We define and study the Tutte polynomial of a hyperplane arrangement. We introduce a method for computing it by solving an enumerative problem in a finite field. For specific arrangements, the computation of Tutte polynomials is then reduced to certain related enumerative questions. As a consequence, we obtain new formulas for the generating functions enumerating alternating trees, labelled trees, semiorders and Dyck paths.
The Tutte polynomial is originally a bivariate polynomial which enumerates the colorings of a graph and of its dual graph. Ardila extended in 2007 the definition of the Tutte polynomial on the real hyperplane arrangements. He particularly computed the Tutte polynomials of the hyperplane arrangements associated to the classical Weyl groups. Those associated to the exceptional Weyl groups were computed by De Concini and Procesi one year later. This article has two objectives: On one side, we extend the Tutte polynomial computing to the complex hyperplane arrangements. On the other side, we intro…
The Tutte polynomial is a fundamental invariant associated to a graph, matroid, vector arrangement, or hyperplane arrangement. This short survey focuses on some of the most important results on Tutte polynomials of hyperplane arrangements. We show that many enumerative, algebraic, geometric, and topological invariants of a hyperplane arrangement can be expressed in terms of its Tutte polynomial. We also show that, even if one is only interested in computing the Tutte polynomial of a graph or a matroid, the theory of hyperplane arrangements provides a powerful finite field method for this compu…
Originally in 1954 the Tutte polynomial was a bivariate polynomial associated to a graph in order to enumerate the colorings of this graph and of its dual graph at the same time. However the Tutte polynomial reveals more of the internal structure of a graph, and contains even other specializations from other sciences like the Jones polynomial in Knot theory, the partition function of the Pott model in statistical physics, and the reliability polynomial in network theory. In this article, we study the Tutte polynomial associated to more general objects which are the arrangements of hyperplanes.…
We show that the 4-variable generating function of certain orientation related parameters of an ordered oriented matroid is the evaluation at (x + u, y+v) of its Tutte polynomial. This evaluation contains as special cases the counting of regions in hyperplane arrangements and of acyclic orientations in graphs. Several new 2-variable expansions of the Tutte polynomial of an oriented matroid follow as corollaries. This result hold more generally for oriented matroid perspectives, with specific special cases the counting of bounded regions in hyperplane arrangements or of bipolar acyclic orientat…
We introduce the notion of an arithmetic matroid, whose main example is given by a list of elements of a finitely generated abelian group. In particular we study the representability of its dual, providing an extension of the Gale duality to this setting. Guided by the geometry of generalized toric arrangements, we provide a combinatorial interpretation of the associated arithmetic Tutte polynomial, which can be seen as a generalization of Crapo's formula for the classical Tutte polynomial.
The Tutte polynomial is originally a bivariate polynomial enumerating the colorings of a graph and of its dual graph. But it reveals more of the internal structure of the graph like its number of forests, of spanning subgraphs, and of acyclic orientations. In 2007, Ardila extended the notion of Tutte polynomial to the hyperplane arrangements, and computed the Tutte polynomials of the classical root systems for a certain prime power of the first variable. In this article, we compute Tutte polynomials of ideal arrangements. Those arrangements were introduced in 2006 by Sommers and Tymoczko, and …
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…
This article computes the Tutte polynomial of the hyperplane arrangements associated to the complex reflection groups. The calculations are based on both formulas of De Concini and Procesi for Tutte polynomial and the normaliser of parabolic subgroups in complex reflection groups determined by Krishnasamy and Taylor.
Many combinatorial and topological invariants of a hyperplane arrangement can be computed in terms of its Tutte polynomial. Similarly, many invariants of a hypertoric arrangement can be computed in terms of its arithmetic Tutte polynomial. We compute the arithmetic Tutte polynomials of the classical root systems of types A,B,C, and D, with respect to their integer, root, and weight lattices. We do it in two ways: by introducing a finite field method for arithmetic Tutte polynomials, and by enumerating signed graphs with respect to six parameters.
