The cd-index is an invariant of Eulerian posets expressed as a polynomial in noncommuting variables c and d. It determines another invariant, the h-polynomial. In this paper, we study the relative setting, that of subdivisions of posets. We introduce the mixed cd-index, an invariant of strong formal subdivisions of posets, which determines the mixed h-polynomial introduced by the second author with Stapledon. The mixed cd-index is a polynomial in noncommuting variables c',d',c,d, and e and is defined in terms of the local cd-index of Karu. Here, use is made of the decomposition theorem for the cd-index. We extend the proof of the decomposition theorem, originally due to Ehrenborg-Karu, to the class of strong formal subdivisions. We also compute the mixed cd-index in a number of examples.
There are two related poset structures, the higher Stasheff-Tamari orders, on the set of all triangulations of the cyclic $d$ polytope with $n$ vertices. In this paper it is shown that both of them have the homotopy type of a sphere of dimension $n-d-3$. Moreover, we resolve positively a new special case of the \emph{Generalized Baues Problem}: The Baues poset of all polytopal decompositions of a cyclic polytope of dimension $d \leq 3$ has the homotopy type of a sphere of dimension $n-d-2$.
We study the limiting behavior of the zeros of the zeta series of a finite poset under iterated barycentric subdivision, and we indicate the possibility of its application to number theory.
This thesis aims to give the reader an introduction and overview of the cd-index of a poset, as well as establish some new results. We give a combinatorial proof of Ehrenborg and Karu's cd-index subdivision decomposition for Gorenstein* complexes and extend it to a wider class of subdivisions. In doing so, we define a local cd-index that behaves analogously to the well studied local h-vector. We examine known cd-index and h-vector bounds, and then use the local cd-index to bound a particular class of polytopes with the cd-index of a stacked polytope. We conclude by investigating the h-vector a…
For a poset $P$ and an integer $r\geq 1$, let $P_r$ be a collection of all $r$-multichains in $P$. Corresponding to each strictly increasing map $ı:[r]\rightarrow [2r]$, there is an order $\preceq_ı$ on $P_r$. Let $\D(G_ı(P_r))$ be the clique complex of the graph $G_ı$ associated to $P_r$ and $ı$. In a recent paper \cite{NW}, it is shown that $\D(G_ı(P_r))$ is a subdivision of $P$ for a class of strictly increasing maps. In this paper, we show that all these subdivisions have the same $f$-vector. We give an explicit description of the transformation matrices from the $f$- and $h$-vectors of $Δ…
Let $π:{\mathbb R}^n \to {\mathbb R}^d$ be any linear projection, let $A$ be the image of the standard basis. Motivated by Postnikov's study of postitive Grassmannians via plabic graphs and Galashin's connection of plabic graphs to slices of zonotopal tilings of 3-dimensional cyclic zonotopes, we study the poset of subdivisions induced by the restriction of $π$ to the $k$-th hypersimplex, for $k=1,\dots,n-1$. We show that: - For arbitrary $A$ and for $k\le d+1$, the corresponding fiber polytope $\mathcal F^{(k)}(A)$ is normally isomorphic to the Minkowski sum of the secondary polytopes of all …
Greene's rational function $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ is a sum of certain rational functions in ${\bf x}=(x_1, \ldots, x_n)$ over the linear extensions of the poset $P$ (which has $n$ elements), which he introduced in his study of the Murnaghan-Nakayama formula for the characters of the symmetric group. In recent work Boussicault, Féray, Lascoux and Reiner showed that $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ equals a valuation on a cone and calculated $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ for several posets this way. In this paper we give an expression for $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ for any poset $P$. We obtain such a formula using dissections of root polytopes. Mo…
Consider the poset of partitions of {1,...(n-1)k+1} with block sizes congruent to 1 modulo k. We prove that its order complex is a subdivision of the complex of k-trees, thereby answering a question posed by Feichtner. The result is obtained by an ad-hoc generalization of concepts from the theory of nested set complexes to non-lattices.
