Crystallizations of small covers over the $n$-simplex $\Delta^n$ and the prism $\Delta^{n-1} \times I$

Abstract

A crystallization of a PL manifold is an edge-colored graph that corresponds to a contracted triangulation of the manifold, facilitating the study of its topological and combinatorial properties. A small cover over a simple convex $n$-polytope $P^n$ is a closed $n$-manifold with a locally standard $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$-action such that its orbit space is homeomorphic to $P^n$. In this article, we study the crystallizations of small covers over the $n$-simplex $\Delta^n$ and the prism $\Delta^{n-1} \times I$. It is known that the small cover over the $n$-simplex $\Delta^n$ is $\mathbb{RP}^n$. For every $n\geq 2$, we prove that $\mathbb{RP}^n$ has a unique $2^n$-vertex crystallization. We also demonstrate that there are exactly $1 + 2^{n-1}$ D-J equivalence classes of small covers over the prism $\Delta^{n-1} \times I$, where $n\geq 3$. For each $\mathbb{Z}_2$-characteristic function of $\Delta^{n-1} \times I$, we construct a $2^{n-1}(n+1)$-vertex crystallization of the small cover $M^n(\lambda)$ with regular genus $1 + 2^{n-4}(n^2 - 2n - 3)$, where $n\geq 4$. The regular genus of closed PL \(n\)-manifolds extends the notions of the genus of surfaces and the Heegaard genus of 3-manifolds to higher dimensions. In this article, we construct four orientable and four non-orientable $\mathbb{RP}^3$-bundles over $\mathbb{S}^1$ up to D-J equivalence, each with regular genus $6$. Although the four orientable (resp. non-orientable) small covers are not D-J equivalent, we show that they are PL homeomorphic.