Some combinatorial properties of flag simplicial pseudomanifolds and spheres (Q2431085)

It is well-known that for any simplicial pseudomanifold \(K\) of dimension \(d\), its graph (\(1\)-dimensional skeleton) \(\mathcal{G}(K)\) is \((d+1)\)-vertex-connected [\textit{D. Barnette}, Isr. J. Math. 16, 62--72 (1973; Zbl 0273.52004)]. In this paper the author proves that if \(K\) is in addition flag (clique), then the vertex-connectivity of \(\mathcal{G}(K)\) is at least \(2d\). It is also shown that under the same hypothesis \(\mathcal{G}(K)\) has a subgraph which is a subdivision of the graph of the \((d+1)\)-dimensional cross-polytope. A third result provides a lower bound for the \(h\)-vector of the so called doubly Cohen-Macaulay flag complexes. This class contains all flag homology spheres. The bound given by this theorem is attained when the complex is the boundary of the cross-polytope.