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arXiv · 2511.13819

Chow polynomials of rank-uniform labeled posets

Abstract

We introduce and develop the theory of UMEL-shellable posets. These are posets equipped with an edge-lexicographical labeling satisfying certain uniformity and monotonicity properties. This framework encompasses classical families of combinatorial geometries, including uniform matroids, projective and affine geometries, braid matroids of type A and B, and all Dowling geometries. It also comprises all rank-uniform supersolvable lattices, and therefore also all rank-uniform distributive lattices. Our main result establishes real-rootedness phenomena for the Chow polynomials, the augmented Chow polynomials, and the chain polynomials associated with those posets, thus making simultaneous progress towards conjectures by Ferroni--Schr\"oter, Huh--Stevens, and Athanasiadis--Kalampogia-Evangelinou. In the special case of lattices of flats of matroids, the (augmented) Chow polynomials coincide with the Hilbert--Poincar\'e series of the Chow ring associated to the smooth and generally noncompact toric varieties of the (augmented) Bergman fan of the matroid, whereas the chain polynomial encodes the Hilbert--Poincar\'e series of the Stanley--Reisner ring of the Bergman complex of the matroid. Therefore, these real-rootedness results are tightly linked to the study of these algebro-geometric structures in matroid theory.

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BibTeXRIS

Basile Coron, Luis Ferroni, Shiyue Li. 2025-11-17. Chow polynomials of rank-uniform labeled posets. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.13819

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