Additive structures on f-vector sets of polytopes

DOI10.1515/ADVGEOM-2018-0025MaRDI QIDQ2174106zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Günter M. Ziegler

Publication date 17 April 2020

Published in advg (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.02021

zbMATH Keywords

face numbers polytopes

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Combinatorial properties of polytopes and polyhedra (number of faces, shortest paths, etc.) (52B05)

Abstract: We show that the

f

-vector sets of

d

-polytopes have non-trivial additive structure: They span affine lattices and are embedded in monoids that we describe explicitly. Moreover, for many large subclasses, such as the simple polytopes, or the simplicial polytopes, there are monoid structures on the set of

f

-vectors by themselves: "addition of

f

-vectors minus the

f

-vector of the

d

-simplex" always yields a new

f

-vector. For general

4

-polytopes, we show that the modified addition operation does not always produce an

f

-vector, but that the result is always close to an

f

-vector. In this sense, the set of

f

-vectors of emph{all}

4

-polytopes forms an "approximate affine semigroup." The proof relies on the fact for

d = 4

every

d

-polytope, or its dual, has a "small facet." This fails for

d > 4

. We also describe a two further modified addition operations on

f

-vectors that can be geometrically realized by glueing corresponding polytopes. The second one of these may yield a semigroup structure on the

f

-vector set of all

4

-polytopes.

Review text

This paper presents the proof that there is a natural structure of an affine monoid or semigroup on various \(f\)-vector sets \(F\) of \(d\)-polytopes. An affine semigroup is defined as any structure that is isomorphic to a subset of some integer lattice \(\mathbb{Z}^{d}\) that is closed under addition. The properties of this structure are studied. The research starts in low dimensions, \(d\leq 3\). After that, the affine lattices spanned by all \(d\)-polytopes, and of all simplicial \(d\)-polytopes, are described for all \(d\geq 2\). It is proved that the \(f\)-vector sets of the \(d\)-polytopes are contained in pointed affine sub-monoids of the \(f\)-vector lattices that are also explicitly described. It is proved that the \(f\)-vectors of simplicial/simple \(d\)-polytopes form a monoid by themselves, which is not true in case of the \(f\)-vectors of general \(d\)-polytopes. Results on the geometrical representation of these structures are included.

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