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Margaret Readdy

Publications and source records attributed to Margaret Readdy.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The toric g-vector of nestohedra

We show the entries of the toric g-vector of any dual simplicial polytope is a nonnegative integer linear combination of its gamma-vector entries. We give combinatorial interpretations of the toric g-vector of three classical polytopes: the associahedron, the cyclohedron and the permutahedron. Each is expressed in terms of 123-avoidance on a set of structures, namely, parking functions, functions and parking trees. Using our notion of parking trees, we extend our combinatorial model to all chordal nestohedra. As a corollary we obtain combinatorial proofs of nonnegativity of the toric g-vector for all of these polytopes.

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Pizza and 2-structures

Let $\mathcal{H}$ be a Coxeter hyperplane arrangement in $n$-dimensional Euclidean space. Assume that the negative of the identity map belongs to the associated Coxeter group $W$. Furthermore assume that the arrangement is not of type $A_1^n$. Let $K$ be a measurable subset of the Euclidean space with finite volume which is stable by the Coxeter group $W$ and let $a$ be a point such that $K$ contains the convex hull of the orbit of the point $a$ under the group $W$. In a previous article the authors proved the generalized pizza theorem: that the alternating sum over the chambers $T$ of $\mathcal{H}$ of the volumes of the intersections $T\cap(K+a)$ is zero. In this paper we give a dissection proof of this result. In fact, we lift the identity to an abstract dissection group to obtain a similar identity that replaces the volume by any valuation that is invariant under affine isometries. This includes the cases of all intrinsic volumes. Apart from basic geometry, the main ingredient is a theorem of the authors where we relate the alternating sum of the values of certain valuations over the chambers of a Coxeter arrangement to similar alternating sums for simpler subarrangements called $2$-structures introduced by Herb to study discrete series characters of real reduced groups.

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Catalan-Spitzer permutations

We study two classes of permutations intimately related to the visual proof of Spitzer's lemma and Huq's generalization of the Chung-Feller theorem. Both classes of permutations are counted by the Fuss-Catalan numbers. The study of one class leads to a generalization of results of Flajolet from continued fractions to continuants. The study of the other class leads to the discovery of a restricted variant of the Foata--Strehl group action.

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A generalization of combinatorial identities for stable discrete series constants

This article is concerned with the constants that appear in Harish-Chandra's character formula for stable discrete series of real reductive groups, although it does not require any knowledge about real reductive groups or discrete series. In Harish-Chandra's work the only information we have about these constants is that they are uniquely determined by an inductive property. Later Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson and Herb gave different formulas for these constants. In this article we generalize these formulas to the case of arbitrary finite Coxeter groups (in this setting, discrete series no longer make sense), and give a direct proof that the two formulas agree. We actually prove a slightly more general identity that also implies the combinatorial identity underlying the discrete series character identities of Morel. We deduce this identity from a general abstract theorem giving a way to calculate the alternating sum of the values of a valuation on the chambers of a Coxeter arrangement. We also introduce a ring structure on the set of valuations on polyhedral cones in Euclidean space with values in a fixed ring. This gives a theoretical framework for the valuation appearing in Appendix A of the Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson paper. In Appendix B we extend the notion of $2$-structures (due to Herb) to pseudo-root systems.

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Sharing pizza in n dimensions