We define and study "semimatroids", a class of objects which abstracts the dependence properties of an affine hyperplane arrangement. We show that geometric semilattices are precisely the posets of flats of semimatroids. We define and investigate the Tutte polynomial of a semimatroid. We prove that it is the universal Tutte-Grothendieck invariant for semimatroids, and we give a combinatorial interpretation for its non-negative coefficients.
We introduce a multiplicity Tutte polynomial M(x,y), with applications to zonotopes and toric arrangements. We prove that M(x,y) satisfies a deletion-restriction recurrence and has positive coefficients. The characteristic polynomial and the Poincare' polynomial of a toric arrangement are shown to be specializations of the associated polynomial M(x,y), likewise the corresponding polynomials for a hyperplane arrangement are specializations of the ordinary Tutte polynomial. Furthermore, M(1,y) is the Hilbert series of the related discrete Dahmen-Micchelli space, while M(x,1) computes the volume …
We introduce and study the notion of the $G$-Tutte polynomial for a list $\mathcal{A}$ of elements in a finitely generated abelian group $Γ$ and an abelian group $G$, which is defined by counting the number of homomorphisms from associated finite abelian groups to $G$. The $G$-Tutte polynomial is a common generalization of the (arithmetic) Tutte polynomial for realizable (arithmetic) matroids, the characteristic quasi-polynomial for integral arrangements, Brändén-Moci's arithmetic version of the partition function of an abelian group-valued Potts model, and the modified Tutte-Krushkal-Renhardy…
We extend the Billera-Ehrenborg-Readdy map between the intersection lattice and face lattice of a central hyperplane arrangement to affine and toric hyperplane arrangements. For arrangements on the torus, we also generalize Zaslavsky's fundamental results on the number of regions.
We give a formula for computing the characteristic polynomial for certain hyperplane arrangements in terms of the number of bipartite graphs of given rank and cardinality.
The $OS$ algebra $A$ of a matroid $M$ is a graded algebra related to the Whitney homology of the lattice of flats of $M$. In case $M$ is the underlying matroid of a hyperplane arrangement \A in $\C^r$, $A$ is isomorphic to the cohomology algebra of the complement $\C^r\setminus \bigcup \A.$ Few examples are known of pairs of arrangements with non-isomorphic matroids but isomorphic $OS$ algebras. In all known examples, the Tutte polynomials are identical, and the complements are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic. We construct, for any given simple matroid $M_0$, a pair of infinite famili…
This paper studies \emph{Dirichlet arrangements}, a generalization of graphic hyperplane arrangements arising from electrical networks and order polytopes of finite posets. We generalize descriptions of combinatorial features of graphic arrangements to Dirichlet arrangements, including characteristic polynomials and supersolvability. We apply these results to visibility sets of order polytopes and fixed-energy harmonic functions on electrical networks.
We give a complete formula for the characteristic polynomial of hyperplane arrangements $\mathcal J_n$ consisting of the hyperplanes $x_i+x_j=1$, $x_k=0$, $x_l=1$, $ 1\leq i, j, k, l\leq n$. The formula is obtained by associating hyperplane arrangements with graphs, and then enumerating central graphs via generating functions for the number of bipartite graphs of given order, size and number of connected components.
The set of chambers of a real hyperplane arrangement may be ordered by separation from some fixed chamber. When this poset is a lattice, Bjorner, Edelman, and Ziegler proved that the chambers are in natural bijection with the biconvex sets of the arrangement. Two families of examples of arrangements with a lattice of chambers are simplicial and supersolvable arrangements. For these arrangements, we prove that the chambers correspond to biclosed sets, a weakening of the biconvex property.
We investigate arrangements of hyperplanes whose normal vectors are given by connected subgraphs of a fixed graph. These include the resonance arrangement and certain ideal subarrangements of Weyl arrangements. We characterize those which are free, simplicial, factored, or supersolvable. In particular, such an arrangement is free if and only if the graph is a cycle, a path, an almost path, or a path with a triangle attached to it.
The aim of this article is to link Schubert varieties in the flag manifold with hyperplane arrangements. For a permutation, we construct a certain graphical hyperplane arrangement. We show that the generating function for regions of this arrangement coincides with the Poincare polynomial of the corresponding Schubert variety if and only if the Schubert variety is smooth. We give an explicit combinatorial formula for the Poincare polynomial. Our main technical tools are chordal graphs and perfect elimination orderings.
