\(f\)-vectors of barycentric subdivisions (Q930501)

A regular CW complex \(\Delta\) is called a Boolean cell complex if for each \(A \in \Delta\) the lower interval \([\emptyset,A]\) is a Boolean lattice. The \(f\)-vector \(\mathfrak{f}^\Delta = (f_i^\Delta)_i\) encodes the numbers of the \(i\)-dimensional cells of \(\Delta\). The \(f\)-polynomial equals \(\mathfrak{f}^\Delta(t) = \sum_{i=0}^d f^\Delta_{i-1} t^{d-i}\) where \((d-1)\) is the dimension of \(\Delta\). The \(h\)-vector is defined as \(\mathfrak{h}^\Delta = (h_i^\Delta)_i\) where \(\mathfrak{h}^\Delta(t) = \sum_{i=0}^d h_i^\Delta t^{d-i}\) is the expansion of \(\mathfrak{f}^\Delta(t-1)\) in terms of powers of \(t\). The authors' main result is the following: Theorem: Let \(\Delta\) be a \((d-1)\)-dimensional Boolean cell complex such that \(h_i^\Delta \geq 0\) for \(0 \leq i \leq d\). Then the roots of the polynomial \(\mathfrak{h}^{\text{sd}(\Delta)}(t)\) are real and simple, where \(\text{sd}(\Delta)\) denotes the barycentric subdivision of \(\Delta\). The authors note that the above theorem in particular applies to simplicial complexes that are Cohen-Macaulay over some field \(k\) and to boundary complexes of simple \(d\)-polytopes. The authors moreover study the Charney-Davis quantity of such Boolean cell complexes [cf. \textit{R. Charney} and \textit{M. Davis}, Pac. J. Math. 171, No. 1, 117--137 (1995; Zbl 0865.53036)].