Biconed graphs, weighted forests, and h-vectors of matroid complexes
Preston Cranford, Anton Dochtermann, Evan Haithcock, Joshua Marsh, Suho Oh, Anna Truman
备注：
15 pages, 3 figures; V2: added omitted author to metadata; V3: added Section 5 involving a worked example, added Section 6 connecting our work to that of Klee and Samper, small change to title, other corrections and edits as suggested by referees
Richard Stanley 的一个著名猜想提出，一个拟阵的独立复形的 h-向量是一个纯 O-序列。该猜想已在多种类别的拟阵上得到证明，但对图拟阵仍为公开问题。双锥图是指具有两个指定的“锥顶点”的图，使得图中每个顶点都至少与一个锥顶点相连。双锥图类包含锥图、Ferrers 图以及完全多部图。我们研究由双锥图产生的图拟阵的 h-向量，并利用底层图的“2-加权森林”给出其各分量的组合解释。这推广了 Kook 和 Lee 的构造，他们研究了完全二部图的图拟阵的 Möbius 余不变量（即 h-向量的最后一个非零分量）。我们证明，允许部分 2-加权森林可产生一个纯多重复形，其面计数恰好恢复该 h-向量，从而对这一类拟阵建立了 Stanley 猜想。我们还讨论了我们的构造如何与 Stanley 猜想的一个组合强化形式（由 Klee 和 Samper 提出）在该类拟阵上相关联。
英文摘要：
A well-known conjecture of Richard Stanley posits that the $h$-vector of the independence complex of a matroid is a pure ${\mathcal O}$-sequence. The conjecture has been established for various classes but is open for graphic matroids. A biconed graph is a graph with two specified `coning vertices', such that every vertex of the graph is connected to at least one coning vertex. The class of biconed graphs includes coned graphs, Ferrers graphs, and complete multipartite graphs. We study the $h$-vectors of graphic matroids arising from biconed graphs, providing a combinatorial interpretation of their entries in terms of `$2$-weighted forests' of the underlying graph. This generalizes constructions of Kook and Lee who studied the Möbius coinvariant (the last nonzero entry of the $h$-vector) of graphic matroids of complete bipartite graphs. We show that allowing for partially $2$-weighted forests gives rise to a pure multicomplex whose face count recovers the $h$-vector, establishing Stanley's conjecture for this class of matroids. We also discuss how our constructions relate to a combinatorial strengthening of Stanley's Conjecture (due to Klee and Samper) for this class of matroids.
A well-known conjecture of Stanley is that the h-vector of a matroid is a pure O-sequence. There have been numerous papers with partial progress on this conjecture, but it is still wide open. In particular, for graphic matroids coming from taking the spanning trees of a graph as bases, the conjecture is mostly unsolved. In graph theory, a set of vertices is called dominating if every other vertex is adjacent to some vertex inside the chosen set. Kook proved Stanley's conjecture for coned graphs, which is the class of graphs that are dominated by a single vertex. Cranford et al extended that re…
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Stanley conjectured in 1977 that the $h$-vector of a matroid simplicial complex is a pure $O$-sequence. We give simple constructive proofs that the conjecture is true for matroids of rank less than or equal to 3, and corank 2. We used computers to verify that Stanley's conjecture holds for all matroids on at most nine elements.
It is known that there are finitely many simplicial complexes (up to isomorphism) with a given number of vertices. Translating to the language of $h$-vectors, there are finitely many simplicial complexes of bounded dimension with $h_1=k$ for any natural number $k$. In this paper we study the question at the other end of the $h$-vector: Are there only finitely many $(d-1)$-dimensional simplicial complexes with $h_d=k$ for any given $k$? The answer is no if we consider general complexes, but when focus on three cases coming from matroids: (i) independence complexes, (ii) broken circuit complexes…
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Assume that the vertices of a graph $G$ are always operational, but the edges of $G$ fail independently with probability $q \in[0,1]$. The \emph{all-terminal reliability} of $G$ is the probability that the resulting subgraph is connected. The all-terminal reliability can be formulated into a polynomial in $q$, and it was conjectured \cite{BC1} that all the roots of (nonzero) reliability polynomials fall inside the closed unit disk. It has since been shown that there exist some connected graphs which have their reliability roots outside the closed unit disk, but these examples seem to be few an…
A recursion due to Kook expresses the Laplacian eigenvalues of a matroid M in terms of the eigenvalues of its deletion M-e and contraction M/e by a fixed element e, and an error term. We show that this error term is given simply by the Laplacian eigenvalues of the pair (M-e, M/e). We further show that by suitably generalizing deletion and contraction to arbitrary simplicial complexes, the Laplacian eigenvalues of shifted simplicial complexes satisfy this exact same recursion. We show that the class of simplicial complexes satisfying this recursion is closed under a wide variety of natural oper…
We consider a $q$-analogue of abstract simplicial complexes, called $q$-complexes, and discuss the notion of shellability for such complexes. It is shown that $q$-complexes formed by independent subspaces of a $q$-matroid are shellable. Further, we explicitly determine the homology of $q$-complexes corresponding to uniform $q$-matroids. We also outline some partial results concerning the determination of homology of arbitrary shellable $q$-complexes..
