Representability and boxicity of simplicial complexes (Q2167318)

The notion of \(d\)-boxicity of a simplicial complex generalizes the notion of the boxicity of a graph, introduced by \textit{F. S. Roberts} [in: Recent Prog. Comb., Proc. 3rd Waterloo Conf. 1968, 301--310 (1969; Zbl 0193.24301)] and rediscovered by \textit{H. S. Witsenhausen} [Discrete Math. 31, 211--216 (1980; Zbl 0443.05061)]. A simplicial complex is \(d\)-representable if it is isomorphic to the nerve of a family of convex sets in \(\mathbb{R}^d\). The \(d\)-boxicity of a simplicial complex \(X\) is the minimum number of \(d\)-representable simplicial complexes whose intersection is \(X\). The author proves that the \(d\)-boxicity of a simplicial complex on \(n\) vertices without missing faces of dimension larger than \(d\) is at most \(\lfloor\binom{n}{ d}/(d+1)\rfloor\). A subset of the vertex set is a missing face, if it is not a face, but every proper subset of it is a face. The bound is sharp: it is the \(d\)-boxicity of a simplicial complex whose set of missing faces form a Steiner\((d, d + 1, n)\)-system.