We introduce a notion of lexicographic shellability for pure, balanced boolean cell complexes, modelled after the $CL$-shellability criterion of Björner and Wachs for posets and its generalization by Kozlov called $CC$-shellability. We give a lexicographic shelling for the quotient of the order complex of a Boolean algebra of rank $2n$ by the action of the wreath product $S_2\wr S_n$ of symmetric groups, and we provide a partitioning for the quotient complex $Δ(Π_n)/S_n $.
Stanley asked for a description of the symmetric group representation $β_S $ on the homology of the rank-selected partition lattice $Π_n^S $ in [St2], and in particular he asked when the multiplicity $b_S(n)$ of the trivial representation in $β_S$ is 0. One consequence of the partitioning for $\dps $ is a (fairly complicated) combinatorial interpretation for $b_S(n) $; another is a simple proof of Hanlon's result that $b_{1,..., i}(n)=0$. Using a result of Garsia and Stanton, we deduce from our shelling for $Δ(B_{2n})/S_2 \wr S_n$ that the ring of invariants $k[x_1,..., x_{2n}]^{S_2\wr S_n}$ is Cohen-Macaulay over any field $k$.
We investigate when the independence complex of $G[H]$, the lexicographical product of two graphs $G$ and $H$, is either vertex decomposable or shellable. As an application, we construct an infinite family of graphs with the property that every graph in this family has the property that the independence complex of each graph is shellable, but not vertex decomposable.
In 1977 Stanley conjectured that the $h$-vector of a matroid independence complex is a pure $O$-sequence. In this paper we use lexicographic shellability for matroids to motivate a combinatorial strengthening of Stanley's conjecture. This suggests that a pure $O$-sequence can be constructed from combinatorial data arising from the shelling. We then prove that our conjecture holds for matroids of rank at most four, settling the rank four case of Stanley's conjecture. In general, we prove that if our conjecture holds for all rank $d$ matroids on at most $2d$ elements, then it holds for all matro…
Geometric lattices are characterized in this paper as those finite, atomic lattices such that every atom ordering induces a lexicographic shelling given by an edge labeling known as a minimal labeling. Equivalently, geometric lattices are shown to be exactly those finite lattices such that every ordering on the join-irreducibles induces a lexicographic shelling. This new characterization fits into a similar paradigm as McNamara's characterization of supersolvable lattices as those lattices admitting a different type of lexicographic shelling, namely one in which each maximal chain is labeled w…
In this manuscript we study inclusion posets of Borel orbit closures on (symmetric) matrices. In particular, we show that the Bruhat poset of partial involutions is a lexicographiically shellable poset. Also, studying the embeddings of symmetric groups and involutions into rooks and partial involutions, respectively, we find new $EL$-labelings on permutations as well as on involutions.
Imposing a strong condition on the linear order of shellable complexes, we introduce strong shellability. Basic properties, including the existence of dimension-decreasing strong shelling orders, are developed with respect to nonpure strongly shellable complexes. Meanwhile, pure strongly shellable complexes can be characterized by the corresponding codimension one graphs. In addition, we show that the facet ideals of pure strongly shellable complexes have linear quotients.
We use the theory of lexicographic shellability to provide various examples in which the rank of the homology of a Rees product of two partially ordered sets enumerates some set of combinatorial objects, perhaps according to some natural statistic on the set. Many of these examples generalize a result of J. Jonsson, which says that the rank of the unique nontrivial homology group of the Rees product of a truncated Boolean algebra of degree $n$ and a chain of length $n-1$ is the number of derangements in $§_n$.\
We investigate the shellability of the polyhedral join $\mathcal{Z}^*_M (K, L)$ of simplicial complexes $K, M$ and a subcomplex $L \subset K$. We give sufficient conditions and necessary conditions on $(K, L)$ for $\mathcal{Z}^*_M (K, L)$ being shellable. In particular, we show that for some pairs $(K, L)$, $\mathcal{Z}^*_M (K, L)$ becomes shellable regardless of whether $M$ is shellable or not. Polyhedral joins can be applied to graph theory as the independence complex of a certain generalized version of lexicographic products of graphs which we define in this paper. The graph obtained from t…
The main purpose of this paper is to prove that the Bruhat-Chevalley ordering of the symmetric group when restricted to the fixed-point-free involutions forms an $EL$-shellable poset whose order complex triangulates a ball. Another purpose of this article is to prove that the Deodhar-Srinivasan poset is a proper, graded subposet of the Bruhat-Chevalley poset on fixed-point-free involutions.
