258 research outputs found
Hypercellular graphs: partial cubes without as partial cube minor
We investigate the structure of isometric subgraphs of hypercubes (i.e.,
partial cubes) which do not contain finite convex subgraphs contractible to the
3-cube minus one vertex (here contraction means contracting the edges
corresponding to the same coordinate of the hypercube). Extending similar
results for median and cellular graphs, we show that the convex hull of an
isometric cycle of such a graph is gated and isomorphic to the Cartesian
product of edges and even cycles. Furthermore, we show that our graphs are
exactly the class of partial cubes in which any finite convex subgraph can be
obtained from the Cartesian products of edges and even cycles via successive
gated amalgams. This decomposition result enables us to establish a variety of
results. In particular, it yields that our class of graphs generalizes median
and cellular graphs, which motivates naming our graphs hypercellular.
Furthermore, we show that hypercellular graphs are tope graphs of zonotopal
complexes of oriented matroids. Finally, we characterize hypercellular graphs
as being median-cell -- a property naturally generalizing the notion of median
graphs.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures, added example answering Question 1 from earlier
draft (Figure 6.
Helly meets Garside and Artin
A graph is Helly if every family of pairwise intersecting combinatorial balls
has a nonempty intersection. We show that weak Garside groups of finite type
and FC-type Artin groups are Helly, that is, they act geometrically on Helly
graphs. In particular, such groups act geometrically on spaces with convex
geodesic bicombing, equipping them with a nonpositive-curvature-like structure.
That structure has many properties of a CAT(0) structure and, additionally, it
has a combinatorial flavor implying biautomaticity. As immediate consequences
we obtain new results for FC-type Artin groups (in particular braid groups and
spherical Artin groups) and weak Garside groups, including e.g.\ fundamental
groups of the complements of complexified finite simplicial arrangements of
hyperplanes, braid groups of well-generated complex reflection groups, and
one-relator groups with non-trivial center. Among the results are:
biautomaticity, existence of EZ and Tits boundaries, the Farrell-Jones
conjecture, the coarse Baum-Connes conjecture, and a description of higher
order homological and homotopical Dehn functions. As a mean of proving the
Helly property we introduce and use the notion of a (generalized) cell Helly
complex.Comment: Small modifications according to the referee report, updated
references. Final accepted versio
Convexity in partial cubes: the hull number
We prove that the combinatorial optimization problem of determining the hull
number of a partial cube is NP-complete. This makes partial cubes the minimal
graph class for which NP-completeness of this problem is known and improves
some earlier results in the literature.
On the other hand we provide a polynomial-time algorithm to determine the
hull number of planar partial cube quadrangulations.
Instances of the hull number problem for partial cubes described include
poset dimension and hitting sets for interiors of curves in the plane.
To obtain the above results, we investigate convexity in partial cubes and
characterize these graphs in terms of their lattice of convex subgraphs,
improving a theorem of Handa. Furthermore we provide a topological
representation theorem for planar partial cubes, generalizing a result of
Fukuda and Handa about rank three oriented matroids.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Helly-type problems
In this paper we present a variety of problems in the interface between combinatorics and geometry around the theorems of Helly, Radon, Carathéodory, and Tverberg. Through these problems we describe the fascinating area of Helly-type theorems and explain some of their main themes and goals
On k-Convex Polygons
We introduce a notion of -convexity and explore polygons in the plane that
have this property. Polygons which are \mbox{-convex} can be triangulated
with fast yet simple algorithms. However, recognizing them in general is a
3SUM-hard problem. We give a characterization of \mbox{-convex} polygons, a
particularly interesting class, and show how to recognize them in \mbox{} time. A description of their shape is given as well, which leads to
Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres type results regarding subconfigurations of their vertex
sets. Finally, we introduce the concept of generalized geometric permutations,
and show that their number can be exponential in the number of
\mbox{-convex} objects considered.Comment: 23 pages, 19 figure
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