Linear inequalities for flags in graded posets

The closure of the convex cone generated by all flag $f$-vectors of graded posets is shown to be polyhedral. In particular, we give the facet inequalities to the polar cone of all nonnegative chain-enumeration functionals on this class of posets. These are in one-to-one correspondence with antichains of intervals on the set of ranks and thus are counted by Catalan numbers. Furthermore, we prove that the convolution operation introduced by Kalai assigns extreme rays to pairs of extreme rays in most cases. We describe the strongest possible inequalities for graded posets of rank at most 5

Generalizations of Eulerian partially ordered sets, flag numbers, and the Mobius function

A partially ordered set is r-thick if every nonempty open interval contains at least r elements. This paper studies the flag vectors of graded, r-thick posets and shows the smallest convex cone containing them is isomorphic to the cone of flag vectors of all graded posets. It also defines a k-analogue of the Mobius function and k-Eulerian posets, which are 2k-thick. Several characterizations of k-Eulerian posets are given. The generalized Dehn-Sommerville equations are proved for flag vectors of k-Eulerian posets. A new inequality is proved to be valid and sharp for rank 8 Eulerian posets

Signs in the cd-index of Eulerian partially ordered sets

A graded partially ordered set is Eulerian if every interval has the same number of elements of even rank and of odd rank. Face lattices of convex polytopes are Eulerian. For Eulerian partially ordered sets, the flag vector can be encoded efficiently in the cd-index. The cd-index of a polytope has all positive entries. An important open problem is to give the broadest natural class of Eulerian posets having nonnegative cd-index. This paper completely determines which entries of the cd-index are nonnegative for all Eulerian posets. It also shows that there are no other lower or upper bounds on cd-coefficients (except for the coefficient of c^n)

Inequalities for the h- and flag h-vectors of geometric lattices

We prove that the order complex of a geometric lattice has a convex ear decomposition. As a consequence, if D(L) is the order complex of a rank (r+1) geometric lattice L, then for all i \leq r/2 the h-vector of D(L) satisfies h(i-1) \leq h(i) and h(i) \leq h(r-i). We also obtain several inequalities for the flag h-vector of D(L) by analyzing the weak Bruhat order of the symmetric group. As an application, we obtain a zonotopal cd-analogue of the Dowling-Wilson characterization of geometric lattices which minimize Whitney numbers of the second kind. In addition, we are able to give a combinatorial flag h-vector proof of h(i-1) \leq h(i) when i \leq (2/7)(r + 5/2).Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures. Typos fixed; most notably in Table 1. A note was added regarding a solution to problem 4.

The Tchebyshev transforms of the first and second kind

We give an in-depth study of the Tchebyshev transforms of the first and second kind of a poset, recently discovered by Hetyei. The Tchebyshev transform (of the first kind) preserves desirable combinatorial properties, including Eulerianess (due to Hetyei) and EL-shellability. It is also a linear transformation on flag vectors. When restricted to Eulerian posets, it corresponds to the Billera, Ehrenborg and Readdy omega map of oriented matroids. One consequence is that nonnegativity of the cd-index is maintained. The Tchebyshev transform of the second kind is a Hopf algebra endomorphism on the space of quasisymmetric functions QSym. It coincides with Stembridge's peak enumerator for Eulerian posets, but differs for general posets. The complete spectrum is determined, generalizing work of Billera, Hsiao and van Willigenburg. The type B quasisymmetric function of a poset is introduced. Like Ehrenborg's classical quasisymmetric function of a poset, this map is a comodule morphism with respect to the quasisymmetric functions QSym. Similarities among the omega map, Ehrenborg's r-signed Birkhoff transform, and the Tchebyshev transforms motivate a general study of chain maps. One such occurrence, the chain map of the second kind, is a Hopf algebra endomorphism on the quasisymmetric functions QSym and is an instance of Aguiar, Bergeron and Sottile's result on the terminal object in the category of combinatorial Hopf algebras. In contrast, the chain map of the first kind is both an algebra map and a comodule endomorphism on the type B quasisymmetric functions BQSym.Comment: 33 page