The interior angle vector ($\widehatα$-vector) of a polytope is a metric analogue of the $f$-vector in which faces are weighted by their solid angle. For simplicial polytopes, Dehn-Sommerville-type relations on the $\widehatα$-vector were introduced by Sommerville (1927) and Höhn (1953). Camenga (2006) defined the $\widehatγ$-vector, a linear transformation analogous to the $h$-vector and conjectured it to be non-negative. Using tools from geometric and algebraic combinatorics, we prove this conjecture and show that the $\widehatγ$-vector increases in the first half and is flawless. In contrast to the $h$-vector, we construct a six-dimensional polytope with non-unimodal $\widehatγ$-vector. More generally, all result remain valid when solid angles are replaced by simple and non-negative cone valuations.
In the focus of this paper is the operation of edge contraction. One can show that simplicial 3-polytope is flag iff contraction of any its edge gives simplicial 3-polytope. Our main result states that any flag simplicial 3-polytope can be reduced to octahedron by sequence of edge contractions. Using this operation we introduce a partial order on the set of flag simplicial 3-polytopes and study Hasse graph of corresponding poset. We estimate input and output degrees of vertices of this Hasse graph.
For each strongly connected finite-dimensional (pure) simplicial complex we construct a finite group, the group of projectivities of the complex, which is a combinatorial but not a topological invariant. This group is studied for combinatorial manifolds and, in particular, for polytopal simplicial spheres. The results are applied to a coloring problem for simplicial (or, dually, simple) polytopes which arises in the area of toric algebraic varieties.
Stanley proved that for any centrally symmetric simplicial $d$-polytope $P$ with $d\geq 3$, $g_2(P) \geq {d \choose 2}-d$. We provide a characterization of centrally symmetric $d$-polytopes with $d\geq 4$ that satisfy this inequality as equality. This gives a natural generalization of the classical Lower Bound Theorem for simplicial polytopes to the setting of centrally symmetric simplicial polytopes.
In this paper, we will describe the space spanned by the angle-sums of polytopes, recorded in the alpha-vector. We will consider the angles sums of simplices and the angles sums and face numbers of simplicial polytopes and general polytopes. We will construct families of polytopes whose angle sums span the spaces of polytopes defined by the Gram and Perles equations, analogues of the Euler and Dehn-Sommerville equations. We show that the dimensions of the affine span of the space of angle sums of simplices is floor[(d-1)/2] + 1, and that of the angle sums and face numbers of simplicial polytop…
We classify terminal simplicial reflexive d-polytopes with 3d-1 vertices. They turn out to be smooth Fano d-polytopes. When d is even there is 1 such polytope up to isomorphism, while there are 2 when d is uneven.
A simplicial polytope is combinatorially rigid if its combinatorial structure is determined by its graded Betti numbers which are important invariant coming from combinatorial commutative algebra. We find a necessary condition to be combinatorially rigid for 3-dimensional reducible simplicial polytopes and provide some rigid reducible simplicial polytopes.
A simplicial polytope is a polytope with all its facets being combinatorially equivalent to simplices. We deal with the edge connectivity of the graphs of simplicial polytopes. We first establish that, for any $d\ge 3$, for any $d\ge 3$, every minimum edge cut of cardinality at most $4d-7$ in such a graph is \textit{trivial}, namely it consists of all the edges incident with some vertex. A consequence of this is that, for $d\ge 3$, the graph of a simplicial $d$-polytope with minimum degree $δ$ is $\min\{δ,4d-6\}$-edge-connected. In the particular case of $d=3$, we have that every minimum edge …
A remarkable and important property of face numbers of simplicial polytopes is the generalized lower bound inequality, which says that the $h$-numbers of any simplicial polytope are unimodal. Recently, for balanced simplicial $d$-polytopes, that is simplicial $d$-polytopes whose underlying graphs are $d$-colorable, Klee and Novik proposed a balanced analogue of this inequality, that is stronger than just unimodality. The aim of this article is to prove this conjecture of Klee and Novik. For this, we also show a Lefschetz property for rank-selected subcomplexes of balanced simplicial polytopes …
Kalai proved that the simplicial polytopes with g_2=0 are the stacked polytopes. We characterize the g_2=1 case. Specifically, we prove that every simplicial d-polytope (d>=4) which is prime and with g_2=1 is combinatorially equivalent either to a free sum of two simplices whose dimensions add up to d (each of dimension at least 2), or to a free sum of a polygon with a (d-2)-simplex. Thus, every simplicial d-polytope (d>=4) with g_2=1 is combinatorially equivalent to a polytope obtained by stacking over a polytope as above. Moreover, the above characterization holds for any homology (d-1)-sphe…
This paper is a survey of recent advances as well as open problems in the study of face numbers of centrally symmetric simplicial polytopes and spheres. The topics discussed range from neighborliness of centrally symmetric polytopes and the upper bound theorem for centrally symmetric simplicial spheres to the generalized lower bound theorem for centrally symmetric simplicial polytopes and the lower bound conjecture for centrally symmetric simplicial spheres and manifolds.
