Manin and Schechtman introduced a family of arrangements of hyperplanes generalizing classical braid arrangements, which they called the $\textit{discriminantal arrangements}$. Athanasiadis proved a conjecture by Bayer and Brandt providing a full description of the combinatorics of discriminantal arrangements in the case of $\textit{very generic}$ arrangements. Libgober and Settepanella described a sufficient geometric condition for given arrangements to be $\textit{non very generic}$ in terms of the notion of dependency for a certain arrangement. Settepanella and the author generalized the notion of dependency introducing $r$-sets and $K_\mathbb{T}$-vector sets, and provided a sufficient condition for non very genericity but still not convenient to verify by hand. In this paper we give a classification of the $r$-sets, and a more explicit and tractable condition for non very genericity.
In this article we give a computational study of combinatorics of the discriminantal arrangements. The discriminantal arrangements are parametrized by two positive integers n and k such that n>k. The intersection lattice of the discriminantal arrangement with the parameter (n,k) is isomorphic to the intersection lattice of the hyperplane arrangement generated by n generic points in the d-dimensional vector space where d=n-k-1. The combinatorics of the discriminantal arrangements is very hard, except for the special cases of the Boolean arrangements (k=0) and the braid arrangements (k=1). We re…
In this article we prove two main results. Firstly, we show that any six-line arrangement, consisting of three pairs of mutually perpendicular lines, does not give rise to a "very generic or sufficiently general" discriminantal arrangement in the sense of C. A. Athanasiadis \cite{MR1720104}. We give two proofs of the first result. The second result is as follows. The codimension-one boundary faces of (a region) a convex cone of a very generic discriminantal arrangement has not been characterized and is not known even though the intersection lattice of a very generic discriminantal arrangement …
The discriminantal arrangement is the space of configurations of $n$ hyperplanes in generic position in a $k$ dimensional space (see \cite{MS}). Differently from the case $k=1$ in which it corresponds to the well known braid arrangement, the discriminantal arrangement in the case $k>1$ has a combinatorics which depends from the choice of the original $n$ hyperplanes. It is known that this combinatorics is constant in an open Zariski set $\mathcal{Z}$, but to assess wether or not $n$ fixed hyperplanes in generic position belongs to $\mathcal{Z}$ proved to be a nontrivial problem. Even to simply…
We show that points in specific degree 2 hypersurfaces in the Grassmannian $Gr(3, n)$ correspond to generic arrangements of $n$ hyperplanes in $\mathbb{C}^3$ with associated discriminantal arrangement having intersections of multiplicity three in codimension two.
In 1985 Crapo introduced in \cite{Crapo} a new mathematical object that he called $\textit{geometry of circuits}$. Four years later, in 1989, Manin and Schechtman defined in \cite{MS} the same object and called it $\textit{discriminantal arrangement}$, the name by which it is known now a days. Those discriminantal arrangements $\mathcal{B}(n,k,\mathcal{A}^0)$ are builded from an arrangement $\mathcal{A}^0$ of $n$ hyperplanes in general position in a $k$-dimensional space and their combinatorics depends on the arrangement $\mathcal{A}^0$. On this basis, in 1997 Bayer and Brandt (see \cite{BB}) …
We relate the cohomology of the Orlik-Solomon algebra of a discriminantal arrangement to the local system cohomology of the complement. The Orlik-Solomon algebra of such an arrangement (viewed as a complex) is shown to be a linear approximation of a complex arising from the fundamental group of the complement, the cohomology of which is isomorphic to that of the complement with coefficients in an arbitrary complex rank one local system. We also establish the relationship between the cohomology support loci of the complement of a discriminantal arrangement and the resonant varieties of its Orli…
We give an explicit description of the multiplicities of codimension two strata of discriminantal arrangements introduced by Manin and Schechtman. As applications, we discuss the connection of these results with properties of Gale transform and we calculate the fundamental groups of the complements to discriminantal arrangements.
