Self-dual binary codes from small covers and simple polytopes (Q1673635)

In [Homology Homotopy Appl. 10, No. 2, 139--148 (2008; Zbl 1160.57013)], \textit{M. Kreck} and \textit{V. Puppe} studied connections between involutions of closed manifolds and self-dual binary codes. They proved that every involution with only isolated fixed points on a compact \(3\)-manifold determines a self-dual binary code. Moreover, they showed that every self-dual binary code can be obtained from an involution on an orientable \(3\)-manifold with the maximal number of isolated fixed points. A small cover, introduced in [\textit{M. Davis} and \textit{T. Januszkiewicz}, Duke Math. J. 62, No. 2, 417--451 (1991; Zbl 0733.52006)], is a closed smooth manifold \(M^n\) admitting a locally standard action of \({\mathbb{Z}}_2^n\), whose orbit space is an \(n\)-dimensional simple convex polytope. In the paper under review, the authors find connections between the work of Kreck and Puppe and the work of Davis and Januszkiewicz. They show that a small cover over a simple \(n\)-polytope produces a self-dual code if and only if the \(n\)-polytope is \(n\)-colorable and \(n\) is odd. They then describe such a self-dual binary code in terms of the combinatorics of the \(n\)-polytope. They also construct a family of binary codes from an arbitrary simple \(n\)-polytope and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the binary codes to be self-dual. Furthermore, they obtain new criteria to decide whether a simple \(n\)-polytope is \(n\)-colorable in terms of the associated family of binary codes.