In this paper we use a generating function approach to record and calculate entries of the Minkowski tensors of a polytope. We focus on ''surface tensors'', extending the methods used in arXiv:1807.10258 for moments of the uniform distribution which correspond to volume tensors. In this context we also extend the definition of the adjoint polynomial to the boundary complex of a polytope with simplicial facets. In the case of simplicial polytopes we give an explicit formulation for these surface tensors.
A conjecture of Kalai from 1994 posits that for an arbitrary $2\leq k\leq \lfloor d/2 \rfloor$, the combinatorial type of a simplicial $d$-polytope $P$ is uniquely determined by the $(k-1)$-skeleton of $P$ (given as an abstract simplicial complex) together with the space of affine $k$-stresses on $P$. We establish the first non-trivial case of this conjecture, namely, the case of $k=2$. We also prove that for a general $k$, Kalai's conjecture holds for the class of $k$-neighborly polytopes.
We study $n$-vertex $d$-dimensional polytopes with at most one nonsimplex facet with, say, $d+s$ vertices, called {\it almost simplicial polytopes}. We provide tight lower and upper bound theorems for these polytopes as functions of $d,n$ and $s$, thus generalizing the classical Lower Bound Theorem by Barnette and Upper Bound Theorem by McMullen, which treat the case of $s=0$. We characterize the minimizers and provide examples of maximizers, for any $d$. Our construction of maximizers is a generalization of cyclic polytopes, based on a suitable variation of the moment curve, and is of indepen…
It is proved that a certain symmetric sequence of nonnegative integers arising in the enumeration of magic squares of given size n by row sums or, equivalently, in the generating function of the Ehrhart polynomial of the polytope of doubly stochastic n by n matrices, is equal to the h-vector of a simplicial polytope and hence that it satisfies the conditions of the g-theorem. The unimodality of this sequance, which follows, was conjectured by Stanley (1983). Several generalizations are given.
Let $f_i(P)$ denote the number of $i$-dimensional faces of a convex polytope $P$. Furthermore, let $S(n,d)$ and $C(n,d)$ denote, respectively, the stacked and the cyclic $d$-dimensional polytopes on $n$ vertices. Our main result is that for every simplicial $d$-polytope $P$, if $$ f_r(S(n_1,d))\le f_r(P) \le f_r(C(n_2,d)) $$ for some integers $n_1, n_2$ and $r$, then $$ f_s(S(n_1,d))\le f_s(P) \le f_s(C(n_2,d)) $$ for all $s$ such that $r<s$. For $r=0$ these inequalities are the well-known lower and upper bound theorems for simplicial polytopes. The result is implied by a certain ``comparison …
A reflexive polytope, respectively its associated Gorenstein toric Fano variety, is called pseudo-symmetric, if the polytope has a centrally symmetric pair of facets. Here we present a complete classification of pseudo-symmetric simplicial reflexive polytopes together with some applications. This generalizes a result of Ewald on pseudo-symmetric nonsingular toric Fano varieties.
