Cubical Subdivisions and Local h-Vectors

Face numbers of triangulations of simplicial complexes were studied by Stanley by use of his concept of a local h-vector. It is shown that a parallel theory exists for cubical subdivisions of cubical complexes, in which the role of the h-vector of a simplicial complex is played by the (short or long) cubical h-vector of a cubical complex, defined by Adin, and the role of the local h-vector of a triangulation of a simplex is played by the (short or long) cubical local h-vector of a cubical subdivision of a cube. The cubical local h-vectors are defined in this paper and are shown to share many of the properties of their simplicial counterparts. Generalizations to subdivisions of locally Eulerian posets are also discussed.     

On the Stanley ring of cubical complex

We investigate the properties of the Stanley ring of a cubical complex, a cubical analogue of the Stanley-Reisner ring of a simplicial complex. We compute its Hilbert series in terms of thef-vector, and prove that by taking the initial ideal of the defining relations, with respect to the reverse lexicographic order, we obtain the defining relations of the Stanley-Reisner ring of the triangulation via “pulling the vertices” of the cubical complex. Applying an old idea of Hochster we see that this ring is Cohen-Macaulay when the complex is shellable, and we show that its defining ideal is generated by quadrics when the complex is also a subcomplex of the boundary complex of a convex cubical polytope. We present a cubical analogue of balanced Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes: the class of edge-orientable shellable cubical complexes. Using Stanley's results about balanced Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes and the degree two homogeneous generating system of the defining ideal, we obtain an infinite set of examples for a conjecture of Eisenbud, Green, and Harris. This conjecture says that theh-vector of a polynomial ring inn variables modulo an ideal which has ann-element homogeneous system of parameters of degree two, is thef-vector of a simplicial complex.     

The γ-vector of a barycentric subdivision

We prove that the γ-vector of the barycentric subdivision of a simplicial sphere is the f-vector of a balanced simplicial complex. The combinatorial basis for this work is the study of certain refinements of Eulerian numbers used by Brenti and Welker to describe the h-vector of the barycentric subdivision of a boolean complex.     

Strongly Signable and Partitionable Posets

The class ofStrongly Signablepartially ordered sets is introduced and studied. It is show that strong signability, reminiscent of Björner–Wachs' recursive coatom orderability, provides a useful and broad sufficient condition for a poset to be dual CR and hence partitionable. The flagh-vectors of strongly signable posets are therefore non-negative. It is proved that recursively shellable posets, polyhedral fans, and face lattices of partitionable simplicial complexes are all strongly signable, and it is conjectured that all spherical posets are. It is concluded that the barycentric subdivision of a partitionable complex is again partitionable, and an algorithm for producing a partitioning of the subdivision from a partitioning of the complex is described. An expression for the flagh-polynomial of a simplicial complex in terms of itsh-vector is given, and is used to demonstrate that the flagh-vector is symmetric or non-negative whenever theh-vector is.     

A combinatorial decomposition of simplicial complexes

We find a decomposition of simplicial complexes that implies and sharpens the characterization (due to Björner and Kalai) of thef-vector and Betti numbers of a simplicial complex. It generalizes a result of Stanley, who proved the acyclic case, and settles a conjecture of Stanley and Kalai.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>-vectors of simplicial posets that are balls

Results of R. Stanley and M. Masuda completely characterize the h-vectors of simplicial posets whose order complexes are spheres. In this paper we examine the corresponding question in the case where the order complex is a ball. Using the face rings of these posets, we develop a series of new conditions on their h-vectors. We also present new methods for constructing poset balls with specific h-vectors. Combining this work with a new result of S. Murai we are able to give a complete characterization of the h-vectors of simplicial poset balls in all even dimensions, as well as odd dimensions less than or equal to five.     

