An impediment to polyhedrality (Q1106470)

A triangulated 3-sphere is called polyhedral if it is isomorphic to the boundary complex of a 4-dimensional convex polytope. The author constructs a certain complex C of six triangles which when embedded in a 3-sphere will prevent the polyhedrality of the sphere. It is shown that spheres with this subcomplex C cannot be invertible. Furthermore, adding a suitable triangle to C gives a complex which prevents the existence of a dual diagram for any 3-sphere into which the complex is embedded.