Obstructions to shellability (Q1293353)

An obstruction to shellability is a nonshellable simplicial complex all of whose proper induced subcomplexes are shellable. (Note that here shellability refers to the general notion of nonpure shellability introduced by \textit{A.~Björner} and \textit{M.~Wachs} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 348, No. 4, 1299-1327 (1996; Zbl 0857.05102); ibid. 349, No. 10, 3945-3975 (1997; Zbl 0886.05126)].) As has been noticed by R.~Stanley, there is an obstruction to shellability of any dimension. It is an open problem to determine whether or not there is a finite number of obstructions of a fixed dimension \(d\). In the paper under review this problem is solved for \(d=1,2\) and its main result is: Theorem 3. The number of vertices in a two-dimensional obstruction is \(5\), \(6\) or \(7\). Another result is \textit{CL}-shellability of interval orders, which yields as a consequence a recursive formula for the Betti numbers of any interval order.