Characterization off-vectors of families of convex sets inR d Part I: Necessity of Eckhoff’s conditions

LetK=K ₁,...,K_n be a family ofn convex sets inR ^d . For 0≦i denote byf _i the number of subfamilies ofK of sizei+1 with non-empty intersection. The vectorf(K) is called thef-vectors ofK. In 1973 Eckhoff proposed a characterization of the set off-vectors of finite families of convex sets inR ^d by a system of inequalities. Here we prove the necessity of Eckhoff's inequalities. The proof uses exterior algebra techniques. We introduce a notion of generalized homology groups for simplicial complexes. These groups play a crucial role in the proof, and may be of some independent interest.