Associahedra via spines

Reflection and Coxeter groups (group-theoretic aspects) (20F55) Combinatorial properties of polytopes and polyhedra (number of faces, shortest paths, etc.) (52B05) (n)-dimensional polytopes (52B11)

Abstract: An associahedron is a polytope whose vertices correspond to triangulations of a convex polygon and whose edges correspond to flips between them. Using labeled polygons, C. Hohlweg and C. Lange constructed various realizations of the associahedron with relevant properties related to the symmetric group and the classical permutahedron. We introduce the spine of a triangulation as its dual tree together with a labeling and an orientation. This notion extends the classical understanding of the associahedron via binary trees, introduces a new perspective on C. Hohlweg and C. Lange's construction closer to J.-L. Loday's original approach, and sheds light upon the combinatorial and geometric properties of the resulting realizations of the associahedron. It also leads to noteworthy proofs which shorten and simplify previous approaches.

Review text

The \(n\)-dimensional associahedron is a certain convex \(n\)-polytope whose vertices are in one-to-one correspondence with the triangulations of a convex \((n+3)\)-gon and whose edges represent pairs of triangulations related by a flip of a single diagonal. Various polytopal realizations of the associahedron are known. The present paper introduces the spine of a triangulation of the \((n+3)\)-gon as the dual graph of the triangulation together with a labeling and an orientation. The approach to associahedra via spines extends the classical description of associahedra in terms of binary trees [\textit{J.-L. Loday}, Arch. Math. 83, No. 3, 267--278 (2004; Zbl 1059.52017)] and provides a new perspective on the realizations discovered in [\textit{C. Hohlweg} and \textit{C. E. M. C. Lange}, Discrete Comput. Geom. 37, No. 4, 517--543 (2007; Zbl 1125.52011)], leading in particular to new insights about their geometric and combinatorial properties.

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