Oriented matroids and combinatorial manifolds (Q1209285)

The paper discusses connectivity properties of graphs of combinatorial manifolds (abstract polytopes) which are related to oriented matroids. By a result of Barnette, the graph of a \(d\)-manifold is \((d+1)\)-connected. The lattice of faces of an acyclic oriented matroid of rank \(r\) is an \((r-2)\)-manifold, and hence its graph and the graph of its polar (dual) are \((r-1)\)-connected. An oriented matroid lattice is a lattice arising from the span of cocircuits of an oriented matroid ordered by conformal relation. If the rank of the oriented matroid is \(r\), this is an \((r-1)\)- manifold and hence its graph \(G\) and the graph of its polar are \(r\)- connected. However, the authors prove that \(G\) is indeed \((2r-2)\)- connected.