Polygon dissections and some generalizations of cluster complexes (Q2500624)

The partially ordered set of subdivisions of an \(n\)-sided polygon by noncrossing diagonals is the face lattice of an \((n-3)\)-dimensional polytope, the associahedron. This paper considers \(m\)-divisible polygon dissections, dissections of a convex \((mn+2)\)-gon into polygons having number of vertices congruent to 2 modulo \(m\). Such dissections were studied and counted by \textit{J. H. Przytycki} and \textit{A. S. Sikora} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 92, 68--76 (2000; Zbl 0959.05004)]. Tzanaki here finds a simplicial complex whose faces correspond to the \(m\)-divisible polygon dissections, and gives a similar construction for centrally symmetric dissections. The simplicial complexes \(\Delta^m_W\) (where \(m\) is a positive integer and \(W\) is the Weyl group corresponding to the root system \(A_n\) or \(B_n\)) generalize the cluster complexes of \textit{S. Fomin} and \textit{A. Zelevinsky} [Ann. Math. (2) 158, 977--1018 (2003; Zbl 1057.52003)]. The entries of the \(h\)-vector of \(\Delta^m_W\) are shown to be the generalized Narayana numbers of \textit{C. A. Athanasiadis} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 357, 179--196 (2005; Zbl 1079.20057)]. The results above were independently discovered in the more general setting of arbitrary root systems by \textit{S. Fomin} and \textit{N. Reading} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2005, 2709--2757 (2005; Zbl 1117.52017)]. What is unique to this paper is a proof that the simplicial complexes \(\Delta^m_W\) are shellable and hence Cohen-Macaulay.