of facet defining inequalities (FDIs) from these polytopes in branch-and-cut approaches represents among the most effective solution methodologies known to date for some of these problems. The weak order polytope, defined as the convex hull of the characteristic vectors of all binary orders on $n$ alternatives that are reflexive, transitive, and complete, has been particularly important for tackling problems in computational social choic…
In this paper, motivated by the work of Edelman and Strang, we show that for fixed integers $d\geq 2$ and $n\geq d+1$ the configuration space of all facet volume vectors of all $d$-polytopes in $\mathbb R^{d}$ with $n$ facets is a full dimensional cone in $\mathbb R^{n}$. In particular, for tetrahedra ($d=3$ and $n=4$) this is a cone over a regular octahedron. Our proof is based on a novel configuration space / test map scheme which uses topological methods for finding solutions of a problem, and tools of differential geometry to identify solutions with the desired properties. Furthermore, our…
In this paper, we discuss f- and flag-vectors of 4-dimensional convex polytopes and cellular 3-spheres. We put forward two crucial parameters of fatness and complexity: Fatness F(P) := (f_1+f_2-20)/(f_0+f_3-10) is large if there are many more edges and 2-faces than there are vertices and facets, while complexity C(P) := (f_{03}-20)/(f_0+f_3-10) is large if every facet has many vertices, and every vertex is in many facets. Recent results suggest that these parameters might allow one to differentiate between the cones of f- or flag-vectors of -- connected Eulerian lattices of length 5 (combinato…
An abstract polytope is \emph{flat} if every facet is incident on every vertex. In this paper, we prove that no chiral polytope has flat finite regular facets and finite regular vertex-figures. We then determine the three smallest non-flat regular polytopes in each rank, and use this to show that for $n \geq 8$, a chiral $n$-polytope has at least $48(n-2)(n-2)!$ flags.
We compute the set of facets of the polytope which is the convex hull of the Coxeter groups $\mathsf{F}_4$ or $\mathsf{H}_4$: For the group $\mathsf{F}_4$ we found $2$ orbits of facets which contradicts previous results published in \cite{birkhoff}. For the group $\mathsf{H}_4$ we found $1063$ orbits of facets which provides a counterexample to the conjecture of \cite{birkhoff}.
Every polyhedral cone can be described either by its facets or by its extreme rays. Computation of one description from the other is a problem that can be very complex, i.e. one encounter the combinatorial explosion. We present here several methods which allow us to use symmetries for the computation of extreme rays and facets of cones. I give an algorithm for computing adjacencies using a linear programming approach. I give a complete description of the method of incidence, adjacency decomposition method and of the subcone method used for computing with symmetric cones.
Given a chiral d-polytope K with regular facets, we describe a construction for a chiral (d + 1)-polytope P with facets isomorphic to K. Furthermore, P is finite whenever K is finite. We provide explicit examples of chiral 4-polytopes constructed in this way from chiral toroidal maps.
The contact polytope of a lattice is the convex hull of its shortest vectors. In this paper we classify the facets of the contact polytope of the Leech lattice up to symmetry. There are 1,197,362,269,604,214,277,200 many facets in 232 orbits.
The hamiltonian circuit polytope is the convex hull of feasible solutions for the circuit constraint, which provides a succinct formulation of the traveling salesman and other sequencing problems. We study the polytope by establishing its dimension, developing tools for the identification of facets, and using these tools to derive several families of facets. The tools include necessary and sufficient conditions for an inequality to be facet defining, and an algorithm for generating all undominated circuits. We use a novel approach to identifying families of facet-defining inequalities, based o…
We show that the problem to decide whether two (convex) polytopes, given by their vertex-facet incidences, are combinatorially isomorphic is graph isomorphism complete, even for simple or simplicial polytopes. On the other hand, we give a polynomial time algorithm for the combinatorial polytope isomorphism problem in bounded dimensions. Furthermore, we derive that the problems to decide whether two polytopes, given either by vertex or by facet descriptions, are projectively or affinely isomorphic are graph isomorphism hard. The original version of the paper (June 2001, 11 pages) had the title …
The Grishukhin inequality Gr_7 is a facet of CutP_7, the cut polytope on seven points, which is ``sporadic'' in the sense that its proper generalization has not been known. In this paper, we extend Gr_7 to an inequality I(G,H) valid for CutP_{n+1} where G and H are graphs with n nodes satisfying certain conditions, and prove a necessary and sufficient condition for I(G,H) to be a facet. This result combined with the triangular elimination theorem of Avis, Imai, Ito and Sasaki settles Collins and Gisin's conjecture in quantum theory affirmatively: the I_{mm22} Bell inequality is a facet of the …
This short note extends a recent result (Bonifas et al, On sub-determinants and the diameter of polyhedra, Discrete Computational Geometry, 52, 2014) of an upper bound of the diameter of a convex polytope defined by an integer matrix to a similar upper bound of the diameter of a convex polytope defined by a real matrix. It also shows, by an example, that the new bound may be better than the ones of Bonifas et al.