We calculate the skew-symmetric cohomology of the complement of a discriminantal hyperplane arrangement with coefficients in local systems arising in the context of the representation theory of the Lie algebra sl_2. For a discriminantal arrangement in C^k, the skew-symmetric cohomology is nontrivial in dimension k-1 precisely when the "master function" which defines the local system on the complement has nonisolated critical points. In symmetric coordinates, the critical set is a union of lines. Generically, the dimension of this nontrivial skew-symmetric cohomology group is equal to the numbe…
Indian Institute of Information Technology, Manipur(印度信息技术学院曼尼普尔分校);Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery, Hokkaido University(北海道大学化学反应用设计发现研究所);Torino University
In this article we prove in the main theorem that, there is a bijection between the isomorphism classes of a certain type of real hyperplane arrangements on the one hand, and the antipodal pairs of convex cones of an associated discriminantal arrangement on the other hand. The type of hyperplane arrangements considered and the isomorphism classes have been defined precisely. As a consequence we enumerate such isomorphism classes by computing the characteristic polynomial of the discriminantal arrangement. With a certain restriction, the enumerated value is shown to be independent of the discri…
We construct bundles $E_k(\A,\F) \to M$ over the complement $M$ of a complex hyperplane arrangement \A, depending on an integer $k \geq 1$ and a set $\F=\{f_1, \ldots, f_μ\}$ of continuous functions $f_i \colon M \to \C$ whose differences are nonzero on $M$, generalizing the configuration space bundles arising in the Lawrence-Krammer-Bigelow representation of the pure braid group. We display such families \F\ for rank two arrangements, reflection arrangements of types $A_\ell$, $B_\ell$, $D_\ell$, $F_4$, and for arrangements supporting multinet structures with three classes, with the resulting…
A barred preferential arrangement is a preferential arrangement, onto which in-between the blocks of the preferential arrangement a number of identical bars are inserted. We offer a generalisation of barred preferential arrangements by making use of the generalised Stirling numbers proposed by Hsu and Shiue (1998). We discuss how these generalised barred preferential arrangements offer a unified combinatorial interpretation of geometric polynomials. We also discuss asymptotic properties of these numbers.
It is well known that not every combinatorial configuration admits a geometric realization with points and lines. Moreover, some of them do not even admit realizations with pseudoline arrangements, i.e., they are not topological. In this paper we provide a new topological representation by using and essentially generalizing the topological representation of oriented matroids in rank 3. These representations can also be interpreted as curve arrangements on surfaces. In particular, we generalize the notion of a pseudoline arrangement to the notion of a quasiline arrangement by relaxing the condi…
An arrangement of hyperplanes is called formal, if the relations between the hyperplanes are generated by relations in codimension 2. Formality is not a combinatorial property, raising the question for a characterization for combinatorial formality. A sufficient condition for this is if the underlying matroid has no proper lift with the same points and lines. We present an example of a matroid with such a lift but no non-formal realization, thus showing that above condition is not necessary for combinatorial formality.
Given a nonnegative integer $m$ and a finite collection ${\mathcal A}$ of linear forms on ${\mathbb Q}^d$, the arrangement of affine hyperplanes in ${\mathbb Q}^d$ defined by the equations $α(x) = k$ for $α\in {\mathcal A}$ and integers $k \in [-m, m]$ is denoted by ${\mathcal A}^m$. It is proved that the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of ${\mathcal A}^m$ are quasi-polynomials in $m$ and that they satisfy a simple combinatorial reciprocity law.
We examine Deligne's classical proof of the asphericity of simplicial arrangements from the viewpoint of the combinatorics of the poset of regions of the arrangement. This turns out to be very natural. In particular, we show that an arrangement is simplicial only if it satisfies Deligne's property on positive paths, thus answering a question posed by Luis Paris.
Consider the collection of hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ whose defining equations are given by $\{x_i + x_j = 0\mid 1\leq i<j\leq n\}$. This arrangement is called the threshold arrangement since its regions are in bijection with labeled threshold graphs on $n$ vertices. Zaslavsky's theorem implies that the number of regions of this arrangement is the sum of coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of the arrangement. In the present article we give a combinatorial meaning to these coefficients as the number of labeled threshold graphs with a certain property, thus answering a question pose…
This paper is about two arrangements of hyperplanes. The first --- the Shi arrangement --- was introduced by Jian-Yi Shi to describe the Kazhdan-Lusztig cells in the affine Weyl group of type $A$. The second --- the Ish arrangement --- was recently defined by the first author who used the two arrangements together to give a new interpretation of the $q,t$-Catalan numbers of Garsia and Haiman. In the present paper we will define a mysterious "combinatorial symmetry" between the two arrangements and show that this symmetry preserves a great deal of information. For example, the Shi and Ish arran…
We show that there are five types of planar curves such that arrangements of its translates are combinatorially equivalent to an arrangement of lines. These curves can be used to define norms giving constructions with many unit distances among points in the plane.
