Construction and analysis of projected deformed products (Q848669)

The authors introduce a generalized \textsl{deformed product} construction for simple polytopes. This notion generalizes a deformed product construction, whose geometric framework was provided earlier by \textit{N. Amenta} and \textit{G. M. Ziegler}, see [Contemp. Math. 223, 57--90 (1999; Zbl 0916.90205)]. The new construction is presented in matrix version, i.e. as an \(H\)-polytope. The deformed products are constructed in order to provide interesting images of polyhedra after affine projections. Namely, they are designed so that certain classes of faces, e.g., all the \(k\)-faces, are ``preserved'', by a projection to some low-dimensional space. As an instance, the authors show how neighborly cubical \(d\)-polytopes arise from projections of a deformed \(n\)-cube where all the \(([d/2]-1)\)-faces are preserved by the projection. As special case, the authors obtain the neighborly cubical polytopes [cf. \textit{M. Joswig} and \textit{G. M. Ziegler}, Discrete Comput. Geom. 24, No.~2--3, 325--344 (2000; Zbl 1066.52012)], and provide geometric realizations for neighborly cubical spheres [cf. \textit{M. Joswig} and \textit{T. Rörig}, Isr. J. Math. 159, 221--242 (2007; Zbl 1134.52014), \textit{E. K. Babson, L. J. Billera} and \textit{C. S. Chan}, Isr. J. Math. 102, 297--315 (1997; Zbl 0893.52009)]. Finally, the authors apply deformed products of polygons in order to present a simplified construction and a complete combinatorial description for the two-parameter family of four-dimensional polytopes, announced earlier by \textit{G. M. Ziegler}, whose fatness parameter gets arbitrarily close to \(9\) [cf. Electron. Res. Announc. Am. Math. Soc. 10, 122--134, electronic only (2004; Zbl 1068.52014), Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians, ICM 2002, Beijing, China, August 20--28, 2002. Vol. III: Invited lectures. Beijing: Higher Education Press. 625--634 (2002; Zbl 1006.52006)].