Convex polyhedra of doubly stochastic matrices. I. Applications of the permanent function

The permanent function is used to determine geometrical properties of the set $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ of all n × n nonnegative doubly stochastic matrices. If $\text{F}$ is a face of $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$, then $\text{F}$ corresponds to an n × n (0, 1)-matrix A, where the permanent of A is the number of vertices of $\text{F}$. If A is fully indecomposable, then the dimension of $\text{F}$ equals σ(A) ? 2n + 1, where σ(A) is the number of 1's in A. The only two-dimensional faces of $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ are triangles and rectangles. For n ? 6, $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ has four types of three-dimensional faces. The facets of the faces of $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ are characterized. Faces of $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ which are simplices are determined. If $\text{F}$ is a face of $\text{Ω}{}_{\mathrm{n}}$ which is two-neighborly but not a simplex, then $\text{F}$ has dimension 4 and six vertices. All k-dimensional faces with k + 2 vertices are determined. The maximum number of vertices of a k-dimensional face is 2^k. All k-dimensional faces with at least 2^k?1 + 1 vertices are determined.