Unimodal Gorenstein h-vectors without the Stanley–Iarrobino property

The study of the h-vectors of graded Gorenstein algebras is an important topic in combinatorial commutative algebra, which despite the large amount of literature produced during the last several years, still presents many interesting open questions. In this note, we commence a study of those unimodal Gorenstein h-vectors that do not satisfy the Stanley–Iarrobino property. Our main results, which are characteristic free, show that such h-vectors exist: 1) In socle degree e if and only if e≥6; and 2) in every codimension five or greater. The main case that remains open is that of codimension four, where no Gorenstein h-vector is known without the Stanley–Iarrobino property. We conclude by proposing the following very general conjecture: The existence of any arbitrary level h-vector is independent of the characteristic of the base field.     

h-Vectors of Gorenstein polytopes

We show that the Ehrhart h-vector of an integer Gorenstein polytope with a regular unimodular triangulation satisfies McMullen's g-theorem; in particular, it is unimodal. This result generalizes a recent theorem of Athanasiadis (conjectured by Stanley) for compressed polytopes. It is derived from a more general theorem on Gorenstein affine normal monoids M: one can factor K[M] (K a field) by a “long” regular sequence in such a way that the quotient is still a normal affine monoid algebra. This technique reduces all questions about the Ehrhart h-vector of P to the Ehrhart h-vector of a Gorenstein polytope Q with exactly one interior lattice point, provided each lattice point in a multiple cP, c∈N, can be written as the sum of c lattice points in P. (Up to a translation, the polytope Q belongs to the class of reflexive polytopes considered in connection with mirror symmetry.) If P has a regular unimodular triangulation, then it follows readily that the Ehrhart h-vector of P coincides with the combinatorial h-vector of the boundary complex of a simplicial polytope, and the g-theorem applies.     

A classification of the face numbers of Buchsbaum simplicial posets

The family of Buchsbaum simplicial posets generalizes the family of simplicial cell manifolds. The \(h'\) -vector of a simplicial complex or simplicial poset encodes the combinatorial and topological data of its face numbers and the reduced Betti numbers of its geometric realization. Novik and Swartz showed that the \(h'\) -vector of a Buchsbaum simplicial poset satisfies certain simple inequalities; in this paper we show that these necessary conditions are in fact sufficient to characterize the \(h'\) -vectors of Buchsbaum simplicial posets with prescribed Betti numbers.     

Special simplices and Gorenstein toric rings

Athanasiadis [Ehrhart polynomials, simplicial polytopes, magic squares and a conjecture of Stanley, J. Reine Angew. Math., to appear.] studies an effective technique to show that Gorenstein sequences coming from compressed polytopes are unimodal. In the present paper we will use such the technique to find a rich class of Gorenstein toric rings with unimodal h-vectors arising from finite graphs.     

Pure O-Sequences and Matroid h-Vectors

We study Stanley’s long-standing conjecture that the h-vectors of matroid simplicial complexes are pure O-sequences. Our method consists of a new and more abstract approach, which shifts the focus from working on constructing suitable artinian level monomial ideals, as often done in the past, to the study of properties of pure O-sequences. We propose a conjecture on pure O-sequences and settle it in small socle degrees. This allows us to prove Stanley’s conjecture for all matroids of rank 3. At the end of the paper, using our method, we discuss a first possible approach to Stanley’s conjecture in full generality. Our technical work on pure O-sequences also uses very recent results of the third author and collaborators.     

On a conjecture by Kalai

We show that monomial ideals generated in degree two satisfy a conjecture by Eisenbud, Green and Harris. In particular, we give a partial answer to a conjecture of Kalai by proving that h-vectors of flag Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes are h-vectors of Cohen-Macaulay balanced simplicial complexes.     

On Generalized h -Vectors of Rational Polytopes with a Symmetry of Prime Order

We prove tight lower bounds for the coefficients of the generalized h -vector of a rational polytope with a symmetry of prime order that is fixed-point free on the boundary. These bounds generalize results of Stanley and Adin for the h -vector of a simplicial rational polytope with a central symmetry or a symmetry of prime order, respectively. Received November 6, 1997, and in revised form March 17, 1998.     

Relations on generalized degree sequences

We study degree sequences for simplicial posets and polyhedral complexes, generalizing the well-studied graphical degree sequences. Here we extend the more common generalization of vertex-to-facet degree sequences by considering arbitrary face-to-flag degree sequences. In particular, these may be viewed as natural refinements of the flag f-vector of the poset. We investigate properties and relations of these generalized degree sequences, proving linear relations between flag degree sequences in terms of the composition of rank jumps of the flag. As a corollary, we recover an f-vector inequality on simplicial posets first shown by Stanley.     

