The non-pure version of the simplex and the boundary of the simplex (Q679747)

The author regards a homogeneous (or pure) simplicial \(d\)-complex \(K\) as \textit{vertex-minimal} if \(K\) is either the \(d\)-simplex or its stellar subdivision, or the boundary of a \((d+1)\)-simplex, in which case the carrier of \(K\) is homeomorphic either to the \(d\)-ball or \(d\)-sphere. With the homogeneity condition omitted, instead of the usual (combinatorial) ball and sphere one deals with their non-homogenous analogs, namely the non-homogeneous ball (NH-ball) and non-homogeneous sphere (NH-sphere) introduced by \textit{N. A. Capitelli} and \textit{E. G. Minian} [Beitr. Algebra Geom. 54, No. 1, 419--439 (2013; Zbl 1279.52017)]. In the paper under review a \textit{minimal NH-sphere} is defined to be one with minimum number of facets and a \textit{minimal NH-ball} is defined to be part of a minimal NH-sphere. The main result is a characterization of minimal NH-balls and NH-spheres in terms of the iterated Alexander duals of a finite simplicial complex \(K\). Namely, \(K\) is a minimal NH-sphere if and only if \(K\) is reduced to the boundary of a simplex by successively taking the Alexander duals, and similarly \(K\) is a minimal NH-ball if and only if \(K\) is reduced to a single simplex by a sequence of such iterations. It should be noted that in this paper the iterated Alexander duals \(K^*\), \((K^*)^*\), \(((K^*)^*)^*, \ldots \,\) are taken with respect to the vertex set of the current complex as the ground set of vertices, and the number of vertices may reduce in this process; for example, \(\{ a, \, b, \, c, \, ab \}^* = \{a, \, b\}\) with respect to the set of vertices \(\{a, \, b, \, c\}\), and \(\{ a, \, b \}^* = \{ \emptyset \}\) with respect to the set of vertices \(\{a, \, b\}\). It is proved in the paper that the total number of iterations required for the reduction is bounded above by the number of vertices of \(K\).