We will study the angle sums of polytopes, listed in the $α$-vector, working to exploit the analogy between the f-vector of faces in each dimension and the alpha-vector of angle sums. The Gram and Perles relations on the $α$-vector are analogous to the Euler and Dehn-Sommerville relations on the f-vector. First we describe the spaces spanned by the the alpha-vector and the $α$-f-vectors of certain classes of polytopes. Families of polytopes are constructed whose angle sums span the spaces of polytopes defined by the Gram and Perles equations. This shows that the dimension of the affine span of…
The colorful simplicial depth of a collection of d+1 finite sets of points in Euclidean d-space is the number of choices of a point from each set such that the origin is contained in their convex hull. We use methods from combinatorial topology to prove a tight upper bound on the colorful simplicial depth. This implies a conjecture of Deza et al. (2006). Furthermore, we introduce colorful Gale transforms as a bridge between colorful configurations and Minkowski sums. Our colorful upper bound then yields a tight upper bound on the number of totally mixed facets of certain Minkowski sums of simp…
In the paper we treat Gale diagrams in a combinatorial way. The interpretation allows to describe simplicial complexes which are Alexander dual to boundaries of simplicial polytopes and, more generally, to nerve-complexes of general polytopes. This technique and recent results of N.Yu.Erokhovets are combined to prove the following: Buchstaber invariant $s(P)$ of a convex polytope equals 1 if and only if $P$ is a pyramid. In general, we describe a procedure to construct polytopes with $s_R(P)>k$. The construction has purely combinatorial consequences. We also apply Gale duality to the study of …
In 1980 Provan and Billera defined the notion of weak $k$-decomposability for pure simplicial complexes. They showed the diameter of a weakly $k$-decomposable simplicial complex $Δ$ is bounded above by a polynomial function of the number of $k$-faces in $Δ$ and its dimension. For weakly 0-decomposable complexes, this bound is linear in the number of vertices and the dimension. In this paper we exhibit the first examples of non-weakly 0-decomposable simplicial polytopes.
A dissection of a convex d-polytope is a partition of the polytope into d-simplices whose vertices are among the vertices of the polytope. Triangulations are dissections that have the additional property that the set of all its simplices forms a simplicial complex. The size of a dissection is the number of d-simplices it contains. This paper compares triangulations of maximal size with dissections of maximal size. We also exhibit lower and upper bounds for the size of dissections of a 3-polytope and analyze extremal size triangulations for specific non-simplicial polytopes: prisms, antiprisms,…
Given a (finite) simplicial complex, we define its $i$-th Laplacian polytope as the convex hull of the columns of its $i$-th Laplacian matrix. This extends Laplacian simplices of finite simple graphs, as introduced by Braun and Meyer. After studying basic properties of these polytopes, we focus on the $d$-th Laplacian polytope of the boundary of a $(d+1)$-simplex $\partial(σ_{d+1})$. If $d$ is odd, then as for graphs, the $d$-th Laplacian polytope turns out to be a $(d+1)$-simplex in this case. If $d$ is even, we show that the $d$-th Laplacian polytope of $\partial(σ_{d+1})$ is combinatorially…
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 Counterexample to Ziegler's Cross-Polytope Conjecture for Simplicial 0/1-Polytopes
Faculty of Mathematics, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg（马格德堡奥托·冯·古里克大学数学学院）；Institute of Mathematics, Technische Universität Berlin（柏林工业大学数学研究所）；Zuse Institute Berlin（柏林祖斯研究所）
In this paper, we consider the normality or the integer decomposition property (IDP, for short) for Minkowski sums of integral convex polytopes. We discuss some properties on the toric rings associated with Minkowski sums of integral convex polytopes. We also study Minkowski sums of edge polytopes and give a sufficient condition for Minkowski sums of edge polytopes to have IDP.
For a simplicial complex K on m vertices and simplicial complexes K1,...,Km a composed simplicial complex K(K1,...,Km) is introduced. This construction generalizes an iterated simplicial wedge construction studied by A. Bahri, M. Bendersky, F. R. Cohen and S. Gitler and allows to describe the combinatorics of generalized joins of polytopes P(P1,...,Pm) defined by G. Agnarsson. The composition defines a structure of an operad on a set of finite simplicial complexes. We prove the following: (1) a composed complex K(K1,...,Km) is a simplicial sphere iff K is a simplicial sphere and Ki are the bou…
In their paper proving the Hirsch bound for flag normal simplicial complexes (Math. Oper.~Res.~2014) Adiprasito and Benedetti define the notion of~\emph{combinatorial segment}. The study of the maximal length of these objects provides the upper bound~$O(n2^d)$ for the diameter of any normal pure simplicial complex of dimension~$d$ with~$n$ vertices, and the Hirsch bound $n-d$ if the complexes are, moreover, flag. In the present article, we propose a formulation of combinatorial segments which is equivalent but more local, by introducing the notions of monotonicity and conservativeness of dual …
We prove an asymptotic estimate for the number of mxn non-negative integer matrices (contingency tables) with prescribed row and column sums and, more generally, for the number of integer feasible flows in a network. Similarly, we estimate the volume of the polytope of mxn non-negative real matrices with prescribed row and column sums. Our estimates are solutions of convex optimization problems and hence can be computed efficiently. As a corollary, we show that if row sums R=(r_1, ..., r_m) and column sums C=(c_1, ..., c_n) with r_1 + ... + r_m =c_1 + ... +c_n =N are sufficiently far from cons…
It is known that the suspension of a simplicial complex can be realized with only one additional point. Suitable iterations of this construction generate highly symmetric simplicial complexes with various interesting combinatorial and topological properties. In particular, infinitely many non-PL spheres as well as contractible simplicial complexes with a vertex-transitive group of automorphisms can be obtained in this way.
