How many nn-vertex triangulations does the 33-sphere have?

It is known that the $3$-sphere has at most $2^{O(n^2 \log n)}$ combinatorially distinct triangulations with $n$ vertices. Here we construct at least $2^{\Omega(n^2)}$ such triangulations.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Combinatorial 3-manifolds with 10 vertices

We give a complete enumeration of all combinatorial 3-manifolds with 10 vertices: There are precisely 247882 triangulated 3-spheres with 10 vertices as well as 518 vertex-minimal triangulations of the sphere product $S^2\times S^1$ and 615 triangulations of the twisted sphere product S^2_\times_S^1. All the 3-spheres with up to 10 vertices are shellable, but there are 29 vertex-minimal non-shellable 3-balls with 9 vertices.Comment: 9 pages, minor revisions, to appear in Beitr. Algebra Geo

Small examples of non-constructible simplicial balls and spheres

We construct non-constructible simplicial $d$-spheres with $d+10$ vertices and non-constructible, non-realizable simplicial $d$-balls with $d+9$ vertices for $d\geq 3$.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Almost simplicial polytopes: the lower and upper bound theorems

International audiencethis is an extended abstract of the full version. We study n-vertex d-dimensional polytopes with at most one nonsimplex facet with, say, d + s vertices, called almost simplicial polytopes. We provide tight lower and upper bounds for the face numbers of these polytopes as functions of d, n and s, thus generalizing the classical Lower Bound Theorem by Barnette and Upper Bound Theorem by McMullen, which treat the case s = 0. We characterize the minimizers and provide examples of maximizers, for any d

Collapsibility of CAT(0) spaces

Collapsibility is a combinatorial strengthening of contractibility. We relate this property to metric geometry by proving the collapsibility of any complex that is CAT(0) with a metric for which all vertex stars are convex. This strengthens and generalizes a result by Crowley. Further consequences of our work are: (1) All CAT(0) cube complexes are collapsible. (2) Any triangulated manifold admits a CAT(0) metric if and only if it admits collapsible triangulations. (3) All contractible d-manifolds ($d \ne 4$) admit collapsible CAT(0) triangulations. This discretizes a classical result by Ancel--Guilbault.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figures. The part on collapsibility of convex complexes has been removed and forms a new paper, called "Barycentric subdivisions of convexes complex are collapsible" (arXiv:1709.07930). The part on enumeration of manifolds has also been removed and forms now a third paper, called "A Cheeger-type exponential bound for the number of triangulated manifolds" (arXiv:1710.00130

On kk-stellated and kk-stacked spheres

We introduce the class $\Sigma_k(d)$ of $k$-stellated (combinatorial) spheres of dimension $d$ ($0 \leq k \leq d + 1$) and compare and contrast it with the class ${\cal S}_k(d)$ ($0 \leq k \leq d$) of $k$-stacked homology $d$-spheres. We have $\Sigma_1(d) = {\cal S}_1(d)$, and $\Sigma_k(d) \subseteq {\cal S}_k(d)$ for $d \geq 2k - 1$. However, for each $k \geq 2$ there are $k$-stacked spheres which are not $k$-stellated. The existence of $k$-stellated spheres which are not $k$-stacked remains an open question. We also consider the class ${\cal W}_k(d)$ (and ${\cal K}_k(d)$) of simplicial complexes all whose vertex-links belong to $\Sigma_k(d - 1)$ (respectively, ${\cal S}_k(d - 1)$). Thus, ${\cal W}_k(d) \subseteq {\cal K}_k(d)$ for $d \geq 2k$, while ${\cal W}_1(d) = {\cal K}_1(d)$. Let $\bar{{\cal K}}_k(d)$ denote the class of $d$-dimensional complexes all whose vertex-links are $k$-stacked balls. We show that for $d\geq 2k + 2$, there is a natural bijection $M \mapsto \bar{M}$ from ${\cal K}_k(d)$ onto $\bar{{\cal K}}_k(d + 1)$ which is the inverse to the boundary map $\partial \colon \bar{{\cal K}}_k(d + 1) \to {\cal K}_k(d)$.Comment: Revised Version. Theorem 2.24 is new. 18 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1102.085

A non-partitionable Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complex

A long-standing conjecture of Stanley states that every Cohen-Macaulay simplicial complex is partitionable. We disprove the conjecture by constructing an explicit counterexample. Due to a result of Herzog, Jahan and Yassemi, our construction also disproves the conjecture that the Stanley depth of a monomial ideal is always at least its depth.Comment: Final version. 13 pages, 2 figure