We introduce a combinatorial characterization of simpliciality for arrangements of hyperplanes. We then give a sharp upper bound for the number of hyperplanes of such an arrangement in the projective plane over a finite field, and present some series of arrangements related to the known arrangements in characteristic zero. We further enumerate simplicial arrangements with given symmetry groups. Finally, we determine all finite complex reflection groups affording combinatorially simplicial arrangements. It turns out that combinatorial simpliciality coincides with inductive freeness for finite c…
We study a certain discrete differentiation of piecewise-constant functions on the adjoint of the braid hyperplane arrangement, defined by taking finite-differences across hyperplanes. In terms of Aguiar-Mahajan's Lie theory of hyperplane arrangements, we show that this structure is equivalent to the action of Lie elements on faces. We use layered binary trees to encode flags of adjoint arrangement faces, allowing for the representation of certain Lie elements by antisymmetrized layered binary forests. This is dual to the well-known use of (delayered) binary trees to represent Lie elements of …
We find an explicit combinatorial gradient vector field on the well known complex S (Salvetti complex) which models the complement to an arrangement of complexified hyperplanes. The argument uses a total ordering on the facets of the stratification of R^n associated to the arrangement, which is induced by a generic system of polar coordinates. We give a combinatorial description of the singular facets, finding also an algebraic complex which computes local homology. We also give a precise construction in the case of the braid arrangement.
The theory of intrinsic volumes of convex cones has recently found striking applications in areas such as convex optimization and compressive sensing. This article provides a self-contained account of the combinatorial theory of intrinsic volumes for polyhedral cones. Direct derivations of the General Steiner formula, the conic analogues of the Brianchon-Gram-Euler and the Gauss-Bonnet relations, and the Principal Kinematic Formula are given. In addition, a connection between the characteristic polynomial of a hyperplane arrangement and the intrinsic volumes of the regions of the arrangement, …
We survey interactions between the topology and the combinatorics of complex hyperplane arrangements. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we examine in this setting combinatorial aspects of fundamental groups, associated graded Lie algebras, higher homotopy groups, cohomology rings, twisted homology with rank 1 complex coefficients, and Milnor fibers.
Polar orderings arose in recent work of Salvetti and the second author on minimal CW-complexes for complexified hyperplane arrangements. We study the combinatorics of these orderings in the classical framework of oriented matroids, and reach thereby a weakening of the conditions required to actually determine such orderings. A class of arrangements for which the construction of the minimal complex is particularly easy, called {\em recursively orderable} arrangements, can therefore be combinatorially defined. We initiate the study of this class, giving a complete characterization in dimension 2…
A widely investigated subject in combinatorial geometry, originated from Erdős, is the following. Given a point set $P$ of cardinality $n$ in the plane, how can we describe the distribution of the determined distances? This has been generalized in many directions. In this paper we propose the following variants. Consider planar arrangements of $n$ lines. Determine the maximum number of triangles of unit area, maximum area or minimum area, determined by these lines. Determine the minimum size of a subset of these $n$ lines so that all triples determine distinct area triangles. We prove that the…
We study the combinatorial properties of a tropical hyperplane arrangement. We define tropical oriented matroids, and prove that they share many of the properties of ordinary oriented matroids. We show that a tropical oriented matroid determines a subdivision of a product of two simplices, and conjecture that this correspondence is a bijection.
Varchenko defined the Varchenko matrix associated to any real hyperplane arrangement and computed its determinant. In this paper, we show that the Varchenko matrix of a hyperplane arrangement has a diagonal form if and only if it is semigeneral, i.e., without degeneracy. In the case of semigeneral arrangement, we present an explicit computation of the diagonal form via combinatorial arguments and matrix operations, thus giving a combinatorial interpretation of the diagonal entries.
A preferential arrangement of a set $X_n=\{1,2,...,n\}$ is an ordered partition of the set $X_n$ induced with a linear order. Separation of blocks of a preferential arrangement with bars result in the notation of barred preferential arrangements. Roger Nelsen and Harvey Schmidt have proposed the family of generating functions $P^k(m)=\frac{e^{km}}{2-e^m}$; which for $k=0$ and for $k=2$ they have shown that the generating functions are exponential generating functions for the number of preferential arrangements of a set $X_n$ and the number of chains in the power set of $X_n$ respectively. In t…
A common generalization for the chromatic polynomial and the flow polynomial of a graph $G$ is the Tutte polynomial $T(G;x,y)$. The combinatorial meaning for the coefficients of $T$ was discovered by Tutte at the beginning of its definition. However, for a long time the combinatorial meaning for the values of $T$ is missing, except for a few values such as $T(G;i,j)$, where $1\leq i,j\leq 2$, until recently for $T(G;1,0)$ and $T(G;0,1)$. In this third one of a series of papers, we introduce product valuations, cartesian product arrangements, and multivariable characteristic polynomials, and ap…
It is known that there exist hyperplane arrangements with same underlying matroid that admit non-homotopy equivalent complement manifolds. In this work we show that, in any rank, complex central hyperplane arrangements with up to 7 hyperplanes and same underlying matroid are isotopic. In particular, the diffeomorphism type of the complement manifold and the Milnor fiber and fibration of these arrangements are combinatorially determined, i.e., they depend uniquely on the underlying matroid. To do this, we associate to every such matroid a topological space, that we call the reduced realization …
In the theory of hyperplane arrangements, the most important and difficult problem is the combinatorial dependency of several properties. In this atricle, we prove that Terao's celebrated addition-deletion theorem for free arrangements is combinatorial, i.e., whether you can apply it depends only on the intersection lattice of arrangements. The proof is based on a classical technique. Since some parts are already completed recently, we prove the rest part, i.e., the combinatoriality of the addition theorem. As a corollary, we can define a new class of free arrangements called the additionally …
We prove Terao conjecture saying that the freeness is determined by the combinatorics for arrangements of 13 lines in the complex projective plane and that the property of being nearly free is combinatorial for line arrangements of up to 12 lines in the complex projective plane.
