Simon's conjecture on extendable shellability of simplex skeleta

Let Δn1(d)\Delta_{n-1}^{(d)} denote the dd-skeleton of the (n1)(n-1)-dimensional simplex. A pure dd-dimensional shellable complex on nn vertices is extendably shellable if every shelling of a subcomplex can be extended to a shelling of the entire complex. Simon's conjecture. The complex Δn1(d)\Delta_{n-1}^{(d)} is extendably shellable. Equivalently, any pure dd-dimensional shellable complex on nn vertices can be extended to Δn1(d)\Delta_{n-1}^{(d)} by attaching one facet at a time while maintaining shellability. This conjecture concerns whether shelling sequences in simplex skeleta can always be completed; the source gives no resolution status.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Rhea Ghosal, Melody Han, Benjamin Keller, Scarlett Kerr, Justin Liu, SuHo Oh, Ryan Tang and Chloe Weng, “Extendability of 1-decomposable complexes”, arXiv:2508.04555 (2026).

Additional references

3 papers in this index state this conjecture (2018–2025). The statement above is taken from the most recent of them; the others are arXiv:1911.12791, arXiv:1807.11012.

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