On stacked triangulated manifolds (Q2409845)

Stacked triangulations of spheres are of fundamental interest, in particular in the study of convex polytopes and triangulations of spheres and manifolds. For \(d \geq 3\), consider the class (recursively) \(\mathcal{H}^d(k)\) as follows. (i) \(\mathcal H^d(0)\) is the set of stacked \((d-1)\)-spheres. (ii) A simplicial complex \(\Delta\) is in \(\mathcal H^d(k +1)\) if it is obtained from a member of \(\mathcal H^d(k)\) by a combinatorial handle addition. (iii) The Walkup's class \(\mathcal H^d\) [\textit{D. W. Walkup}, Acta Math. 125, 75--107 (1970; Zbl 0204.56301)] is the union \(\mathcal H^d=\bigcup_{k \geq 0} \mathcal H^d(k)\). Members of Walkup's class are locally stacked. \textit{G. Kalai} [Invent. Math. 88, 125--151 (1987; Zbl 0624.52004)] proved that, for \(d\geq 4\), every locally stacked connected closed triangulated \(d\)-manifold is in the class \(\mathcal H^{d+1}\). This result does not hold for \(d = 2, 3\). Recently, \textit{S. Murai} and \textit{E. Nevo} [J. Algebr. Comb. 39, No. 2, 373--388 (2014; Zbl 1383.57029)] extended the notion of stackedness to triangulated manifolds. A connected closed triangulated \(d\)-manifold is said to be stacked if it is the boundary of a triangulated \((d + 1)\)-manifold whose interior faces have dimensions \(\geq d\). Stacked manifolds are locally stacked. But, there are locally stacked manifolds of dimensions 2 and 3 which are not stacked. In this article the authors prove that `a connected closed homology manifold of dimension \(d \geq 2\) is stacked if and only if it is in the Walkup's class \(\mathcal H^{d+1}\). They also show that, in dimension \(d\geq 4\), if \(\Delta\) is a tight connected closed homology \(d\)-manifold whose \(i\)-th homology vanishes for \(1 i d - 1\), then \(\Delta\) is a stacked triangulated manifold. The authors give some applications of their results. In particular, they show that these results give affirmative answers to questions posed by \textit{I. Novik} and \textit{E. Swartz} [Adv. Math. 222, No. 6, 2059--2084 (2009; Zbl 1182.52010)] and by \textit{F. Effenberger} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 118, No. 6, 1843--1862 (2011; Zbl 1282.52015)].