Rearrangement inequalities and the alternahedron (Q818687)

Let \(S_n\) be the group of even permutations of \(n\) symbols, \(y\in R^n\) a point with pairwise distinct components. The convex hull of the set \(\{\sigma y\mid \sigma\in S_n\}\) is a polyhedron whose combinatorial structure does not depend on \(y\), it is referred to as the permutahedron. This notion is well-known in combinatorics. The aim of the paper is to analyze the combinatorial structure of the alternahedron -- it is obtained by replacing \(S_n\) by the subgroup of even permutations \(A_n\). A complete set of inequalities describing the alternahedron is given in [\textit{V. A. Emelichev, M. M. Kovalev, M. K. Kravtsov}, Polytopes, graphs and optimization. Transl. from the Russian by G. H. Lawden (Cambridge University Press) (1984; Zbl 0523.52002)]. For \(n=4\) the alternahedron is just the icosahedron; some computer-aided investigations of low-dimensional alternahedra are presented in [\textit{H. Steinkamp}, Convex polytopes of permutation matrices. Thesis (B.A.), Reed College (1999)]. Actually the authors propose an original description of the face lattice of the alternahedron in terms of some ordered partitions. The main ingredients are rearrangement type inequalities, which are of own interest too.