Monotonicity of the cd-index for polytopes (Q1974145)

The \(cd\)-index is an invariant for graded Eulerian posets. In case the poset is the face-lattice \(P\) of an \(n\)-polytope graded by the dimensions of the faces, the \(cd\)-index is defined as follows: One assigns a weight to each chain \(C\) in the face-lattice, \(C= \{0 = x_0 < x_1 < \dots < x_k < x_{k+1} = 1\}\), by \(w(C) = w_1 \dots w_n\), where \(w_i = b\) if \(i \in \{\dim (x_1), \dots \dim (x_k)\}\), otherwise \(w_i = a - b\). Then the \(ab\)-index of \(P\) is \(\sum_{C\text{ is a chain of }P} w(C)\). Let \(c = a + b\) and \(d = ab + ba\). The resulting polynomial in \(c\) and \(d\) is called the \(cd\)-index of \(P\). The \(cd\)-index is a coalgebra homomorphism of \(\mathbb{Z}\langle c,d\rangle\). The authors use it to prove that the \(cd\)-index of a polytope is greater or equal than the product of the \(cd\)-index of each of its faces by the pyramid of the \(cd\)-index of the quotient of the polytope by that face. This result implies that the \(cd\)-index is minimized on the \(n\)-simplex, thus proving Stanley's conjecture. The authors also state and prove the upper bound theorem for \(cd\)-index: The \(cd\)-index of an \(n\)-dimensional polytope with \(k\) vertices is at most that of the \(n\)-dimensional cyclic polytope with \(k\) vertices.