Decompositions of augmented Bergman complexes (Q2111778)

Summary: The augmented Bergman complex of a closure operator on a finite set interpolates between the order complex of proper flats and the independence complex of the operator. In 2020 \textit{T. Braden} et al. [``Singular hodge theory for combinatorial geometries'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2010.06088}] showed that augmented Bergman complexes of matroids are always gallery-connected, and recently \textit{E. Bullock} et al. [Electron. J. Comb. 29, No. 1, Research Paper P1.31, 19 p. (2022; Zbl 1486.05328)] strengthened ``gallery-connected'' to ``shellable'' by providing two classes of shelling orders: ``flag-to-basis'' shellings and ``basis-to-flag'' shellings. We show that augmented Bergman complexes of matroids are vertex decomposable, a stronger property than shellable. We also prove that the augmented Bergman complex of any closure operator is shellable if and only if the order complex of its lattice of flats (that is, its non-augmented Bergman complex) is shellable. As a consequence, an augmented Bergman complex is shellable if and only if it admits a flag-to-basis shelling. Perhaps surprisingly, the same does not hold for basis-to-flag shellings: we describe a closure operator whose augmented Bergman complex is shellable, but has no shelling order with bases appearing first.