A topological hyperplane is a subspace of R^n (or a homeomorph of it) that is topologically equivalent to an ordinary straight hyperplane. An arrangement of topological hyperplanes in R^n is a finite set H such that k topological hyperplanes in H, if their intersection is nonempty, meet in a subspace that is a topological hyperplane in the intersection of any k-1 of them; but two topological hyperplanes that do intersect need not cross each other. If every intersecting pair does cross, the arrangement is affine. The number of regions formed by an arrangement of topological hyperplanes has the …
We prove that for any finite real hyperplane arrangement the average projection volumes of the maximal cones is given by the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of the arrangement. This settles the conjecture of Drton and Klivans that this held for all finite real reflection arrangements. The methods used are geometric and combinatorial. As a consequence we determine that the angle sums of a zonotope are given by the characteristic polynomial of the order dual of the intersection lattice of the arrangement.
The Shi arrangement ${\mathcal S}_n$ is the arrangement of affine hyperplanes in ${\mathbb R}^n$ of the form $x_i - x_j = 0$ or $1$, for $1 \leq i < j \leq n$. It dissects ${\mathbb R}^n$ into $(n+1)^{n-1}$ regions, as was first proved by Shi. We give a simple bijective proof of this result. Our bijection generalizes easily to any subarrangement of ${\mathcal S}_n$ containing the hyperplanes $x_i - x_j = 0$ and to the extended Shi arrangements.
We consider arrangements of n hyperplanes of codimension one in a real projective space of dimension d. Let us denote by F the maximal possible number f of connected components of the complement in the projective space of dimension d to the union of n hyperplanes. We prove that for sufficiently large n and for d>3 almost all integers between n and F could be realized as the numbers of regions for some arrangements of n hyperplanes in the projective space. This fact was known before for d=2,3.
We exhibit a one-to-one correspondence between $3$-colored graphs and subarrangements of certain hyperplane arrangements denoted $\mathcal J_n$, $n \in \mathbb N$. We define the notion of centrality of $3$-colored graphs which corresponds to the centrality of hyperplane arrangements. Via the correspondence, the characteristic polynomial $χ_{\mathcal J_n}$ of $\mathcal J_n$ can be expressed in terms of the number of central $3$-colored graphs, and we compute $χ_{\mathcal J_n}$ for $n = 2, 3$.
Every subarrangement of Weyl arrangements of type $ B_{\ell} $ is represented by a signed graph. Edelman and Reiner characterized freeness of subarrangements between type $ A_{\ell-1} $ and type $ B_{\ell} $ in terms of graphs. Recently, Suyama and the authors characterized freeness for subarrangements containing Boolean arrangements satisfying a certain condition. This article is a sequel to the previous work. Namely, we give a complete characterization for freeness of arrangements between Boolean arrangements and Weyl arrangements of type $ B_{\ell} $ in terms of graphs.
We show new bijective proofs of previously known formulas for the number of regions of some deformations of the braid arrangement, by means of a bijection between the no-broken-circuit sets of the corresponding integral gain graphs and some kinds of labelled binary trees. This leads to new bijective proofs for the Shi, Catalan, and similar hyperplane arrangements.
We consider hyperplane arrangements generated by generic points and study their intersection lattices. These arrangements are known to be equivalent to discriminantal arrangements. We show a fundamental structure of the intersection lattices by decomposing the poset ideals as direct products of smaller lattices corresponding to smaller dimensions. Based on this decomposition we compute the Möbius functions of the lattices and the characteristic polynomials of the arrangements up to dimension six.