The coefficients of the local $h$-polynomial of the barycentric subdivision of the simplex with $n$ vertices are known to count derangements in the symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_n$ by the number of excedances. A generalization of this interpretation is given for the local $h$-polynomial of the $r$th edgewise subdivision of the barycentric subdivision of the simplex. This polynomial is shown to be $γ$-nonnegative and a combinatorial interpretation to the corresponding $γ$-coefficients is provided. The new combinatorial interpretations involve the notions of flag excedance and descent in the wre…
A fine mixed subdivision of a (d-1)-simplex T of size n gives rise to a system of ${d \choose 2}$ permutations of [n] on the edges of T, and to a collection of n unit (d-1)-simplices inside T. Which systems of permutations and which collections of simplices arise in this way? The Spread Out Simplices Conjecture of Ardila and Billey proposes an answer to the second question. We propose and give evidence for an answer to the first question, the Acyclic System Conjecture. We prove that the system of permutations of T determines the collection of simplices of T. This establishes the Acyclic System…
In this paper, we introduce a new algebraic concept, which we call squarefree P-modules. This concept is inspired from Karu's proof of the non-negativity of the cd-indices of Gorenstein* posets, and supplies a way to study cd-indices from the viewpoint of commutative algebra. Indeed, by using the theory of squarefree P-modules, we give several new algebraic and combinatorial results on CW-posets. First, we define an analogue of the cd-index for any CW-poset and prove its non-negativity when a CW-poset is Cohen-Macaulay. This result proves that the h-vector of the barycentric subdivision of a C…
Let $G$ be a graph and let $S(G)$, $M(G)$, and $T(G)$ be the subdivision, the middle, and the total graph of $G$, respectively. Let ${\rm dim}(G)$, ${\rm edim}(G)$, and ${\rm mdim}(G)$ be the metric dimension, the edge metric dimension, and the mixed metric dimension of $G$, respectively. In this paper, for the subdivision graph it is proved that $\frac{1}{2}\max\{{\rm dim}(G),{\rm edim}(G)\}\leq{\rm mdim}(S(G))\leq{\rm mdim}(G)$. A family of graphs $G_n$ is constructed for which ${\rm mdim}(G_n)-{\rm mdim}(S(G_n))\ge 2$ holds and this shows that the inequality ${\rm mdim}(S(G))\leq{\rm mdim}(…
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…
The coefficients of the chain polynomial of a finite poset enumerate chains in the poset by their number of elements. The chain polynomials of the partition lattices and their standard type $B$ analogues are shown to have only real roots. The real-rootedness of the chain polynomial is conjectured for all geometric lattices and is shown to be preserved by the pyramid and the prism operations on Cohen--Macaulay posets. As a result, new families of convex polytopes whose face lattices have real-rooted chain polynomials are presented. An application to the face enumeration of the second barycentri…
There are natural polynomial invariants of polytopes and lattice polytopes coming from enumerative combinatorics and Ehrhart theory, namely the $h$- and $h^*$-polynomials, respectively. In this paper, we study their generalization to subdivisions and lattice subdivisions of polytopes. By abstracting constructions in mixed Hodge theory, we introduce multivariable polynomials which specialize to the $h$-, $h^*$- polynomials. These polynomials, the mixed $h$-polynomial and the (refined) limit mixed $h^*$-polynomial have rich symmetry, non-negativity, and unimodality properties, which both refine …
Motivated by definitions in mixed Hodge theory, we define the weight filtration and the monodromy weight filtration on the combinatorial intersection cohomology of a fan. These filtrations give a natural definition of the multivariable invariants of subdivisions of polytopes, lattice polytopes and fans, namely the mixed $h$-polynomial, the refined limit mixed $h^*$-polynomial, and the mixed $cd$-index, defined by Katz--Stapledon and Dornian--Katz--Tsang. Previously, only the refined limit mixed $h^*$-polynomial had a geometric interpretation, which came from filtrations on the cohomology of a …
The motivic nearby fiber is an invariant obtained from degenerating a complex variety over a disc. It specializes to the Euler characteristic of the original variety but also contains information on the variation of Hodge structure associated to the degeneration which is encoded as a limit mixed Hodge structure. However, this invariant is difficult to compute in practice. Using the techniques of tropical geometry we present a new formula for the motivic nearby fiber. Moreover, since there is a range of available software implementing the main algorithms in tropical geometry, our formula can be…
We introduce and study a family of operators which act in the span of a Weyl group $W$ and provide a multi-parameter solution to the quantum Yang-Baxter equations of the corresponding type. Our operators generalize the "quantum Bruhat operators" that appear in the explicit description of the multiplicative structure of the (small) quantum cohomology ring of $G/B$. The main combinatorial applications concern the "tilted Bruhat order," a graded poset whose unique minimal element is an arbitrarily chosen element $w\in W$. (The ordinary Bruhat order corresponds to the case $w=1$.) Using the mixed …
Inspired by numerical homotopy methods we propose a combinatorial homotopy algorithm for finding all isolated solutions to a tropical polynomial systems of n tropical polynomials in n variables. In particular, a tropicalisation of the numerical "regeneration" technique leads to a new method for enumerating the mixed cells of a mixed subdivision. This tropical approach shares some ideas with the recent algorithm by Malajovich. However, our algorithm has several advantages. It is memoryless, parallelisable as a tree traversal, exact and relies on symbolic perturbations. Our computational experim…
We study Cohen-Macaulay Hopf monoids in the category of species. The goal is to apply techniques from topological combinatorics to the study of polynomial invariants arising from combinatorial Hopf algebras. Given a polynomial invariant arising from a linearized Hopf monoid, we show that under certain conditions it is the Hilbert polynomial of a relative simplicial complex. If the Hopf monoid is Cohen-Macaulay, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the corresponding relative simplicial complex to be relatively Cohen-Macaulay, which implies that the polynomial has a nonnegative $h$-ve…
