The maximum number of faces of the Minkowski sum of three convex polytopes

We derive tight expressions for the maximum number of $k$-faces, $0\le{}k\le{}d-1$, of the Minkowski sum, $P_1+P_2+P_3$, of three $d$-dimensional convex polytopes $P_1$, $P_2$ and $P_3$ in $\reals^d$, as a function of the number of vertices of the polytopes, for any $d\ge{}2$. Expressing the Minkowski sum as a section of the Cayley polytope $\mathcal{C}$ of its summands, counting the $k$-faces of $P_1+P_2+P_3$ reduces to counting the $(k+2)$-faces of $\mathcal{C}$ which meet the vertex sets of the three polytopes. In two dimensions our expressions reduce to known results, while in three dimensions, the tightness of our bounds follows by exploiting known tight bounds for the number of faces of $r$ $d$-polytopes in $\reals^d$, where $r\ge d$. For $d\ge{}4$, the maximum values are attained when $P_1$, $P_2$ and $P_3$ are $d$-polytopes, whose vertex sets are chosen appropriately from three distinct $d$-dimensional moment-like curves

On f-vectors of Minkowski additions of convex polytopes

The objective of this paper is to present two types of results on Minkowski sums of convex polytopes. The first is about a special class of polytopes we call perfectly centered and the combinatorial properties of the Minkowski sum with their own dual. In particular, we have a characterization of face lattice of the sum in terms of the face lattice of a given perfectly centered polytope. Exact face counting formulas are then obtained for perfectly centered simplices and hypercubes. The second type of results concerns tight upper bounds for the f-vectors of Minkowski sums of several polytopes.Comment: 13 pages, submitted to Discrete & Computational Geometr

The maximum number of faces of the Minkowski sum of two convex polytopes

We derive tight expressions for the maximum number of $k$-faces, $0\le{}k\le{}d-1$, of the Minkowski sum, $P_1\oplus{}P_2$, of two $d$-dimensional convex polytopes $P_1$ and $P_2$, as a function of the number of vertices of the polytopes. For even dimensions $d\ge{}2$, the maximum values are attained when $P_1$ and $P_2$ are cyclic $d$-polytopes with disjoint vertex sets. For odd dimensions $d\ge{}3$, the maximum values are attained when $P_1$ and $P_2$ are $\lfloor\frac{d}{2}\rfloor$-neighborly $d$-polytopes, whose vertex sets are chosen appropriately from two distinct $d$-dimensional moment-like curves.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures, conference version to appear at SODA 2012; v2: fixed typos, made stylistic changes, added figure

Topological obstructions for vertex numbers of Minkowski sums

We show that for polytopes P_1, P_2, ..., P_r \subset \R^d, each having n_i \ge d+1 vertices, the Minkowski sum P_1 + P_2 + ... + P_r cannot achieve the maximum of \prod_i n_i vertices if r \ge d. This complements a recent result of Fukuda & Weibel (2006), who show that this is possible for up to d-1 summands. The result is obtained by combining methods from discrete geometry (Gale transforms) and topological combinatorics (van Kampen--type obstructions) as developed in R\"{o}rig, Sanyal, and Ziegler (2007).Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures; Improved exposition and less typos. Construction/example and remarks adde

Prodsimplicial-Neighborly Polytopes

Simultaneously generalizing both neighborly and neighborly cubical polytopes, we introduce PSN polytopes: their k-skeleton is combinatorially equivalent to that of a product of r simplices. We construct PSN polytopes by three different methods, the most versatile of which is an extension of Sanyal and Ziegler's "projecting deformed products" construction to products of arbitrary simple polytopes. For general r and k, the lowest dimension we achieve is 2k+r+1. Using topological obstructions similar to those introduced by Sanyal to bound the number of vertices of Minkowski sums, we show that this dimension is minimal if we additionally require that the PSN polytope is obtained as a projection of a polytope that is combinatorially equivalent to the product of r simplices, when the dimensions of these simplices are all large compared to k.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures; minor correction

Local tropical linear spaces

In this paper we study general tropical linear spaces locally: For any basis B of the matroid underlying a tropical linear space L, we define the local tropical linear space L_B to be the subcomplex of L consisting of all vectors v that make B a basis of maximal v-weight. The tropical linear space L can then be expressed as the union of all its local tropical linear spaces, which we prove are homeomorphic to Euclidean space. Local tropical linear spaces have a simple description in terms of polyhedral matroid subdivisions, and we prove that they are dual to mixed subdivisions of Minkowski sums of simplices. Using this duality we produce tight upper bounds for their f-vectors. We also study a certain class of tropical linear spaces that we call conical tropical linear spaces, and we give a simple proof that they satisfy Speyer's f-vector conjecture.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. Some results are stated in a bit more generality. Minor corrections were also mad

A geometric approach for the upper bound theorem for Minkowski sums of convex polytopes

We derive tight expressions for the maximum number of $k$-faces, $0\le{}k\le{}d-1$, of the Minkowski sum, $P_1+...+P_r$, of $r$ convex $d$-polytopes $P_1,...,P_r$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d\ge{}2$ and $r<d$, as a (recursively defined) function on the number of vertices of the polytopes. Our results coincide with those recently proved by Adiprasito and Sanyal [2]. In contrast to Adiprasito and Sanyal's approach, which uses tools from Combinatorial Commutative Algebra, our approach is purely geometric and uses basic notions such as $f$- and $h$-vector calculus and shellings, and generalizes the methodology used in [15] and [14] for proving upper bounds on the $f$-vector of the Minkowski sum of two and three convex polytopes, respectively. The key idea behind our approach is to express the Minkowski sum $P_1+...+P_r$ as a section of the Cayley polytope $\mathcal{C}$ of the summands; bounding the $k$-faces of $P_1+...+P_r$ reduces to bounding the subset of the $(k+r-1)$-faces of $\mathcal{C}$ that contain vertices from each of the $r$ polytopes. We end our paper with a sketch of an explicit construction that establishes the tightness of the upper bounds.Comment: 43 pages; minor changes (mostly typos