Long monotone paths on simple 4-polytopes

TheMonotone Upper Bound Problem (Klee, 1965) asks if the maximal numberM(d,n) of vertices in a monotone path along edges of ad-dimensional polytope withn facets can be as large as conceivably possible: IsM(d,n)=M _ubt (d,n), the maximal number of vertices that ad-polytope withn facets can have according to the Upper Bound Theorem?We show that in dimensiond=4, the answer is “yes”, despite the fact that it is “no” if we restrict ourselves to the dual-to-cyclic polytopes. For eachn≥5, we exhibit a realization of a polar-to-neighborly 4-dimensional polytope withn facets and a Hamilton path through its vertices that is monotone with respect to a linear objective function.This constrasts an earlier result, by which no polar-to-neighborly 6-dimensional polytope with 9 facets admits a monotone Hamilton path.     

Linear upper bounds for local Ramsey numbers

A coloring of the edges of a graph is called alocal k-coloring if every vertex is incident to edges of at mostk distinct colors. For a given graphG, thelocal Ramsey number, r _loc ^k (G), is the smallest integern such that any localk-coloring ofK _n , (the complete graph onn vertices), contains a monochromatic copy ofG. The following conjecture of Gyárfás et al. is proved here: for each positive integerk there exists a constantc = c(k) such thatr _loc ^k (G) cr ^k (G), for every connected grraphG (wherer ^k (G) is theusual Ramsey number fork colors). Possible generalizations for hypergraphs are considered.On leave from the Institute of Mathematics, Technical University of Warsaw, Poland.While on leave at University of Louisville, Fall 1985.     

Permanental Polytopes of Doubly Stochastic Matrices

A subpolytope Γ of the polytope Ω_n of all n×n nonnegative doubly stochastic matrices is said to be a permanental polytope if the permanent function is constant on Γ. Geometrical properties of permanental polytopes are investigated. No matrix of the form 1⊕A where A is in Ω₂ is contained in any permanental polytope of Ω₃ with positive dimension. There is no 3-dimensional permanental polytope of Ω₃, and there is essentially a unique maximal 2-dimensional permanental polytope of Ω₃ (a square of side $\text{1}\text{3}$). Permanental polytopes of dimension $\text{(n}{}^2\text{?3n+4)}\text{2}$ are exhibited for each n?4.     

Simple polytopes without small separators

We show that by cutting off the vertices and then the edges of neighborly cubical polytopes, one obtains simple 4-dimensional polytopes with n vertices such that all separators of the graph have size at least Ω(n/log^3/2 n). This disproves a conjecture by Kalai from 1991/2004.     

A bound for the number of vertices of a polytope with applications

We prove that the number of vertices of a polytope of a particular kind is exponentially large in the dimension of the polytope. As a corollary, we prove that an n-dimensional centrally symmetric polytope with O(n) facets has {ie1-1} vertices and that the number of r-factors in a k-regular graph is exponentially large in the number of vertices of the graph provided k≥2r+1 and every cut in the graph with at least two vertices on each side has more than k/r edges.     

Determination of the element numbers of the regular polytopes

Let ?? be a set of n-dimensional polytopes. A set ?? of n-dimensional polytopes is said to be an element set for ?? if each polytope in ?? is the union of a finite number of polytopes in ?? identified along (n ? 1)-dimensional faces. The element number of the set ?? of polyhedra, denoted by e(??), is the minimum cardinality of the element sets for ??, where the minimum is taken over all possible element sets ${\Omega \in \mathcal{E}(\Sigma)}$ . It is proved in Theorem 1 that the element number of the convex regular 4-dimensional polytopes is 4, and in Theorem 2 that the element numbers of the convex regular n-dimensional polytopes is 3 for n ?? 5. The results in this paper together with our previous papers determine completely the element numbers of the convex regular n-dimensional polytopes for all n ?? 2.     

Flow polytopes and the graph of reflexive polytopes

We suggest defining the structure of an unoriented graph R_d on the set of reflexive polytopes of a fixed dimension d. The edges are induced by easy mutations of the polytopes to create the possibility of walks along connected components inside this graph. For this, we consider two types of mutations: Those provided by performing duality via nef-partitions, and those arising from varying the lattice. Then for d≤3, we identify the flow polytopes among the reflexive polytopes of each single component of the graph R_d. For this, we present for any dimension d≥2 an explicit finite list of quivers giving all d-dimensional reflexive flow polytopes up to lattice isomorphism. We deduce as an application that any such polytope has at most 6(d−1) facets.     