For any flag simplicial complex $Θ$ obtained by stellar subdividing the boundary of the cross polytope in edges, we define a flag simplicial complex $Γ(Θ)$ (dependent on the sequence of subdivisions) whose $f$-vector is the $γ$-vector of $Θ$. This proves that the $γ$-vector of any such simplicial complex satisfies the Frankl-Füredi-Kalai inequalities, partially solving a conjecture by Nevo and Petersen \cite{np}. We show that when $Θ$ is the dual simplicial complex to a nestohedron, and the sequence of subdivisions corresponds to a flag ordering as defined in \cite{ai}, that $Γ(Θ)$ is equal to…
Given a real closed polytope $P$, we first describe the Fourier transform of its indicator function by using iterations of Stokes' theorem. We then use the ensuing Fourier transform formulations, together with the Poisson summation formula, to give a new algorithm to count fractionally-weighted lattice points inside the one-parameter family of all real dilates of $P$. The combinatorics of the face poset of $P$ plays a central role in the description of the Fourier transform of $P$. We also obtain a closed form for the codimension-1 coefficient that appears in an expansion of this sum in powers…
In this paper, we study Lefschetz properties of Artinian reductions of Stanley-Reisner rings of balanced simplicial $3$-polytopes. A $(d-1)$-dimensional simplicial complex is said to be balanced if its graph is $d$-colorable. If a simplicial complex is balanced, then its Stanley-Reisner ring has a special system of parameters induced by the coloring. We prove that the Artinian reduction of the Stanley-Reisner ring of a balanced simplicial $3$-polytope with respect to this special system of parameters has the strong Lefschetz property if the characteristic of the base field is not two or three.…
We show that the Euler-MacLaurin formula for Riemann sums has an n-dimensional analogue in which intervals on the line get replaced by convex polytopes.
For two families of random polytopes we compute explicitly the expected sums of the conic intrinsic volumes and the Grassmann angles at all faces of any given dimension of the polytope under consideration. As special cases, we compute the expected sums of internal and external angles at all faces of any fixed dimension. The first family are the Gaussian polytopes defined as convex hulls of i.i.d. samples from a non-degenerate Gaussian distribution in $\mathbb R^d$. The second family are convex hulls of random walks with exchangeable increments satisfying certain mild general position assumptio…
Let P be a lattice polytope in R^n, and let P \cap Z^n = {v_1,...,v_N}. If the N + \binom N2 points 2v_1,...,2v_N; v_1+v_2,...v_{N-1}+v_N are distinct, we say that P is a "distinct pair-sum" or "dps" polytope. We show that, if P is a dsp polytope in R^n, then N \le 2^n, and, for every n, we construct dps polytopes in R^n which contain 2^n lattice points. We also discuss the relation between dps polytopes and the study of sums of squares of real polynomials.
The free sum is a basic geometric operation among convex polytopes. This note focuses on the relationship between the normalized volume of the free sum and that of the summands. In particular, we show that the normalized volume of the free sum of full dimensional polytopes is precisely the product of the normalized volumes of the summands.
The objective of this paper is to study a special family of Minkowski sums, that is of polytopes relatively in general position. We show that the maximum number of faces in the sum can be attained by this family. We present a new linear equation that is satisfied by f-vectors of the sum and the summands. We study some of the implications of this equation.
The Hirsch conjecture, posed in 1957, stated that the graph of a $d$-dimensional polytope or polyhedron with $n$ facets cannot have diameter greater than $n - d$. The conjecture itself has been disproved, but what we know about the underlying question is quite scarce. Most notably, no polynomial upper bound is known for the diameters that were conjectured to be linear. In contrast, no polyhedron violating the conjecture by more than 25% is known. This paper reviews several recent attempts and progress on the question. Some work in the world of polyhedra or (more often) bounded polytopes, but s…
Ordinary polytopes are known as a non-simplicial generalization of the cyclic polytopes. The face vectors of ordinary polytopes are shown to be log-concave.
