Sections of simplices
cutting facesface-latticeinequalitieslargest number of \(k\)-facespolytoperelative interiorssections of simplicessimplexsmallest number of \(j\)-flats
Combinatorial aspects of matroids and geometric lattices (05B35) Combinatorial properties of polytopes and polyhedra (number of faces, shortest paths, etc.) (52B05) (n)-dimensional polytopes (52B11) Lattices and convex bodies in (n) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C07) Arrangements of points, flats, hyperplanes (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C35)
The author shows that the relative interiors of all the \(k\)-dimensional faces of a \(d\)-dimensional simplex, \( k\geq \lfloor d/2\rfloor,\) can be intersected by an affine flat of dimension \(2 (d - k).\) The result yields a counter-intuitive fact that the relative interiors of all the facets of any \(d\)-simplex can be intersected by a 2-dimensional plane. Bezdek, Bisztriczky, and Connelly's results [\textit{K. Bezdek, T. Bisztriczky}, and \textit{R. Connelly} [Monatsh. Math. 109, No. 1, 39-48 (1990; Zbl 0712.52012)], show that the restriction \( k\geq \lfloor d/2\rfloor\) above cannot be dropped and hence raise the question of determining, for all \(1\leq j, k < d,\) the function \(C(j,k;d),\) defined as the smallest number of \(j\)-flats needed to intersect the relative interiors of all the \(k\)-faces of a \(d\)-simplex. Using probabilistic arguments, the following fairly nontrivial upper bound on \(C(j,k;d)\) is proved. Let \(w =\min(\max(\lfloor {j}/{2}\rfloor+k,j),d).\) Then for \(1\leq k,j < d,\) \[ C(j,k;d)\leq{\binom{d+1}{k+1}}{\binom{w+1}{k+1}}^{-1} \log\binom{d+1}{k+1}. \] Another important problem is to determine, for all \(1\leq k,j < d,\) the function \(M (j, k; d),\) defined as the largest number of \(k\)-faces of a \(d\)-simplex whose relative interiors can be intersected by a \(j\)-flat. The author obtains the lower bound \(\binom{w+1}{k+1}\leq M (j, k; d)\) on \(M(j,k;d).\) For large \(d,\) \(d > d_0,\) and \(k+j\geq d,\) it is shown that the following is a tight upper bound on \(M(j,k;d):\) \(M(j,k;d)\leq f_{\lceil 3/4\rceil-1}(d+1,j),\) where \(f_m(n,q)\) is the number of \(m\)-faces in a cyclic \(q\)-polytope with \(n\)-vertices.
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