Base subsets of polar Grassmannians

Let $\Delta$ be a thick building of type $\textsf{X}_{n}=\textsf{C}_{n},\textsf{D}_{n}$. Let also ${\mathcal G}_k$ be the Grassmannian of $k$-dimensional singular subspaces of the associated polar space $\Pi$ (of rank $n$). We write ${\mathfrak G}_k$ for the corresponding shadow space of type $\textsf{X}_{n,k}$. Every bijective transformation of ${\mathcal G}_k$ sending base subsets to base subsets (the shadows of apartments) is a collineation of ${\mathfrak G}_k$, and it is induced by a collineation of $\Pi$ if $n\ne 4$ or $k\ne 1$

Metric characterization of apartments in dual polar spaces

Let $\Pi$ be a polar space of rank $n$ and let ${\mathcal G}_{k}(\Pi)$, $k\in \{0,\dots,n-1\}$ be the polar Grassmannian formed by $k$-dimensional singular subspaces of $\Pi$. The corresponding Grassmann graph will be denoted by $\Gamma_{k}(\Pi)$. We consider the polar Grassmannian ${\mathcal G}_{n-1}(\Pi)$ formed by maximal singular subspaces of $\Pi$ and show that the image of every isometric embedding of the $n$-dimensional hypercube graph $H_{n}$ in $\Gamma_{n-1}(\Pi)$ is an apartment of ${\mathcal G}_{n-1}(\Pi)$. This follows from a more general result (Theorem 2) concerning isometric embeddings of $H_{m}$, $m\le n$ in $\Gamma_{n-1}(\Pi)$. As an application, we classify all isometric embeddings of $\Gamma_{n-1}(\Pi)$ in $\Gamma_{n'-1}(\Pi')$, where $\Pi'$ is a polar space of rank $n'\ge n$ (Theorem 3)

Schubert decompositions for quiver Grassmannians of tree modules

Let $Q$ be a quiver, $M$ a representation of $Q$ with an ordered basis \cB and \ue a dimension vector for $Q$. In this note we extend the methods of \cite{L12} to establish Schubert decompositions of quiver Grassmannians \Gr_\ue(M) into affine spaces to the ramified case, i.e.\ the canonical morphism $F:T\to Q$ from the coefficient quiver $T$ of $M$ w.r.t.\ \cB is not necessarily unramified. In particular, we determine the Euler characteristic of \Gr_\ue(M) as the number of \emph{extremal successor closed subsets of $T_0$}, which extends the results of Cerulli Irelli (\cite{Cerulli11}) and Haupt (\cite{Haupt12}) (under certain additional assumptions on \cB).Comment: 22 page

Isometric embeddings of Johnson graphs in Grassmann graphs

Let $V$ be an $n$-dimensional vector space ($4\le n <\infty$) and let ${\mathcal G}_{k}(V)$ be the Grassmannian formed by all $k$-dimensional subspaces of $V$. The corresponding Grassmann graph will be denoted by $\Gamma_{k}(V)$. We describe all isometric embeddings of Johnson graphs $J(l,m)$, $1<m<l-1$ in $\Gamma_{k}(V)$, $1<k<n-1$ (Theorem 4). As a consequence, we get the following: the image of every isometric embedding of $J(n,k)$ in $\Gamma_{k}(V)$ is an apartment of ${\mathcal G}_{k}(V)$ if and only if $n=2k$. Our second result (Theorem 5) is a classification of rigid isometric embeddings of Johnson graphs in $\Gamma_{k}(V)$, $1<k<n-1$.Comment: New version -- 14 pages accepted to Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric

The generating rank of the unitary and symplectic Grassmannians

We prove that the Grassmannian of totally isotropic $k$-spaces of the polar space associated to the unitary group $\mathsf{SU}_{2n}(\mathbb{F})$ ($n\in \mathbb{N}$) has generating rank ${2n\choose k}$ when $\mathbb{F}\ne \mathbb{F}_4$. We also reprove the main result of Blok [Blok2007], namely that the Grassmannian of totally isotropic $k$-spaces associated to the symplectic group $\mathsf{Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{F})$ has generating rank ${2n\choose k}-{2n\choose k-2}$, when $\rm{Char}(\mathbb{F})\ne 2$

Splitting Polytopes

A split of a polytope $P$ is a (regular) subdivision with exactly two maximal cells. It turns out that each weight function on the vertices of $P$ admits a unique decomposition as a linear combination of weight functions corresponding to the splits of $P$ (with a split prime remainder). This generalizes a result of Bandelt and Dress [Adv. Math. 92 (1992)] on the decomposition of finite metric spaces. Introducing the concept of compatibility of splits gives rise to a finite simplicial complex associated with any polytope $P$, the split complex of $P$. Complete descriptions of the split complexes of all hypersimplices are obtained. Moreover, it is shown that these complexes arise as subcomplexes of the tropical (pre-)Grassmannians of Speyer and Sturmfels [Adv. Geom. 4 (2004)].Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures; minor corrections and change