We introduce dual matroids of 2-dimensional simplicial complexes. Under certain necessary conditions, duals matroids are used to characterise embeddability in 3-space in a way analogous to Whitney's planarity criterion. We further use dual matroids to extend a 3-dimensional analogue of Kuratowski's theorem to the class of 2-dimensional simplicial complexes obtained from simply connected ones by identifying vertices or edges.
The augmented Bergman complex of a matroid is a simplicial complex introduced recently in work of Braden, Huh, Matherne, Proudfoot and Wang. It may be viewed as a hybrid of two well-studied pure shellable simplicial complexes associated to matroids: the independent set complex and Bergman complex. It is shown here that the augmented Bergman complex is also shellable, via two different families of shelling orders. Furthermore, comparing the description of its homotopy type induced from the two shellings re-interprets a known convolution formula counting bases of the matroid. The representation …
We characterise the following property by six obstructions: given a graphic matroid $M$ and a set $X$ of its elements, when is $M$ the cycle matroid of a graph $G$ such that $X$ is a connected edge set in $G$?
We prove that simply connected local 2-dimensional simplicial complexes embed in 3-space if and only if their dual matroids are graphic. Examples are provided that the assumptions of simply connectedness and locality are necessary. This may be regarded as a 3-dimensional analogue of Whitney's planarity criterion from 1932.
A matroid complex is a pure complex such that every restriction is again pure. It is a long-standing open problem to classify all possible $h$-vectors of such complexes. In the case when the complex has dimension 1 we completely resolve this question. We also prove the 1-dimensional case of a conjecture of Stanley that all matroid $h$-vectors are pure ${O}$-sequences. Finally, we completely characterize the Stanley-Reisner ideals of 1-dimensional matroid complexes.
We present a number of lower bounds for the h-vectors of k-CM, broken circuit and independence complexes. These lead to bounds on the coefficients of the characteristic and reliability polynomials of matroids. The main techniques are the use of series and parallel constructions on matroids and the short simplicial h-vector for pure complexes.
Tropical varieties play an important role in algebraic geometry. The Bergman complex B(M) and the positive Bergman complex B+(M) of an oriented matroid M generalize to matroids the notions of the tropical variety and positive tropical variety associated to a linear ideal. Our main result is that if A is a Coxeter arrangement of type Phi with corresponding oriented matroid M_Phi, then B+(M_Phi) is dual to the graph associahedron of type Phi, and B(M_Phi) equals the nested set complex of A. In addition, we prove that for any orientable matroid M, one can find |mu(M)| different reorientations of …
We partition in classes the set of matroids of fixed dimension on a fixed vertex set. In each class we identify two special matroids, respectively with minimal and maximal h-vector in that class. Such extremal matroids also satisfy a long-standing conjecture of Stanley. As a byproduct of this theory we establish Stanley's conjecture in various cases, for example the case of Cohen-Macaulay type less than or equal to 3.
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We introduce the notion of k-hyperclique complexes, i.e., the largest simplicial complexes on the set [n] with a fixed k-skeleton. These simplicial complexes are a higher-dimensional analogue of clique (or flag) complexes (case k=2) and they are a rich new class of simplicial complexes. We show that Dirac's theorem on chordal graphs has a higher-dimensional analogue in which graphs and clique complexes get replaced, respectively, by simplicial matroids and k-hyperclique complexes. We prove also a higher-dimensional analogue of Stanley's reformulation of Dirac's theorem on chordal graphs.
Let K be the face ring of the independence complex of a matroid. We show that if T is a generic linear system of parameters, then K/T satisfies a weak form of the Hard Lefschetz Theorem. As a result, the first half of the h-vector of the complex satisfies inequalities similar to the g-theorem for simplicial polytopes.
