Combinatorics of topological posets. Homotopy complementation formulas

DOI10.1006/AAMA.1998.0604MaRDI QIDQ1276388zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Publication date 27 January 1999

Published in Advances in Applied Mathematics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9801147

Grassmannian posets Hausdorff topology homology homotopy order complex shellability topological poset

Combinatorics of partially ordered sets (06A07) Algebraic aspects of posets (06A11) Ordered topological structures (06F30)

Abstract: We show that the well known {em homotopy complementation formula} of Bj"orner and Walker admits several closely related generalizations on different classes of topological posets (lattices). The utility of this technique is demonstrated on some classes of topological posets including the Grassmannian and configuration posets,

w i d e t i l d e {m a t h b f G}_{n} (R)

and

e x p_{n} (X)

which were introduced and studied by V.~Vassiliev. Among other applications we present a reasonably complete description, in terms of more standard spaces, of homology types of configuration posets

e x p_{n} (S^{m})

which leads to a negative answer to a question of Vassilev raised at the workshop ``Geometric Combinatorics (MSRI, February 1997).

Review text

A topological poset \((P,\leq,\tau)\) is a poset \((P,\leq)\) and a Hausdorff topology \(\tau\) on \(P\) such that \(\{(p,q)\in P\times P\mid p\leq q\}\) is a closed subspace of \(P\times P\). It is the author's observation that a variety of results for this class of posets bear sufficient semblance to those for the geometric combinatorics of finite and locally finite posets associated with the order complexes of such posets based on their algebro-topological properties (homotopy, homology, shellability, etc.) as exemplified by well-known formulae, e.g., the homotopy complementation formula of A. Björner and J. Walker among others. Thus, topological posets provide means to break the finiteness barrier and to bring within view many interesting examples not otherwise manageable for systematic study, e.g., Grassmannian posets over \(R\), \(C\) or \(Q\)(uaternions). In order to support his argument successfully, the author collects from the literature and develops a substantial body of ``basic material with which he is able to answer some general questions and to obtain some lemmas and propositions which are bound to be relevant in a further development of an organized theory for which some important results already exist in the literature, several of which have been identified by the author in this interesting paper which has a useful set of references over a quite disparate set of disciplines demonstrating that this subject makes contact with a multiplicity of others as noted in the author's introduction as well.

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