The stresses on centrally symmetric complexes and the lower bound theorems (Q2039618)

The paper under review is devoted to the study of the equality cases in Stanley's lower bound theorems on the face numbers of centrally symmetric Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complexes and centrally symmetric polytopes. Recall that a simplicial complex \(\Delta\) is centrally symmetric if there is a free involution on its vertex set that also induces a free involution on the set of all non-empty faces of this complex. Related, a polytope \(P \subset \mathbb{R}^d\) is centrally symmetric if \(P = -P\). Now, the main results of this paper are the following. \par (1) Let \(\Delta\) be a \((d-1)\)-dimensional centrally symmetric Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complex. If \(h_i(\Delta)=\binom{d}{i}\) for some \(i\ge 1\), then \(h_j(\Delta)=\binom{d}{j}\) for all \(j\ge i\). \par (2) Related, let \(\Delta\) be the boundary complex of a \(d\)-dimensional centrally symmetric simplicial polytope. If \(g_i(\Delta)=\binom{d}{i}-\binom{d}{i-1}\) for some \(d/2\ge i\ge 1\), then \(g_j(\Delta)=\binom{d}{j}-\binom{d}{j-1}\). By these, the related conjectures raised by \textit{R. P. Stanley} [Graphs Comb. 3, 55--66 (1987; Zbl 0611.52002)] and \textit{S. Klee} et al. [Discrete Comput. Geom. 61, No. 3, 541--561 (2019; Zbl 1431.52017)] are confirmed in full generality. To establish these results, the authors took full advantage of the theory of stress spaces developed by \textit{C. W. Lee} [ibid. 15, No. 4, 389--421 (1996; Zbl 0856.52009)]. And through the proof, they also show that the complex satisfying the above conditions actually contains the boundary complex of a \(d\)-cross-polytope as a subcomplex.