On \(k\)-stellated and \(k\)-stacked spheres (Q393461)

The authors give interesting connections among homology spheres (resp. balls), stellated spheres (resp. balls), stacked spheres (resp. balls), shellable spheres (respect. balls) and polytopal spheres etc. By using these relations, various interesting results are proved e.g. the authors give a characterization of \(k\)-stellated spheres of dimension \(d\geq2k-1\). The concept of a class, \(\Sigma_k(d)\), of triangulated \(k\)-stellated spheres (i.e. triangulated \(d\)-spheres obtained from the boundary of a \(d+1\) simplex by a finite sequence of bistellar moves of index less than \(k\) for \(0 \leq k \leq d +1 \)) of dimension \(d\) is introduced by the authors. Interesting relations between shelling moves and bistellar moves are also discussed. Many examples are given which make the paper self-explanatory. The authors also consider the class \(W_k(d)\) (and \(K_k(d)\)) of simplicial complexes all of whose vertex-links are \(d-1\) dimensional \(k\)-stellated spheres (resp., \(k\)-stacked spheres of dimension \(d-1\)) and prove that \(W_k(d)\subseteq K_k(d)\) for \(d \geq 2k\). The authors also give some open questions and a conjecture. An adequate number of references is also given, which are helpful to investigate these concepts further.