The asymptotic diameter of cyclohedra (Q2627989)

Let us consider a pentagon. The pair of diagonals from each vertex define a triangulation. The \(2\)-dimensional associahedron \(K_4\) represents these five triangulations like a convex polytope, in the sense that each vertex of the polytope corresponds to a triangulation, and each edge correspond to a flip in which a single diagonal is removed from a triangulation and replaced by a different diagonal. Thus, the associahedron \(K_4\) is another pentagon. Applying the above representation process starting with the triangulations of a square instead a pentagon, the associahedron \(K_3\) is obtained, and it is a \(1\)-dimensional segment. In general, a associahedron \(K_n\) is a \((n - 2)\)-dimensional convex polytope in which each vertex corresponds to a triangulation of a regular polygon with \(n + 1\) sides, and each edge correspond to a flip in which a single diagonal is removed and replaced by a different diagonal. Similarly, a cyclohedron \(W_n\) is a \(n\)-dimensional convex polytope in which each vertex corresponds to a \textit{centrally symmetric} triangulation of a polygon with \(2n+2\) vertices, and each edge corresponds to a flip between a pair of these triangulation. A triangulation is \textit{centrally symmetric} if it contains the triangulation with a diagonal as soon as it contains the symmetric diagonal. It turns out that cyclohedra and associahedra belong to a group of polytopes called \textit{generalized associahedra}, introduced by \textit{S. Fomin} and \textit{A. Zelevinsky} [Ann. Math. (2) 158, No. 3, 977--1018 (2003; Zbl 1057.52003)]: cyclohedra are associahedra of type B and C, and ordinary associahedra are associahedra of type A. There is a fourth non-trivial infinite subfamily called associahedra of type D. It is proved that the diameter of ordinary \(n\)-dimensional associahedron is \(2n-4\) when \(n\) is greater than \(9\), and the diameter of \(n\)-dimensional associahedron of type \(D\) is \(2n-2\). This paper proves that the diameter of the \(n\)-dimensional cyclohedron is not greater that \(\lceil5n/2\rceil-2\) and not less that \(5n/2-4\sqrt{n}-4\), therefore the diameter grows like \(5/2\) when \(n\) is large enough.