Two combinatorial properties of a class of simplicial polytopes

Letf(P _s ^d ) be the set of allf-vectors of simpliciald-polytopes. ForP a simplicial 2d-polytope let Σ(P) denote the boundary complex ofP. We show that for eachf ∈f(P _s ^d ) there is a simpliciald-polytopeP withf(P)=f such that the 11 02 simplicial diameter of Σ(P) is no more thanf ₀(P)−d+1 (one greater than the conjectured Hirsch bound) and thatP admits a subdivision into a simpliciald-ball with no new vertices that satisfies the Hirsch property. Further, we demonstrate that the number of bistellar operations required to obtain Σ(P) from the boundary of ad-simplex is minimum over the class of all simplicial polytopes with the samef-vector. This polytopeP will be the one constructed to prove the sufficiency of McMullen's conditions forf-vectors of simplicial polytopes.