Two Decompositions in Topological Combinatorics with Applications to Matroid Complexes

This paper introduces two new decomposition techniques which are related to the classical notion of shellability of simplicial complexes, and uses the existence of these decompositions to deduce certain numerical properties for an associated enumerative invariant. First, we introduce the notion of M-shellability, which is a generalization to pure posets of the property of shellability of simplicial complexes, and derive inequalities that the rank-numbers of M-shellable posets must satisfy. We also introduce a decomposition property for simplicial complexes called a convex ear-decomposition, and, using results of Kalai and Stanley on -vectors of simplicial polytopes, we show that -vectors of pure rank- simplicial complexes that have this property satisfy and for . We then show that the abstract simplicial complex formed by the collection of independent sets of a matroid (or matroid complex) admits a special type of convex ear-decomposition called a PS ear-decomposition. This enables us to construct an associated M-shellable poset, whose set of rank-numbers is the -vector of the matroid complex. This results in a combinatorial proof of a conjecture of Hibi that the -vector of a matroid complex satisfies the above two sets of inequalities.

     

Buchsbaum Stanley–Reisner Rings and Cohen–Macaulay Covers

First, we give a new criterion for Buchsbaum Stanley–Reisner rings to have linear resolutions. Next, we prove that every (d ? 1)-dimensional complex Δ of initial degree d is contained in the same dimensional Cohen–Macaulay complex whose (d ? 1)th reduced homology is isomorphic to that of Δ. We call such a simplicial complex a Cohen–Macaulay cover of Δ. And we also show that all the intermediate complexes between Δ and its Cohen–Macaulay cover are Buchsbaum provided that Δ is Buchsbaum. As an application, we determine the h-vectors of the 3-dimensional Buchsbaum Stanley–Reisner rings with initial degree 3.     

On the f- and h-triangle of the barycentric subdivision of a simplicial complex

For a simplicial complex Δ we study the behavior of its f- and h-triangle under the action of barycentric subdivision. In particular we describe the f- and h-triangle of its barycentric subdivision sd(Δ). The same has been done for f- and h-vector of sd(Δ) by F. Brenti, V. Welker (2008). As a consequence we show that if the entries of the h-triangle of Δ are nonnegative, then the entries of the h-triangle of sd(Δ) are also nonnegative. We conclude with a few properties of the h-triangle of sd(Δ).     

Balanced subdivision and enumeration in balanced spheres

We study here the affine space generated by the extendedf-vectors of simplicial homology (d – 1)-spheres which are balanced of a given type. This space is determined, and its dimension is computed, by deriving a balanced version of the Dehn-Sommerville equations and exhibiting a set of balanced polytopes whose extendedf-vectors span it. To this end, a unique minimal complex of a given type is defined, along with a balanced version of stellar subdivision, and such a subdivision of a face in a minimal complex is realized as the boundary complex of a balanced polytope. For these complexes, we obtain an explicit computation of their extendedh-vectors, and, implicitly,f-vectors.Supported in part by NSF Grant DMS-8403225.     

On the generalized lower bound conjecture for polytopes and spheres

In 1971, McMullen and Walkup posed the following conjecture, which is called the generalized lower bound conjecture: If P is a simplicial d-polytope then its h-vector (h ₀, h ₁, …, h _d ) satisfies $ {h_0}\leq {h_1}\leq \ldots \leq {h_{{\left\lfloor {{d \left/ {2} \right.}} \right\rfloor }}} $ . Moreover, if h _r?1 = h _r for some $ r\leq \frac{1}{2}d $ then P can be triangulated without introducing simplices of dimension ≤d ? r. The first part of the conjecture was solved by Stanley in 1980 using the hard Lefschetz theorem for projective toric varieties. In this paper, we give a proof of the remaining part of the conjecture. In addition, we generalize this result to a certain class of simplicial spheres, namely those admitting the weak Lefschetz property.     

h-Vectors of matroids and logarithmic concavity

Let M be a matroid on E, representable over a field of characteristic zero. We show that h-vectors of the following simplicial complexes are log-concave:

1.

The matroid complex of independent subsets of E.