The lecture-hall Sperner triangulation conjecture

Let RnR_n be the lecture-hall cone, and let Sn1S_{n-1} denote the symmetric group on n1n-1 letters. For a permutation πSn1\pi\in S_{n-1}, write des(π)des(\pi) for its number of descents. A Sperner 22-pair of [n1][n-1] is a pair of subsets A,B[n1]A,B\subset [n-1] such that neither AA nor BB is contained in the other.

Lecture-hall Sperner conjecture. There exists a regular, flag, unimodular triangulation of RnR_n that admits a shelling order such that the maximal simplices of the triangulation are indexed by πSn1\pi\in S_{n-1} and each such simplex is attached along des(π)des(\pi) of its facets. Further, the number of minimal non-edges in the triangulation is the number of Sperner 22-pairs of [n1][n-1].

The conjecture is motivated by the analogous braid triangulation of the cube [0,1]n1[0,1]^{n-1} and experimental evidence for n7n\leq 7. The authors state that it has proved to be a real challenge, and a corresponding triangulation remains elusive.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Matthias Beck, Benjamin Braun, Matthias Köppe, Carla D. Savage and Zafeirakis Zafeirakopoulos, “Generating functions and triangulations for lecture hall cones”, arXiv:1508.04619 (2017).

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