In this article, we study freeness of hyperplane arrangements. One of the most investigated arrangement is a graphic arrangement. Stanley proved that a graphic arrangement is free if and only if the corresponding graph is chordal and Dirac showed that a graph is chordal if and only if the graph is obtained by "gluing" complete graphs. We will generalize Dirac's construction to simple matroids with modular joins introduced by Ziegler and show that every arrangement whose associated matroid is constructed in the manner mentioned above is divisionally free. Moreover, we apply the result to arrang…
We find explicit eigenvectors for the transition matrix of a random walk due to Bidegare, Hanlon and Rockmore. This is accomplished by using Brown and Diaconis' analysis of its stationary distribution, together with some combinatorics of functions on the face lattice of a hyperplane arrangement, due to Gelfand and Varchenko.
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.
Characteristic elements of the Tits algebra of a real hyperplane arrangement carry information about the characteristic polynomial. We present this notion and its basic properties, and apply it to derive various results about the characteristic polynomial of an arrangement, from Zaslavsky's formulas to more recent results of Kung and of Klivans and Swartz. We construct several examples of characteristic elements, including one in terms of intrinsic volumes of faces of the arrangement.
Each labeled rooted tree is associated with a hyperplane arrangement, which is free with exponents given by the depths of the vertices of this tree. The intersection lattices of these arrangements are described through posets of forests. These posets are used to define coalgebras, whose dual algebras are shown to have a simple presentation by generators and relations.
We study central hyperplane arrangements with integral coefficients modulo positive integers $q$. We prove that the cardinality of the complement of the hyperplanes is a quasi-polynomial in two ways, first via the theory of elementary divisors and then via the theory of the Ehrhart quasi-polynomials. This result is useful for determining the characteristic polynomial of the corresponding real arrangement. With the former approach, we also prove that intersection lattices modulo $q$ are periodic except for a finite number of $q$'s.
For every irreducible complex representation~$π_λ$ of the symmetric group~$§_n$, we construct, in a canonical way, a so-called intrinsic hyperplane arrangement~$\A_λ$ in the space of~$π_λ$. This arrangement is a direct generalization of the classical braid arrangement (which is the special case of our construction corresponding to the natural representation of~$§_n$), has a natural description in terms of invariant subspaces of Young subgroups, and enjoys a number of remarkable properties.
Hyperplanes of the form x_j = x_i + c are called affinographic. For an affinographic hyperplane arrangement in R^n, such as the Shi arrangement, we study the function f(M) that counts integral points in [1,M]^n that do not lie in any hyperplane of the arrangement. We show that f(M) is a piecewise polynomial function of positive integers M, composed of terms that appear gradually as M increases. Our approach is to convert the problem to one of counting integral proper colorations of a rooted integral gain graph. An application is to interval coloring in which the interval of available colors fo…
We characterize in simple terms the Pak-Stanley labels $λ(R)$ of the regions $R$ of the $m$-Catalan arrangement. We also propose a simple algorithm that returns $R$ from $λ(R)$. Finally, we characterize in close terms the labels of the relatively bounded regions.
Monotone path polytopes arise as a special case of the construction of fiber polytopes, introduced by Billera and Sturmfels. A simple example is provided by the permutahedron, which is a monotone path polytope of the standard unit cube. The permutahedron is the zonotope polar to the braid arrangement. We show how the zonotopes polar to the cones of certain deformations of the braid arrangement can be realized as monotone path polytopes. The construction is an extension of that of the permutahedron and yields interesting connections between enumerative combinatorics of hyperplane arrangements a…
Ardila and Develin's paper on tropical oriented hyperplane arrangements and tropical oriented matroids defines tropical oriented matroids and conjectures a bijection between them and triangulations of products of simplices $Δ_{n-1} \times Δ_{d-1}$. Oh and Yoo recently confirmed this conjecture; however, neither group addressed the case of hyperplanes that are not in generic position. These non-generic arrangements do not correspond to tropical oriented matroids, but they encode information about subdivisions of $Δ_{n-1} \times Δ_{d-1}$. This note considers the non-generic case and presents som…
We study the exactness of certain combinatorially defined complexes which generalize the Orlik-Solomon algebra of a geometric lattice. The main results pertain to complex reflection arrangements and their restrictions. In particular, we consider the corresponding relation complexes and give a simple proof of the $n$-formality of these hyperplane arrangements. As an application, we are able to bound the Castelnouvo-Mumford regularity of certain modules over polynomial rings associated to Coxeter arrangements (real reflection arrangements) and their restrictions. The modules in question are defi…
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.