The question of shellability of complexes of directed trees was asked by R. Stanley. D. Kozlov showed that the existence of a complete source in a directed graph provides a shelling of its complex of directed trees. We will show that this property gives a shelling that is straightforward in some sense. Among the simplicial polytopes, only the crosspolytopes allow such a shelling. Furthermore, we show that the complex of directed trees of a complete double directed graph is a union of suitable spheres. We also investigate shellability of the maximal pure skeleton of a complex of directed trees.…
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..
For a property $\cal P$ of simplicial complexes, a simplicial complex $Γ$ is an obstruction to $\cal P$ if $Γ$ itself does not satisfy $\cal P$ but all of its proper restrictions satisfy $\cal P$. In this paper, we determine all obstructions to shellability of dimension $\le 2$, refining the previous work by Wachs. As a consequence we obtain that the set of obstructions to shellability, that to partitionability and that to sequential Cohen-Macaulayness all coincide for dimensions $\le 2$. We also show that these three sets of obstructions coincide in the class of flag complexes. These results …
We prove that for all $d \geq 1$ a shellable $d$-dimensional simplicial complex with at most $d+3$ vertices is extendably shellable. The proof involves considering the structure of `exposed' edges in chordal graphs as well as a connection to linear quotients of quadratic monomial ideals.
Let $Φ$ be a finite root system of rank $n$ and let $m$ be a nonnegative integer. The generalized cluster complex $Δ^m (Φ)$ was introduced by S. Fomin and N. Reading. It was conjectured by these authors that $Δ^m (Φ)$ is shellable and by V. Reiner that it is $(m+1)$-Cohen-Macaulay, in the sense of Baclawski. These statements are proved in this paper. Analogous statements are shown to hold for the positive part $Δ^m_+ (Φ)$ of $Δ^m (Φ)$. An explicit homotopy equivalence is given between $Δ^m_+ (Φ)$ and the poset of generalized noncrossing partitions, associated to the pair $(Φ, m)$ by D. Armstro…
The shellability status of previously investigated simplicial complexes with up to 24 facets is settled. In case of shellability the exact number of shellings is determined. Our algorithm merely relies on the facets, and not on additional information such as the face-numbers.
In their work on `Coxeter-like complexes', Babson and Reiner introduced a simplicial complex $Δ_T$ associated to each tree $T$ on $n$ nodes, generalizing chessboard complexes and type A Coxeter complexes. They conjectured that $Δ_T$ is $(n-b-1)$-connected when the tree has $b$ leaves. We provide a shelling for the $(n-b)$-skeleton of $Δ_T$, thereby proving this conjecture. In the process, we introduce notions of weak order and inversion functions on the labellings of a tree $T$ which imply shellability of $Δ_T$, and we construct such inversion functions for a large enough class of trees to ded…
Shellability of a simplicial complex has many useful structural implications. In particular, it was shown by Danaraj and Klee that every shellable pseudo-manifold is a PL-sphere. The purpose of this paper is to prove the shellability of the quasi-arc complex of the Möbius strip. Along the way we provide elementary proofs of the shellability of the arc complex of the $n$-gon and the cylinder. In turn, applying the result of Danaraj and Klee, we obtain the sphericity of all of these complexes.
We prove a new theorem of Tverberg type which confirms the conjecture of Blagojevic, Frick, and Ziegler about the existence of "balanced Tverberg partitions" (Conjecture 6.6 in, Tverberg plus constraints, Bull. London Math. Soc., 46 (2014) 953-967). The proof relies on the connectivity and shellability properties of multiple chessboard complexes and their symmetric analogues.
Shellability is a well-known combinatorial criterion for verifying that a simplicial complex is Cohen-Macaulay. Another notion familiar to commutative algebraists, but which has not received as much attention from combinatorialists as the Cohen-Macaulay property, is the notion of a Golod ring. Recently, a criterion on simplicial complexes reminiscent of shellability, called the strong gcd-condition, was shown to imply Golodness of the associated Stanley-Reisner ring. The two algebraic notions were tied together by Herzog, Reiner and Welker who showed that if the Alexander dual of a complex is …
Motivated by Gröbner basis theory for finite point configurations, we define and study the class of "standard complexes" associated to a matroid. Standard complexes are certain subcomplexes of the independence complex that are invariant under matroid duality. For the lexicographic term order, the standard complexes satisfy a deletion-contraction-type recurrence. We explicitly determine the lexicographic standard complexes for lattice path matroids using classical bijective combinatorics.
