Higher Bruhat orders and cyclic hyperplane arrangements (Q2367226): Difference between revisions

Bruhat (partial) orders form a class of important posets with interesting interpretations and relationships to a variety of structures of both combinatorial and/or topological nature, which have been reasonably well- studied as a consequence. Accordingly, it is important to discover proper generalizations which exhibit analogous connections to structures which may be related to those discovered in the study of Bruhat orders. As is noted in this paper, at least two such generalizations are possible, one based on ``single step inclusion'' corresponding to Manin and Schechtman's generalization, while another is based on ``set inclusion'', with the two orders so defined not always coinciding even though some infinite classes where coincidence occurs are determined, but not exhaustively. The author provides a relatively simple looking definition of a set \(B(n,k)\) which is then turned into two posets \(B(n,k)\) and \(B\subseteq(n,k)\), respectively, investigated according to a program similar to that for \(B(n,1)= B\subseteq (n,1)\) (the standard (weak) Bruhat order). In this manner a wealth of information is obtained (e.g., Theorem 5.2: the proper part of \(B\subseteq (n,k)\) has the homotopy type of the \((r-2)\)-sphere, where \(r=n-k\)). As well as providing new results, new proofs of results already known, this paper also leaves the reader with fruitful questions, e.g., pointing out that the study of the combinatorics of intervals is certainly interesting.