This paper defines for each object $X$ that can be constructed out of a finite number of vertices and cells a vector $fX$ lying in a finite dimensional vector space. This is the flag vector of $X$. It is hoped that the quantum topological invariants of a manifold $M$ can be expressed as linear functions of the flag vector of the $i$-graph that arises from any suitable triangulation $T$ of $M$. Flag vectors are also defined for finite groups and more generally for $n$-ary relations. Some problems, and suggested connections with other constructions, particularly that of the associahedron and so on, conclude the presentation.
We study the equivariant flag $f$-vector and equivariant flag $h$-vector of a balanced relative simplicial complex with respect to a group action. When the complex satisfies Serre's condition $(S_{\ell}),$ we show that the equivariant flag $h$-vector, the equivariant $h$-vector, and the equivariant $f$-vector satisfy several inequalities. We apply these results to the study of $P$-partitions of double posets, and weak colorings of mixed graphs.
Given $\mathbb{F}_q$ the finite field with $q$ elements and an integer $n\geq 2$, a flag is a sequence of nested subspaces of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ and a flag code is a nonempty set of flags. In this context, the distance between flags is the sum of the corresponding subspace distances. Hence, a given flag distance value might be obtained by many different combinations. To capture such a variability, in the paper at hand, we introduce the notion of distance vector as an algebraic object intrinsically associated to a flag code that encloses much more information than the distance parameter itself. O…
We present some enumerative and structural results for flag homology spheres. For a flag homology sphere $Δ$, we show that its $γ$-vector $γ^Δ=(1,γ_1,γ_2,\ldots)$ satisfies: \begin{align*} γ_j=0,\text{ for all } j>γ_1, \quad γ_2\leq\binom{γ_1}{2}, \quad γ_{γ_1}\in\{0,1\}, \quad \text{ and }γ_{γ_1-1}\in\{0,1,2,γ_1\}, \end{align*} supporting a conjecture of Nevo and Petersen. Further we characterize the possible structures for $Δ$ in extremal cases. As an application, the techniques used produce infinitely many $f$-vectors of flag balanced simplicial complexes that are not $γ$-vectors of flag ho…
Motzkin numbers have been widely studied since they count many different combinatorial objects. In this paper we present a new appearance of this remarkable sequence in the network coding setting through a particular case of multishot codes called flag codes. A flag code is a set of sequences of nested subspaces (flags) of a vector space over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. If the list of dimensions is $(1, \dots, n-1)$, we speak about a full flag code. The flag distance is defined as the sum of the respective subspace distances and can be represented by means of the so-called distance vector…
In this paper, we study flag codes on the vector space $\mathbb{F}_q^n$, being $q$ a prime power and $\mathbb{F}_q$ the finite field of $q$ elements. More precisely, we focus on flag codes that attain the maximum possible distance (optimum distance flag codes) and can be obtained from a spread of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$. We characterize the set of admissible type vectors for this family of flag codes and also provide a construction of them based on well-known results about perfect matchings in graphs. This construction attains both the maximum distance for its type vector and the largest possible car…
We prove several relations on the $f$-vectors and Betti numbers of flag complexes. For every flag complex $Δ$, we show that there exists a balanced complex with the same $f$-vector as $Δ$, and whose top-dimensional Betti number is at least that of $Δ$, thereby extending a theorem of Frohmader by additionally taking homology into consideration. We obtain upper bounds on the top-dimensional Betti number of $Δ$ in terms of its face numbers. We also give a quantitative refinement of a theorem of Meshulam by establishing lower bounds on the $f$-vector of $Δ$, in terms of the top-dimensional Betti n…
Grünbaum, Barnette, and Reay in 1974 completed the characterization of the pairs $(f_i,f_j)$ of face numbers of $4$-dimensional polytopes. Here we obtain a complete characterization of the pairs of flag numbers $(f_0,f_{03})$ for $4$-polytopes. Furthermore, we describe the pairs of face numbers $(f_0,f_{d-1})$ for $d$-polytopes; this description is complete for even $d\ge6$ except for finitely many exceptional pairs that are "small" in a well-defined sense, while for odd $d$ we show that there are also "large" exceptional pairs. Our proofs rely on the insight that "small" pairs need to be defi…
We determine the chromatic number of some graphs of flags in buildings of type $A_4$, namely of the Kneser graphs of flags of type $\{2,4\}$ in the vector spaces $GF(q)^5$ for $q\geq3$, and of the Kneser graph of flags of type $\{2,3\}$ in the vector spaces $GF(q)^5$ for large $q$.