Upper bounds for edge-antipodal and subequilateral polytopes

A polytope in a finite-dimensional normed space is subequilateral if the length in the norm of each of its edges equals its diameter. Subequilateral polytopes occur in the study of two unrelated subjects: surface energy minimizing cones and edge-antipodal polytopes. We show that the number of vertices of a subequilateral polytope in any d-dimensional normed space is bounded above by (d / 2 + 1) ^d for any d ≥ 2. The same upper bound then follows for the number of vertices of the edge-antipodal polytopes introduced by I. Talata [19]. This is a constructive improvement to the result of A. Pór (to appear) that for each dimension d there exists an upper bound f(d) for the number of vertices of an edge-antipodal d-polytopes. We also show that in d-dimensional Euclidean space the only subequilateral polytopes are equilateral simplices. This material is based upon work supported by the South African National Research Foundation under Grant number 2053752.     

A Blichfeldt-type inequality for the surface area

In 1921, Blichfeldt gave an upper bound on the number of integral points contained in a convex body in terms of the volume of the body. More precisely, he showed that #(K?\Bbb Zⁿ) ￡ n! vol(K)+n\#(K\cap{\Bbb Z}^n)\le n! {\rm vol}(K)+n , whenever K ì \Bbb RⁿK\subset{\Bbb R}^n is a convex body containing n + 1 affinely independent integral points. Here we prove an analogous inequality with respect to the surface area F(K), namely #(K?\Bbb Zⁿ) < vol(K) + ((?n+1)/2) (n-1)! F(K)\#(K\cap{\Bbb Z}^n) < {\rm vol}(K) + ((\sqrt{n}+1)/2) (n-1)! {\rm F}(K) . The proof is based on a slight improvement of Blichfeldt’s bound in the case when K is a non-lattice translate of a lattice polytope, i.e., K = t + P, where t ? \Bbb Rⁿ\\Bbb Zⁿt\in{\Bbb R}^n\setminus{\Bbb Z}^n and P is an n-dimensional polytope with integral vertices. Then we have #((t+P)?\Bbb Zⁿ) ￡ n! vol(P)\#((t+P)\cap{\Bbb Z}^n)\le n! {\rm vol}(P) . Moreover, in the 3-dimensional case we prove a stronger inequality, namely #(K?\Bbb Zⁿ) < vol(K) + 2 F(K)\#(K\cap{\Bbb Z}^n)< {\rm vol}(K) + 2 {\rm F}(K) .     

Intersecting all edges of convex polytopes by planes

A characterization theorem is given for 3-dimensional convex polytopes Q having the following property: There exists a polytope P, isomorphic to Q, all edges of which can be cut by a pair of planes that miss all its vertices. The result yields an affirmative solution of a conjecture of B. Grünbaum.     

On the variance of random polytopes

A random polytope is the convex hull of uniformly distributed random points in a convex body K. A general lower bound on the variance of the volume and f-vector of random polytopes is proved. Also an upper bound in the case when K is a polytope is given. For polytopes, as for smooth convex bodies, the upper and lower bounds are of the same order of magnitude. The results imply a law of large numbers for the volume and f-vector of random polytopes when K is a polytope.     

On restricted colourings ofK n

Given a sample graphH and two integers,n andr, we colourK _n byr colours and are interested in the following problem. Which colourings of the subgraphs isomorphic to H in K _n must always occur (and which types of colourings can occur whenK _n is coloured in an appropriate way)? These types of problems include theRamsey theory, where we ask: for whichn andr must a monochromaticH occur. They also include theanti-Ramsey type problems, where we are trying to ensure a totally multicoloured copy ofH, that is, anH each edge of which has different colour.     

Projection problems for symmetric polytopes

Let K⊂Rn be a convex body (a compact, convex subset with non-empty interior), ΠK its projection body. Finding the least upper bound, as K ranges over the class of origin-symmetric convex bodies, of the affine-invariant ratio V(ΠK)/V(K)ⁿ⁻¹, being called Schneider's projection problem, is a well-known open problem in the convex geometry. To study this problem, Lutwak, Yang and Zhang recently introduced a new affine invariant functional for convex polytopes in Rn. For origin-symmetric convex polytopes, they posed a conjecture for the new functional U(P). In this paper, we give an affirmative answer to the conjecture in Rn, thereby, obtain a modified version of Schneider's projection problem.     

