Lifting inequalities for polytopes (Q1779283)

The flag \(f\)-vector of a polytope \(P\) counts the numbers of chains of each type of its faces, and this is encoded efficiently in the \textbf{cd}-index of \(P\). It is known that the \textbf{cd}-index is minimized by that of the simplex, and this yields corresponding linear inequalities on the flag \(f\)-vector of \(P\). Another source of such inequalities is convolution: if \(M \geq 0\) is one on flag \(f\)-vectors of \(m\)-polytopes and \(N \geq 0\) one on \(n\)-polytopes, then \(M*N \geq 0\) is one on \((m+n+1)\)-polytopes, where \[ (M*N)(Q) := \sum_{F \subset Q,\;\dim F = m} \, M(F)N(Q/F). \] Other inequalities come from the non-negativity of the toric \(g\)-vector. The author shows here how convolution works on the \textbf{cd}-index. He then uses these notions to find new inequalities for \(6\)-polytopes, and also lists best known inequalities on polytopes of dimensions \(5\) to \(8\).