A type-B associahedron. (Q1398283)

If \(\Gamma^A_n\) is the collection of all pairwise non-crossing diagonals of a convex \((n+ 2)\)-gon \(P\), then it is well known that \(F\) is a simplicial complex which is isomorphic to the boundary complex of some convex \((n- 1)\)-polytope \(Q^A_n\), called the associahedron. The dual simple polytope \(Q^{A*}_n\) is also of importance, and has been identified as a fibre polytope of the \((n+ 1)\)-simplex; its vertices correspond to the triangulations of \(P\). Analogously, a non-crossing partition of an \(n\)-gon \(P\) decomposes the vertices of \(P\) into blocks, such that diagonals in different blocks are non-crossing; the set of these is denoted \(NC^A_n\). The connexion here is that, if \(W_k(NC^A_n)\) is the number of these non-crossing partitions with \(n- k\) blocks, then \[ h_i(Q^A_n)= W_i(NC^A_n), \] with \(h(\cdot)\) the \(h\)-polynomial. In the \(B\)-analogues of these, the polygon \(P\) is centrally symmetric. Noncrossing diagonals (with vertices labelled \(1,\dots, n+1,\overline 1,\dots,\overline{n+1}\) in cyclic order) or partitions are now required to be centrally symmetric, so that (one) diagonal \(\{i, \overline i\}\) or centrally symmetric partition is now permitted. Denoting the first set by \(\Gamma^B_n\), the author shows that this is a simplicial complex which is isomorphic to the boundary complex of what is called here the type-\(B\) associahedron \(Q^B_n\). The simple dual \(Q^{B*}_n\) is further discussed, and is shown here to tessellate a certain space. The author notes various connexions among these polytopes; for example, \(if_{i-1}(Q^B_n)= n(n+ 1) f_{i-2}(Q^A_n)\) holds on geometric grounds, but a direct proof of some underlying combinatorial relationship would obviously be desirable.