Simplicial arrangements are classical objects in discrete geometry. Their classification remains an open problem but there is a list conjectured to be complete at least for rank three. A further important class in the theory of hyperplane arrangements with particularly nice geometric, algebraic, topological, and combinatorial properties are the supersolvable arrangements. In this paper we give a complete classification of supersolvable simplicial arrangements (in all ranks). For each fixed rank, our classification already includes almost all known simplicial arrangements. Surprisingly, for irr…
We compute the cohomology ring of the complement of a toric arrangement with integer coefficients and investigate its dependency from the arrangement's combinatorial data. To this end, we study a morphism of spectral sequences associated to certain combinatorially defined subcomplexes of the toric Salvetti category in the complexified case, and use a technical argument in order to extend the results to full generality. As a byproduct we obtain: -a "combinatorial" version of Brieskorn's lemma in terms of Salvetti complexes of complexified arrangements, -a uniqueness result for realizations of a…
The fundamental group of the complement of a hyperplane arrangement in a complex vector space is an important topological invariant. The third rank of successive quotients in the lower central series of the fundamental group was called Falk invariant of the arrangement since Falk gave the first formula and asked to give a combinatorial interpretation. In this article, we give a combinatorial formula for the Falk invariant of a signed graphic arrangement that do not have a $B_2$ as sub-arrangement.
We prove that the complement of any affine 2-arrangement in R^d is minimal, that is, it is homotopy equivalent to a cell complex with as many i-cells as its i-th rational Betti number. For the proof, we provide a Lefschetz-type hyperplane theorem for complements of 2-arrangements, and introduce Alexander duality for combinatorial Morse functions. Our results greatly generalize previous work by Falk, Dimca--Papadima, Hattori, Randell, and Salvetti--Settepanella and others, and they demonstrate that in contrast to previous investigations, a purely combinatorial approach suffices to show minimali…
In 2003, Haglund's {\sf bounce} statistic gave the first combinatorial interpretation of the $q,t$-Catalan numbers and the Hilbert series of diagonal harmonics. In this paper we propose a new combinatorial interpretation in terms of the affine Weyl group of type $A$. In particular, we define two statistics on affine permutations; one in terms of the Shi hyperplane arrangement, and one in terms of a new arrangement - which we call the Ish arrangement. We prove that our statistics are equivalent to the {\sf area'} and {\sf bounce} statistics of Haglund and Loehr. In this setting, we observe that…
This expository article outlines the construction of De Concini-Procesi arrangement models and describes recent progress in understanding their significance from the algebraic, geometric, and combinatorial point of view. Throughout the exposition, a strong emphasis is given to combinatorial and discrete geometric data that lies at the core of the construction.
In this paper we find monomial bases for the integer cohomology rings of compact wonderful models of toric arrangements. In the description of the monomials various combinatorial objects come into play: building sets, nested sets, and the fan of a suitable toric variety. We provide some examples computed via a SageMath program and then we focus on the case of the toric arrangements associated with root systems of type A. Here the combinatorial description of our basis offers a geometrical point of view on the relation between some Eulerian statistics on the symmetric group.
Two arrangements with the same combinatorial intersection lattice but whose complements have different fundamental groups are called a Zariski pair. This work finds that there are at most nine such pairs amongst all ten line arrangements whose intersection points are doubles or triples. This result is obtained by considering the moduli space of a given configuration table which describes the intersection lattice. A complete combinatorial classification is given of all arrangements of this type under a suitable assumption, producing a list of seventy-one described in a table, most of which do n…