arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Lorenzo Venturello.
We investigate the question of whether any $d$-colorable simplicial $d$-polytope can be octahedralized, i.e., it can be subdivided to a $d$-dimensional geometric cross-polytopal complex. We give a positive answer in dimension $3$, with the additional property that the octahedralization introduces no new vertices on the boundary of the polytope.
A $d$-dimensional simplicial complex is balanced if the underlying graph is $(d+1)$-colorable. We present an implementation of cross-flips, a set of local moves introduced by Izmestiev, Klee and Novik which connect any two PL-homeomorphic balanced combinatorial manifolds. As a result we exhibit a vertex minimal balanced triangulation of the real projective plane, of the dunce hat and of the real projective space, as well as several balanced triangulations of surfaces and 3-manifolds on few vertices. In particular we construct small balanced triangulations of the 3-sphere that are non-shellable and shellable but not vertex decomposable.
We prove upper bounds for the graded Betti numbers of Stanley-Reisner rings of balanced simplicial complexes. Along the way we show bounds for Cohen-Macaulay graded rings $S/I$, where $S$ is a polynomial ring and $I\subseteq S$ is an homogeneous ideal containing a certain number of generators in degree 2, including the squares of the variables. Using similar techniques we provide upper bounds for the number of linear syzygies for Stanley-Reisner of balanced normal pseudomanifolds. Moreover, we compute explicitly the graded Betti numbers of cross-polytopal stacked spheres, and show that they only depend on the dimension and the number of vertices, rather than also the combinatorial type.
A classical result by Pachner states that two $d$-dimensional combinatorial manifolds with boundary are PL homeomorphic if and only they can be connected by a sequence of shellings and inverse shellings. We prove that for balanced, i.e., properly $(d + 1)$-colored, manifolds such a sequence can be chosen such that balancedness is preserved in each step. As a key ingredient we establish that any two balanced PL homeomorphic combinatorial manifolds with the same boundary are connected by a sequence of basic cross-flips, as was shown recently by Izmestiev, Klee and Novik for balanced manifolds without boundary. Moreover, we enumerate combinatorially different basic cross-flips and show that roughly half of these suffice to relate any two PL homeomorphic manifolds.
In a recent paper, Duval, Goeckner, Klivans and Martin disproved the longstanding conjecture by Stanley, that every Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complex is partitionable. We construct counterexamples to this conjecture that are even \emph{balanced}, i.e., their underlying graph has a minimal coloring. This answers a question by Duval et al. in the negative.