An element $w$ of the Weyl group is called rationally smooth if the corresponding Schubert variety is rationally smooth. This happens exactly when the lower interval $[id,w]$ in the Bruhat order is palindromic. For each element $w$ of the Weyl group, we construct a certain hyperplane arrangement. After analyzing the palindromic intervals inside the maximal quotients, we use this result to show that the generating function for regions of the arrangement coincides with the Poincaré polynomial of the corresponding Schubert variety if and only if the Schubert variety is rationally smooth.
Flips of diagonals in colored triangle-free triangulations of a convex polygon are interpreted as moves between two adjacent chambers in a certain graphic hyperplane arrangement. Properties of geodesics in the associated flip graph are deduced. In particular, it is shown that: (1) every diagonal is flipped exactly once in a geodesic between distinguished pairs of antipodes; (2) the number of geodesics between these antipodes is equal to twice the number of Young tableaux of a truncated shifted staircase shape.
This paper provides an overview of selected results and open problems in the theory of hyperplane arrangements, with an emphasis on computations and examples. We give an introduction to many of the essential tools used in the area, such as Koszul and Lie algebra methods, homological techniques, and the Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand correspondence, all illustrated with concrete calculations. We also explore connections of arrangements to other areas, such as De Concini-Procesi wonderful models, the Feichtner-Yuzvinsky algebra of an atomic lattice, fatpoints and blowups of projective space, and plan…
A hyperplane arrangement is said to satisfy the ``Riemann hypothesis'' if all roots of its characteristic polynomial have the same real part. This property was conjectured by Postnikov and Stanley for certain families of arrangements which are defined for any irreducible root system and was proved for the root system $A_{n-1}$. The proof is based on an explicit formula for the characteristic polynomial, which is of independent combinatorial significance. Here our previous derivation of this formula is simplified and extended to similar formulae for all but the exceptional root systems. The con…
We investigate several hyperplane arrangements that can be viewed as deformations of Coxeter arrangements. In particular, we prove a conjecture of Linial and Stanley that the number of regions of the arrangement x_i - x_j = 1, 1 \leq i<j \leq n, is equal to the number of alternating trees on n+1 vertices. Remarkably, these numbers have several additional combinatorial interpretations in terms of binary trees, partially ordered sets, and tournaments. More generally, we give formulae for the number of regions and the Poincar'e polynomial of certain finite subarrangements of the affine Coxeter ar…
Terao's factorization theorem shows that if an arrangement is free, then its characteristic polynomial factors into the product of linear polynomials over the integer ring. This is not a necessary condition, but there are not so many non-free arrangements whose characteristic polynomial factors over the integer ring. On the other hand, the localization of a free arrangement is free, and its restriction is in many cases free, thus its characteristic polynomial factors. In this paper, we consider how their integer, or real roots behave.
Holm introduced $m$-free $\ell$-arrangements which is a generalization of free arrangements, while he asked whether all $\ell$-arrangements are $m$-free for $m$ large enough. Recently Abe and the author verified that this question is in the negative when $\ell\geq 4$. In this paper we verify that $3$-arrangements $\mathscr{A}$ are $m$-free and compute the $m$-exponents for all $m\geq |\mathscr{A}|+2$, where $|\mathscr{A}|$ is the cardinality of $\mathscr{A}$. Hence Holm's question is in the positive when $\ell=3$. Finally we prove that $3$-dimensional Weyl arrangements of types A and B are $m$…
Let A be a (central) arrangement of hyperplanes in a finite dimension complex vector space V. Let M(A) be the dependence matroid determined by A. The Orlik-Solomon algebra OS(M) of a matroid M is the exterior algebra on the points modulo the ideal generated by circuit boundaries. The algebra OS(M) is isomorphic to the cohomology algebra of the complement in V of the union of the hyperplanes of A. The Tutte polynomial T(x,y) of M is a powerful invariant of the matroid M. When M(A) is a rank three matroid and A is the complexification of a real arrangement, we prove that OS(M) determines T(x,y).…