We show that the algebraic rank of divisors on certain graphs is related to the realizability problem of matroids. As a consequence, we produce a series of examples in which the algebraic rank depends on the ground field. We use the theory of metrized complexes to show that equality between the algebraic and combinatorial rank is not a sufficient condition for smoothability of divisors, thus giving a negative answer to a question posed by Caporaso, Melo, and the author.
We characterize 2-dimensional complexes associated canonically with basis graphs of matroids as simply connected triangle-square complexes satisfying some local conditions. This proves a version of a (disproved) conjecture by Stephen Maurer (Conjecture 3 of S. Maurer, Matroid basis graphs I, JCTB 14 (1973), 216-240). We also establish Conjecture 1 from the same paper about the redundancy of the conditions in the characterization of basis graphs. We indicate positive-curvature-like aspects of the local properties of the studied complexes. We characterize similarly the corresponding 2-dimensiona…
In this note we provide a higher-dimensional analogue of Tutte's celebrated theorem on colorings and flows of graphs, by showing that the theory of arithmetic Tutte polynomials and quasi-polynomials encompasses invariants defined for CW complexes by Beck-Breuer-Godkin-Martin and Duval-Klivans-Martin. Furthermore, we answer a question by Bajo-Burdick-Chmutov, concerning the modified Tutte-Krushkal-Renhardy polynomials defined by these authors: to this end, we prove that the product of two arithmetic multiplicity functions on a matroid is again an arithmetic multiplicity function.
To each linear code over a finite field we associate the matroid of its parity check matrix. We show to what extent one can determine the generalized Hamming weights of the code (or defined for a matroid in general) from various sets of Betti numbers of Stanley-Reisner rings of simplicial complexes associated to the matroid.
In this note we define a Stanley-Reisner ring for quasi-arithmetic matroids and more general structures. To this end, we define two types of CW complexes associated with a quasi-arithmetic matroid that generalize independence complexes of matroids. Then we use Stanley's construction of Stanley-Reisner rings for simplicial posets.
In his seminal 1983 paper, Jim Lawrence introduced lopsided sets and featured them as asymmetric counterparts of oriented matroids, both sharing the key property of strong elimination. Moreover, symmetry of faces holds in both structures as well as in the so-called affine oriented matroids. These two fundamental properties (formulated for covectors) together lead to the natural notion of "conditional oriented matroid" (abbreviated COM). These novel structures can be characterized in terms of three cocircuits axioms, generalizing the familiar characterization for oriented matroids. We describe …
A classic problem in matroid theory is to find subspace arrangements, specifically hyperplane and pseudosphere arrangements, whose intersection posets are isomorphic to a prescribed geometric lattice. Engström recently showed how to construct an infinite family of such subspace arrangements, indexed by the set of finite regular CW complexes. In this note, we compute the face numbers of these representations (in terms of the face numbers of the indexing complexes) and give upper bounds on the total number of faces in these objects. In particular, we show that, for a fixed rank, the total number…
Brown has shown that the Stanley-Reisner ring of the broken circuit complex of a graph has a linear system of parameters which is defined in terms of the circuits and cocircuits of the graph. Later on Brown and Sagan conjectured a special set of monomials - a so-called NBC basis - described in terms of the circuits and cocircuits of the graph to be a monomial basis for the corresponding quotient of the Stanley-Reisner ring and proved this to be true for theta and phi graphs. We generalize the aforementioned linear system of parameters to broken circuit complexes of regular matroids and transfe…
We study ordered matroids and generalized permutohedra from a Hopf theoretic point of view. Our main object is a Hopf monoid in the vector species of extended generalized permutahedra equipped with an order of the coordinates; this monoid extends the Hopf monoid of generalized permutahedra studied by Aguiar and Ardila. Our formula for the antipode is cancellation-free and multiplicity-free, and is supported only on terms that are compatible with the local geometry of the polyhedron. Our result is part of a larger program to understand orderings on ground sets of simplicial complexes (for insta…
Let M be a matroid on E, representable over a field of characteristic zero. We show that h-vectors of the following simplicial complexes are log-concave: 1. The matroid complex of independent subsets of E. 2. The broken circuit complex of $M$ relative to an ordering of E. The first implies a conjecture of Colbourn on the reliability polynomial of a graph, and the second implies a conjecture of Hoggar on the chromatic polynomial of a graph. The proof is based on the geometric formula for the characteristic polynomial of Denham, Garrousian, and Schulze.