We introduce and prove the $n$-dimensional Pizza Theorem: Let $\mathcal{H}$ be a hyperplane arrangement in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$. If $K$ is a measurable set of finite volume, the {pizza quantity} of $K$ is the alternating sum of the volumes of the regions obtained by intersecting $K$ with the arrangement $\mathcal{H}$. We prove that if $\mathcal{H}$ is a Coxeter arrangement different from $A_{1}^{n}$ such that the group of isometries $W$ generated by the reflections in the hyperplanes of $\mathcal{H}$ contains the map $-\mathrm{id}$, and if $K$ is a translate of a convex body that is stable under $W$ and contains the origin, then the pizza quantity of $K$ is equal to zero. Our main tool is an induction formula for the pizza quantity involving a subarrangement of the restricted arrangement on hyperplanes of $\mathcal{H}$ that we call the {even restricted arrangement}. More generally, we prove that for a class of arrangements that we call {even} (this includes the Coxeter arrangements above) and for a {sufficiently symmetric} set $K$, the pizza quantity of $K+a$ is polynomial in $a$ for $a$ small enough, for example if $K$ is convex and $0\in K+a$. We get stronger results in the case of balls, more generally, convex bodies bounded by quadratic hypersurfaces. For example, we prove that the pizza quantity of the ball centered at $a$ having radius $R\geq\|a\|$ vanishes for a Coxeter arrangement $\mathcal{H}$ with $|\mathcal{H}|-n$ an even positive integer. We also prove the Pizza Theorem for the surface volume: When $\mathcal{H}$ is a Coxeter arrangement and $|\mathcal{H}| - n$ is a nonnegative even integer, for an $n$-dimensional ball the alternating sum of the $(n-1)$-dimensional surface volumes of the regions is equal to zero.

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Classification of uniform flag triangulations of the boundary of the full root polytope of type $A$

The full root polytope of type $A$ is the convex hull of all pairwise differences of the standard basis vectors which we represent by forward and backward arrows. We completely classify all flag triangulations of this polytope that are uniform in the sense that the edges may be described as a function of the relative order of the indices of the four basis vectors involved. These fifteen triangulations fall naturally into three classes: three in the lex class, three in the revlex class and nine in the Simion class. We also consider a refined face count where we distinguish between forward and backward arrows. We prove the refined face counts only depend on the class of the triangulations. The refined face generating functions are expressed in terms of the Catalan and Delannoy generating functions and the modified Bessel function of the first kind.

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Bruhat and balanced graphs

We generalize chain enumeration in graded partially ordered sets by relaxing the graded, poset and Eulerian requirements. The resulting balanced digraphs, which include the classical Eulerian posets having an $R$-labeling, imply the existence of the (non-homogeneous) ${\bf cd}$-index, a key invariant for studying inequalities for the flag vector of polytopes. Mirroring Alexander duality for Eulerian posets, we show an analogue of Alexander duality for balanced digraphs. For Bruhat graphs of Coxeter groups, an important family of balanced graphs, our theory gives elementary proofs of the existence of the complete ${\bf cd}$-index and its properties. We also introduce the rising and falling quasisymmetric functions of a labeled acyclic digraph and show they are Hopf algebra homomorphisms mapping balanced digraphs to the Stembridge peak algebra. We conjecture nonnegativity of the ${\bf cd}$-index for acyclic digraphs having a balanced linear edge labeling.

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Some combinatorial identities appearing in the calculation of the cohomology of Siegel modular varieties

In the computation of the intersection cohomology of Shimura varieties, or of the $L^2$ cohomology of equal rank locally symmetric spaces, combinatorial identities involving averaged discrete series characters of real reductive groups play a large technical role. These identities can become very complicated and are not always well-understood (see for example the appendix of [8]). We propose a geometric approach to these identities in the case of Siegel modular varieties using the combinatorial properties of the Coxeter complex of the symmetric group. Apart from some introductory remarks about the origin of the identities, our paper is entirely combinatorial and does not require any knowledge of Shimura varieties or of representation theory.

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The van der Waerden complex

We introduce the van der Waerden complex ${\rm vdW}(n,k)$ defined as the simplicial complex whose facets correspond to arithmetic progressions of length $k$ in the vertex set $\{1, 2, \ldots, n\}$. We show the van der Waerden complex ${\rm vdW}(n,k)$ is homotopy equivalent to a $CW$-complex whose cells asymptotically have dimension at most $\log k / \log \log k$. Furthermore, we give bounds on $n$ and $k$ which imply that the van der Waerden complex is contractible.

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Simion's type $B$ associahedron is a pulling triangulation of the Legendre polytope

We show that Simion's type $B$ associahedron is combinatorially equivalent to a pulling triangulation of a type $B$ root polytope called the Legendre polytope. Furthermore, we show that every pulling triangulation of the Legendre polytope yields a flag complex. Our triangulation refines a decomposition of the Legendre polytope given by Cho. We extend Cho's cyclic group action to the triangulation in such a way that it corresponds to rotating centrally symmetric triangulations of a regular $(2n+2)$-gon. Finally, we present a bijection between the faces of the Simion's type $B$ associahedron and Delannoy paths.

