arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Anders Björner.
It is shown that the numbers $c_i$ of chains of length $i$ in the proper part $L\setminus\{0,1\}$ of a distributive lattice $L$ of length $\ell +2$ satisfy the inequalities $$c_0<... ...>c_{\ell}.$$ This proves 75 % of the inequalities implied by the Neggers unimodality conjecture.
We consider the vanishing ideal of an arrangement of linear subspaces in a vector space and investigate when this ideal can be generated by products of linear forms. We introduce a combinatorial construction (blocker duality) which yields such generators in cases with a lot of combinatorial structure, and we present the examples that motivated our work. We give a construction which produces all elements of this type in the vanishing ideal of the arrangement. This leads to an algorithm for deciding if the ideal is generated by products of linear forms. We also consider generic arrangements of points in ${\bf P}^2$ and lines in ${\bf P}^3.$
In 1992 Thomas Bier presented a strikingly simple method to produce a huge number of simplicial (n-2)-spheres on 2n vertices as deleted joins of a simplicial complex on n vertices with its combinatorial Alexander dual. Here we interpret his construction as giving the poset of all the intervals in a boolean algebra that "cut across an ideal." Thus we arrive at a substantial generalization of Bier's construction: the Bier posets Bier(P,I) of an arbitrary bounded poset P of finite length. In the case of face posets of PL spheres this yields cellular "generalized Bier spheres." In the case of Eulerian or Cohen-Macaulay posets P we show that the Bier posets Bier(P,I) inherit these properties. In the boolean case originally considered by Bier, we show that all the spheres produced by his construction are shellable, which yields "many shellable spheres", most of which lack convex realization. Finally, we present simple explicit formulas for the g-vectors of these simplicial spheres and verify that they satisfy a strong form of the g-conjecture for spheres.
The blocker $A^{*}$ of an antichain $A$ in a finite poset $P$ is the set of elements minimal with the property of having with each member of $A$ a common predecessor. The following is done: 1. The posets $P$ for which $A^{**}=A$ for all antichains are characterized. 2. The blocker $A^*$ of a symmetric antichain in the partition lattice is characterized. 3. Connections with the question of finding minimal size blocking sets for certain set families are discussed.
We use the theory of hyperplane arrangements to construct natural bases for the homology of partition lattices of types A, B and D. This extends and explains the "splitting basis" for the homology of the partition lattice given in [Wa96], thus answering a question asked by R. Stanley. More explicitly, the following general technique is presented and utilized. Let A be a central and essential hyperplane arrangement in R^d. Let R_1,...,R_k be the bounded regions of a generic hyperplane section of A. We show that there are induced polytopal cycles ρ_{R_i} in the homology of the proper part \bar{L_A} of the intersection lattice such that {ρ_{R_i}}_{i=1,...,k} is a basis for \tilde H_{d-2}(\bar{L_A}). This geometric method for constructing combinatorial homology bases is applied to the Coxeter arrangements of types A, B and D, and to some interpolating arrangements.
We introduce (weighted) Segre and Rees products for posets and show that these constructions preserve the Cohen-Macaulay property over a field $k$ and homotopically. As an application we show that the weighted Segre product of two affine semigroup rings that are Koszul is again Koszul. This result generalizes previous results by Crona on weighted Segre products of polynomial rings. We also give a new proof of the fact that the Rees ring of a Koszul affine semigroup ring is again Koszul. The paper ends with a list of some open problems in the area.
Complexes of (not) connected graphs, hypergraphs and their homology appear in the construction of knot invariants given by V. Vassiliev. In this paper we study the complexes of not $i$-connected $k$-hypergraphs on $n$ vertices. We show that the complex of not $2$-connected graphs has the homotopy type of a wedge of $(n-2)!$ spheres of dimension $2n-5$. This answers one of the questions raised by Vassiliev in connection with knot invariants. For this case the $S_n$-action on the homology of the complex is also determined. For complexes of not $2$-connected $k$-hypergraphs we provide a formula for the generating function of the Euler characteristic, and we introduce certain lattices of graphs that encode their topology. We also present partial results for some other cases. In particular, we show that the complex of not $(n-2)$-connected graphs is Alexander dual to the complex of partial matchings of the complete graph. For not $(n-3)$-connected graphs we provide a formula for the generating function of the Euler characteristic.
The enumeration of points on (or off) the union of some linear or affine subspaces over a finite field is dealt with in combinatorics via the characteristic polynomial and in algebraic geometry via the zeta function. We discuss the basic relations between these two points of view. Counting points is also related to the $\ell$-adic cohomology of the arrangement (as a variety). We describe the eigenvalues of the Frobenius map acting on this cohomology, which corresponds to a finer decomposition of the zeta function. The $\ell$-adic cohomology groups and their decomposition into eigenspaces are shown to be fully determined by combinatorial data. Finally, it is shown that the zeta function is determined by the topology of the corresponding complex variety in some important cases.
Consider the question: Given integers $k N(d,k)$ the answer is yes if and only if $n\equiv 0\quad \pmod {G(d,k)}$. Furthermore, a formula for $G(d,k)$ is given, showing that e.g. $G(d,k)=1$ if $k\ge \left\lfloor\frac{d+1}{2}\right\rfloor$ or if both $d$ and $k$ are even, and also in some other cases (meaning that all numbers beyond $N(d,k)$ occur as the number of $k$-faces of some simple $d$-polytope). This question has previously been studied only for the case of vertices ($k=0$), where Lee \cite{Le} proved the existence of $N(d,0)$ (with $G(d,0)=1$ or $2$ depending on whether $d$ is even or odd), and Prabhu \cite{P2} showed that $N(d,0) \le cd\sqrt {d}$. We show here that asymptotically the true value of Prabhu's constant is $c=\sqrt2$ if $d$ is even, and $c=1$ if $d$ is odd.