It is proved that the broken circuit complex of an ordered matroid is Gorenstein if and only if it is a complete intersection. Several characterizations for a matroid that admits such an order are then given, with particular interest in the $h$-vector of broken circuit complexes of the matroid. As an application, we prove that the Orlik--Terao algebra of a hyperplane arrangement is Gorenstein if and only if it is a complete intersection. Interestingly, our result shows that the complete intersection property (and hence the Gorensteinness as well) of the Orlik--Terao algebra can be determined f…
We show that the $h$-vector of a $2$-dimensional PS ear-decomposable simplicial complex is a pure $\mathcal{O}$-sequence. This provides a strengthening of Stanley's conjecture for matroid $h$-vectors in rank $3$. Our approach modifies the approach of combinatorial shifting for arbitrary simplicial complexes to the setting of $2$-dimensional PS ear-decomposable complexes, which allows us to greedily construct a corresponding pure multicomplex.
One of the major open questions in matroid theory asks whether the $h$-vector $(h_0,h_1,\ldots,h_s)$ of the broken circuit complex of a matroid $M$ satisfies the following inequalities: $$ h_0\leq h_1\leq \cdots\leq h_{\lfloor s/2\rfloor} \quad \text{and}\qua h_i\le h_{s-i}\ \text{ for }\ 0\leq i \leq \lfloor s/2\rfloor. $$ This paper affirmatively answers the question for matroids that are representable over a field of characteristic zero.
This paper considers completions of COMs (complexes oriented matroids) to ample partial cubes of the same VC-dimension. We show that these exist for OMs (oriented matroids) and CUOMs (complexes of uniform oriented matroids). This implies that OMs and CUOMs satisfy the sample compression conjecture -- one of the central open questions of learning theory. We conjecture that every COM can be completed to an ample partial cube without increasing the VC-dimension.
We study Stanley-Reisner ideals of broken circuits complexes and characterize those ones admitting a linear resolution or being complete intersections. These results will then be used to characterize arrangements whose Orlik-Terao ideal has the same properties. As an application, we improve a result of Wilf on upper bounds for the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial of a maximal planar graph. We also show that for an ordered matroid with disjoint minimal broken circuits, the supersolvability of the matroid is equivalent to the Koszulness of its Orlik-Solomon algebra.
We show that f-vectors of matroid complexes of realisable matroids are log-concave. This was conjectured by Mason in 1972. Our proof uses the recent result by Huh and Katz who showed that the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of a realisable matroid form a log-concave sequence. We also discuss the relationship between log-concavity of f-vectors and h-vectors of matroids. In the last section we explain the connection between zonotopal algebra and f-vectors and characteristic polynomials of matroids.
We construct minimal cellular resolutions of squarefree monomial ideals arising from hyperplane arrangements, matroids and oriented matroids. These are Stanley-Reisner ideals of complexes of independent sets, and of triangulations of Lawrence matroid polytopes. Our resolution provides a cellular realization of Stanley's formula for their Betti numbers. For unimodular matroids our resolutions are related to hyperplane arrangements on tori, and we recover the resolutions constructed by Bayer, Popescu and Sturmfels. We resolve the combinatorial problems posed in their paper by computing Mobius in…
Let $(h_0,h_1,\ldots,h_s)$ with $h_s\ne0$ be the $h$-vector of the broken circuit complex of a series-parallel network $M$. Let $G$ be a graph whose cycle matroid is $M$. We give a formula for the difference $h_{s-1}-h_1$ in terms of an ear decomposition of $G$. A number of applications of this formula are provided, including several bounds for $h_{s-1}-h_1$, a characterization of outerplanar graphs, and a solution to a conjecture on $A$-graphs posed by Fenton. We also prove that $h_{s-2}\geq h_2$ when $s\geq 4$.
We present a version of the weighted cellular matrix-tree theorem that is suitable for calculating explicit generating functions for spanning trees of highly structured families of simplicial and cell complexes. We apply the result to give weighted generalizations of the tree enumeration formulas of Adin for complete colorful complexes, and of Duval, Klivans and Martin for skeleta of hypercubes. We investigate the latter further via a logarithmic generating function for weighted tree enumeration, and derive another tree-counting formula using the unsigned Euler characteristics of skeleta of a …
Building on a recent characterization of tope graphs of Complexes of Oriented Matroids (COMs), we tackle and generalize several classical problems in Oriented Matroids (OMs), Lopsided Sets (aka ample set systems), and partial cubes via Metric Graph Theory. Our first main result is that every element of an OM from a class introduced by Mandel is incident to a simplicial tope, i.e, such OMs contain no mutation-free elements. This allows us to refute a conjecture of Mandel from 1983, that would have implied the famous Las Vergnas' simplex conjecture. Further, we show that the mutation graph of un…