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A poset view of the major index

We introduce the Major MacMahon map and show how this map interacts with the pyramid and bipyramid operators. When the Major MacMahon map is applied to the ab-index of a simplicial poset, it yields the q-analogue of n! times the h-polynomial of the poset. Applying the map to the Boolean algebra gives the distribution of the major index on the symmetric group, a seminal result due to MacMahon. Similarly, when applied to the cross-polytope we obtain the distribution of one of the major indexes on signed permutations due to Reiner.

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Euler flag enumeration of Whitney stratified spaces

The flag vector contains all the face incidence data of a polytope, and in the poset setting, the chain enumerative data. It is a classical result due to Bayer and Klapper that for face lattices of polytopes, and more generally, Eulerian graded posets, the flag vector can be written as a cd-index, a non-commutative polynomial which removes all the linear redundancies among the flag vector entries. This result holds for regular CW complexes. We relax the regularity condition to show the cd-index exists for Whitney stratified manifolds by extending the notion of a graded poset to that of a quasi-graded poset. This is a poset endowed with an order-preserving rank function and a weighted zeta function. This allows us to generalize the classical notion of Eulerianness, and obtain a cd-index in the quasi-graded poset arena. We also extend the semi-suspension operation to that of embedding a complex in the boundary of a higher dimensional ball and study the simplicial shelling components.

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Manifold arrangements

We determine the cd-index of the induced subdivision arising from a manifold arrangement. This generalizes earlier results in several directions: (i) One can work with manifolds other than the n-sphere and n-torus, (ii) the induced subdivision is a Whitney stratification, and (iii) the submanifolds in the arrangement are no longer required to be codimension one.

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On the non-existence of an R-labeling

We present a family of Eulerian posets which does not have any R-labeling. The result uses a structure theorem for R-labelings of the butterfly poset.

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The Möbius function of partitions with restricted block size

We study filters in the partition lattice formed by restricting to partitions by type. The Möbius function is determined in terms of the easier-to-compute descent set statistics on permutations and the Möbius function of filters in the lattice of integer compositions. When the underlying integer partition is a knapsack partition, the Möbius function on integer compositions is determined by a topological argument. In this proof the permutahedron makes a cameo appearance.

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Exponential Dowling structures

The notion of exponential Dowling structures is introduced, generalizing Stanley's original theory of exponential structures. Enumerative theory is developed to determine the Möbius function of exponential Dowling structures, including a restriction of these structures to elements whose types satisfy a semigroup condition. Stanley's study of permutations associated with exponential structures leads to a similar vein of study for exponential Dowling structures. In particular, for the extended r-divisible partition lattice we show the Möbius function is, up to a sign, the number of permutations in the symmetric group on rn+k elements having descent set {r, 2r, ..., nr}. Using Wachs' original EL-labeling of the r-divisible partition lattice, the extended r-divisible partition lattice is shown to be EL-shellable.

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Level Eulerian Posets

The notion of level posets is introduced. This class of infinite posets has the property that between every two adjacent ranks the same bipartite graph occurs. When the adjacency matrix is indecomposable, we determine the length of the longest interval one needs to check to verify Eulerianness. Furthermore, we show that every level Eulerian poset associated to an indecomposable matrix has even order. A condition for verifying shellability is introduced and is automated using the algebra of walks. Applying the Skolem--Mahler--Lech theorem, the ${\bf ab}$-series of a level poset is shown to be a rational generating function in the non-commutative variables ${\bf a}$ and ${\bf b}$. In the case the poset is also Eulerian, the analogous result holds for the ${\bf cd}$-series. Using coalgebraic techniques a method is developed to recognize the ${\bf cd}$-series matrix of a level Eulerian poset.

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Affine and toric hyperplane arrangements

We extend the Billera-Ehrenborg-Readdy map between the intersection lattice and face lattice of a central hyperplane arrangement to affine and toric hyperplane arrangements. For arrangements on the torus, we also generalize Zaslavsky's fundamental results on the number of regions.

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