If $P$ is a lattice polytope (that is, the convex hull of a finite set of lattice points in $\mathbf{R}^n$), then every sum of $h$ lattice points in $P$ is a lattice point in the $h$-fold sumset $hP$. However, a lattice point in the $h$-fold sumset $hP$ is not necessarily the sum of $h$ lattice points in $P$. It is proved that if the polytope $P$ is a union of unimodular simplices, then every lattice point in the $h$-fold sumset $hP$ is the sum of $h$ lattice points in $P$.
A simplicial complex $Δ$ is called flag if all minimal nonfaces of $Δ$ have at most two elements. The following are proved: First, if $Δ$ is a flag simplicial pseudomanifold of dimension $d-1$, then the graph of $Δ$ (i) is $(2d-2)$-vertex-connected and (ii) has a subgraph which is a subdivision of the graph of the $d$-dimensional cross-polytope. Second, the $h$-vector of a flag simplicial homology sphere $Δ$ of dimension $d-1$ is minimized when $Δ$ is the boundary complex of the $d$-dimensional cross-polytope.
In this paper, we study the root distributions of Ehrhart polynomials of free sums of certain reflexive polytopes. We investigate cases where the roots of the Ehrhart polynomials of the free sums of $A_d^\vee$'s or $A_d$'s lie on the canonical line $\mathrm{Re}(z)=-\frac{1}{2}$ on the complex plane $\mathbb{C}$, where $A_d$ denotes the root polytope of type A of dimension $d$ and $A_d^\vee$ denotes its polar dual. For example, it is proved that $A_m^\vee \oplus A_n^\vee$ with $\min\{m,n\} \leq 1$ or $m+n \leq 7$, $A_2^\vee \oplus (A_1^\vee)^{\oplus n}$ and $A_3^\vee \oplus (A_1^\vee)^{\oplus n…
We show how to compute the Ehrhart polynomial of the free sum of two lattice polytopes containing the origin $P$ and $Q$ in terms of the enumerative combinatorics of $P$ and $Q$. This generalizes work of Beck, Jayawant, McAllister, and Braun, and follows from the observation that the weighted $h^*$-polynomial is multiplicative with respect to the free sum. We deduce that given a lattice polytope $P$ containing the origin, the problem of computing the number of lattice points in all rational dilates of $P$ is equivalent to the problem of computing the number of lattice points in all integer dil…
Let P be a convex polytope not simple in general. In the focus of this paper lies a simplicial complex K_P which carries complete information about the combinatorial type of P. In the case when P is simple, K_P is the same as dP*, where P* is a polar dual polytope. Using the canonical embedding of a polytope P into nonnegative orthant, we introduce a moment-angle space Z_P for a polytope P. It is known, that in the case when P is simple the space Z_P is homeomorphic to the polyhedral product (D^2,S^1)^{K_P}. When P is not simple, we prove that the space Z_P is homotopically equivalent to the s…
We analyze marked poset polytopes and generalize a result due to Hibi and Li, answering whether the marked chain polytope is unimodular equivalent to the marked order polytope. Both polytopes appear naturally in the representation theory of semi-simple Lie algebras, and hence we can give a necessary and sufficient condition on the marked poset such that the associated toric degenerations of the corresponding partial flag variety are isomorphic. We further show that the set of lattice points in such a marked poset polytope is the Minkowski sum of sets of lattice points for 0-1 polytopes. Moreov…
Let $\mathcal{P} \subset \mathbb{R}^{d}$ and $\mathcal{Q} \subset \mathbb{R}^e$ be integral convex polytopes of dimension $d$ and $e$ which contain the origin of $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ and $\mathbb{R}^e$, respectively. In the present paper, under some assumptions, the necessary and sufficient condition for the free sum of $\mathcal{P}$ and $\mathcal{Q}$ to possess the integer decomposition property will be presented.
Given a finite set of vectors spanning a lattice and lying in a halfspace of a real vector space, to each vector $a$ in this vector space one can associate a polytope consisting of nonnegative linear combinations of the vectors in the set which sum up to $a$. This polytope is called the partition polytope of $a$. If $a$ is integral, this polytope contains a finite set of lattice points corresponding to nonnegative integral linear combinations. The partition polytope associated to an integral $a$ is a rational convex polytope, and any rational convex polytope can be realized canonically as a pa…
A neighborliness property of marginal polytopes of hierarchical models, depending on the cardinality of the smallest non-face of the underlying simplicial complex, is shown. The case of binary variables is studied explicitly, then the general case is reduced to the binary case. A Markov basis for binary hierarchical models whose simplicial complexes is the complement of an interval is given.
