Bier spheres and posets (Q2486856)

Let \(P\) be a poset of finite length, and let \(I\) be a proper ideal of \(P\), so that \(x \in I\) if \(x \leq y\) for some \(y \in I\), and \(I \neq P\) or \(\emptyset\). The poset Bier\((P,I)\) consists of all intervals \([x,y] \subseteq P\) such that \(x \in I\) and \(y \notin I\), with \([x',y'] \leq [x,y]\) given by \(x' \leq x < y \leq y'\), together with an additional top element \(\hat 1\). These posets generalize simplicial \((n-2)\)-spheres with \(2n\) vertices constructed by Bier (unpublished), as deleted joins of simplicial complexes on \(n\) vertices with their Alexander duals. The authors first show that various properties of \(P\) imply corresponding properties of \(\text{ Bier}(P,I)\); for example, they have the same length, they are both graded or not, and if \(P\) is a lattice, then so is \(\text{ Bier}(P,I)\). If \(\overline P := P \setminus \{\hat 0,\hat 1\}\) is the proper part of \(P\) and \(\Delta(\overline P)\) is its order complex, then they next show that \(\Delta(\overline{\text{Bier}(P,I)})\) can be obtained from \(\Delta(\overline P)\) by stellar subdivision. A Bier sphere comes from the case \(P = B_n\), the Boolean lattice; these are shown here to be shellable, and to satisfy the \(g\)-inequalities. It is noted finally that there are many more Bier spheres than corresponding polytopes, and that many centrally symmetric nearly neighbourly spheres can be obtained by Bier's construction.