On clique convergent graphs

A graphG isconvergent when there is some finite integern 0, such that then-th iterated clique graphK ⁿ(G) has only one vertex. The smallest suchn is theindex ofG. TheHelly defect of a convergent graph is the smallestn such thatK ⁿ(G) is clique Helly, that is, its maximal cliques satisfy the Helly property. Bandelt and Prisner proved that the Helly defect of a chordal graph is at most one and asked whether there is a graph whose Helly defect exceeds the difference of its index and diameter by more than one. In the present paper an affirmative answer to the question is given. For any arbitrary finite integern, a graph is exhibited, the Helly defect of which exceeds byn the difference of its index and diameter.     

The element number of the convex regular polytopes

Let Σ be a set of n-dimensional polytopes. A set Ω of n-dimensional polytopes is said to be an element set for Σ if each polytope in Σ is the union of a finite number of polytopes in Ω identified along (n − 1)-dimensional faces. In this paper, we consider the n-dimensional polytopes in general, and extend the notion of element sets to higher dimensions. In particular, we will show that in the 4-space, the element number of the six convex regular polychora is at least 2, and in the n-space (n ≥ 5), the element number is 3, unless n + 1 is a square number.     

Star-critical Ramsey numbers

The graph Ramsey numberR(G,H) is the smallest integer r such that every 2-coloring of the edges of K_r contains either a red copy of G or a blue copy of H. We find the largest star that can be removed from K_r such that the underlying graph is still forced to have a red G or a blue H. Thus, we introduce the star-critical Ramsey numberr_∗(G,H) as the smallest integer k such that every 2-coloring of the edges of K_r−K_1,r−1−k contains either a red copy of G or a blue copy of H. We find the star-critical Ramsey number for trees versus complete graphs, multiple copies of K₂ and K₃, and paths versus a 4-cycle. In addition to finding the star-critical Ramsey numbers, the critical graphs are classified for R(T_n,K_m), R(nK₂,mK₂) and R(P_n,C₄).     

Forest covers and a polyhedral intersection theorem

Aforest cover of a graph is a spanning forest for which each component has at least two nodes. We consider the convex hull of incidence vectors of forest covers in a graph and show that this polyhedron is the intersection of the forest polytope and the cover polytope. This polytope has both the spanning tree and perfect matching polytopes as faces. Further, the forest cover polytope remains integral with the addition of the constraint requiring that, for some integerk, exactlyk edges be used in the solution.Research done while thae authors were visiting the Institut für Ökonometrie und Operations Research, Universität Bonn, West Germany.Financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada and the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeneinschaft, SFB 303).     

On the expansion with respect to Steklov means of the second differences of functions

We shall prove that every function locally integrable in then-dimensional Euclidean spaceR ⁿ can be expanded into a series whose terms are the Steklov means of the second differences of the given function. In addition, the lengths of the edges of the cubes with respect to which averaging is taken form an infinite decreasing geometric progression. The series obtained in this way converge almost everywhere inR ⁿ . If the function expanded belongs to the Lebesgue spaceL _p on a compact set ofR ⁿ for some 1≤p<∞, then the expansion converges also in the norm of this space.     

Manifold structures on abstract regular polytopes

Summary Abstract regular polytopes are complexes which generalize the classical regular polytopes. This paper discusses the topology of abstract regular polytopes whose vertex-figures are spherical and whose facets are topologically distinct from balls. The case of toroidal facets is particularly interesting and was studied earlier by Coxeter, Shephard and Grünbaum. Ann-dimensional manifold is associated with many abstract (n + 1)-polytopes. This is decomposed inton-dimensional manifolds-with-boundary (such as solid tori). For some polytopes with few faces the topological type or certain topological invariants of these manifolds are determined. For 4-polytopes with toroidal facets the manifolds include the 3-sphereS ³, connected sums of handlesS ¹ × S ² , euclidean and spherical space forms, and other examples with non-trivial fundamental group.