Projectivities in simplicial complexes and colorings of simple polytopes (Q697327)

The author defines a group associated with a facet of a simplicial complex, called the group of projectivities. The definition of this group is given below. Results about the group of projectivities are used to prove some strong results about the chromatic number of (certain graphs associated with) simple polytopes. Let \(V\) be the vertex set of a simplicial complex, and let \(U\subseteq V\) be a set of vertices of one of the simplices \(S\). Passing from \(S\) to a neighbouring \(S'\) via the common facet of \(S\) and \(S'\) induces a unique bijection from \(U\) to the set of vertices \(U'\) of \(S'\), which leaves all the common points fixed. Now, let \(S=S_0,S_1,\dots,S_n\) be a sequence of simplices, each sharing a common facet with the next. The mapping of the previous paragraph induces a bijection from the vertex set of \(S=S_0\) to that of \(S_n\). If in fact \(S_0=S_n=S\), this bijection is a permutation. The collection of all permutations so obtained is a group, called the group of projectivities of the simplicial complex. Assuming reasonable connectivity properties of the complex, the isomorphism class of the group is independent of the particular facet chosen. After defining the group, some results about its structure are obtained. These results are used to prove the key result of the paper, namely that for a simple \(d\)-polytope, the following properties are equivalent. (1) That the polytope's 2-faces are all \(n\)-gons for even \(n\). (2) That the boundary complex of the dual of the polytope is balanced. (3) That the chromatic number of the polytope is \(d\). This result had been shown for \(3\)-polytopes in [\textit{Ø. Ore}, The four-color problem (Pure and Applied Mathematics. 27. Academic Press, New York and London) (1967; Zbl 0149.21101)] and [\textit{I. V. Izmest'ev}, Usp. Mat. Nauk 56, No. 3, 169--170 (2001; Zbl 1078.14078)], and for \(4\)-polytopes in [\textit{J. E. Goodman} and \textit{H. Onishi}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 246, 501--510 (1978; Zbl 0397.05021)]. That simple zonotopes, which automatically satisfy (1), also satisfy (2), was shown in [\textit{M. Davis, T. Januszkiewicz} and \textit{R. Scott}, Sel. Math., New Ser. 4, No. 4, 491--547 (1998; Zbl 0924.53033)].