In this paper, we give a new algebraic criterion for the {\em shellability} of (non-pure) simplicial complex $Δ$ over $[n]$, shellable in the sense of Björner and Wachs \cite{BW}. We show that the spanning simplicial complex of doubly uni-cyclic graph is non-pure shellable. Moreover, we introduce the concept of Gallai-simplicial complex $Δ_Γ(G)$ of a finite simple graph $G$. We applied the obtained criterion to discuss the shellability of Gallai simplicial complexes associated to various classes of graphs..
Shelling orders are a ubiquitous tool used to understand invariants of cell complexes. Significant effort has been made to develop techniques to decide when a given complex is shellable. However, empirical evidence shows that some shelling orders are better than others. In this article, we explore this phenomenon in the case of matroid independence complexes. Based on a new relation between shellability of dual matroid polytopes and independence complexes, we outline a systematic way to investigate and compare different shellings orders. We explain how our new tools recast and deepen various c…
We prove that for every $d\geq 2$, deciding if a pure, $d$-dimensional, simplicial complex is shellable is NP-hard, hence NP-complete. This resolves a question raised, e.g., by Danaraj and Klee in 1978. Our reduction also yields that for every $d \ge 2$ and $k \ge 0$, deciding if a pure, $d$-dimensional, simplicial complex is $k$-decomposable is NP-hard. For $d \ge 3$, both problems remain NP-hard when restricted to contractible pure $d$-dimensional complexes. Another simple corollary of our result is that it is NP-hard to decide whether a given poset is CL-shellable.
Weighted simplicial complexes (WSCs) are powerful tools for describing weighted cloud data or networks with weighted nodes. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to study WSCs via the concept of polarization. Polarization of a WSC allows one to construct a new (unweighted) simplicial complex which coincides with an object called the mixed wreath product. This new construction preserves several properties and invariants of the underlying simplicial complex of a WSC. Our main focus is to analyze WSCs through their underlying simplicial complexes and mixed wreath products. Combinatorially, w…
Shellings of simplicial complexes have long been a useful tool in topological and algebraic combinatorics. Shellings of a complex expose a large amount of information in a helpful way, but are not easy to construct, often requiring deep information about the structure of the complex. It is natural to ask whether shellings may be efficiently found computationally. In a recent paper, Goaoc, Paták, Patáková, Tancer and Wagner gave a negative answer to this question (assuming P \neq NP), showing that the problem of deciding whether a simplicial complex is shellable is NP-complete. In this paper, w…
It is proved that fundamental groups of boolean representable simplicial complexes are free and the rank is determined by the number and nature of the connected components of their graph of flats for dimension $\geq 2$. In the case of dimension 2, it is shown that boolean representable simplicial complexes have the homotopy type of a wedge of spheres of dimensions 1 and 2. Also in the case of dimension 2, necessary and sufficient conditions for shellability and being sequentially Cohen-Macaulay are determined. Complexity bounds are provided for all the algorithms involved.
We recently defined a property of Morse shellability (and tileability) of finite simplicial complexes which extends the classical one and its relations with discrete Morse theory. We now prove that the product of two Morse tileable or shellable simplicial complexes carries Morse tileable or shellable triangulations under some tameness condition, and that any tiling or shelling becomes tame after one barycentric subdivision. We deduce that any finite product of closed manifolds of dimensions less than four carries Morse shellable triangulations whose critical and h-vectors are palindromic. We a…
In this paper, the relation between algebraic shifting and join which was conjectured by Eran Nevo will be proved. Let $σ$ and $τ$ be simplicial complexes and $σ* τ$ their join. Let $J_σ$ be the exterior face ideal of $σ$ and $Δ(σ)$ the exterior algebraic shifted complex of $σ$. Assume that $σ* τ$ is a simplicial complex on $[n]=\{1,2,...,n\}$. For any $d$-subset $S \subset [n]$, let $m_{\preceq_{rev} S}(σ)$ denote the number of $d$-subsets $R \in σ$ which is equal to or smaller than $S$ w.r.t. the reverse lexicographic order. We will prove that $m_{\preceq_{rev} S}(Δ({σ* τ}))\geq m_{\preceq_{…
We consider a certain class of simplicial complexes which includes the independence complexes of forests. We show that if a simplicial complex $K$ belongs to this class, then the polyhedral join $\mathcal{Z}^*_{K}(\underline{X}, \emptyset)$ is homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of CW complexes of the form $Σ^r X_{i_1} * X_{i_2} * \cdots * X_{i_k}$, where $\underline{X}$ is a family $\{X_i\}_{i \in V(K)}$ of CW complexes and $Σ$ denotes the unreduced suspension. This result is applied to study the homotopy type of the independence complex of the lexicographic product $G[H]$ of a graph $H$ over …
