On subdivision posets of cyclic polytopes (Q1964650)

Let \(C(n,d)\) be a cyclic \(d\)-polytope with \(n\) vertices. There are two natural partial orderings on the set of all (proper) triangulations of \(C(n,d)\), the so-called first and second higher Stasheff-Tamari orders, which are known to coincide for \(d\leq 3\). The main result of this paper says that for arbitrary \(d\) and each \(n>d+1\), both of these posets are homotopy equivalent to a sphere of dimension \(n-d-3\). Based on this theorem, it is shown that the poset of all proper polyhedral subdivisions of \(C(n,d)\), partially ordered by refinement, is homotopy equivalent to an \((n-d-2)\) -sphere for \(d\leq 3\). For arbitrary \(d\), this is proved in the following paper of the same journal [see \textit{J. Rambau} and \textit{F. Santos}, ibid., 65-83 (2000; Zbl 0951.52011)].