The short toric polynomial

We introduce the short toric polynomial associated to a graded Eulerian poset. This polynomial contains the same information as the two toric polynomials introduced by Stanley, but allows different algebraic manipulations. The intertwined recurrence defining Stanley's toric polynomials may be replaced by a single recurrence, in which the degree of the discarded terms is independent of the rank. A short toric variant of the formula by Bayer and Ehrenborg, expressing the toric $h$-vector in terms of the $cd$-index, may be stated in a rank-independent form, and it may be shown using weighted lattice path enumeration and the reflection principle. We use our techniques to derive a formula expressing the toric $h$-vector of a dual simplicial Eulerian poset in terms of its $f$-vector. This formula implies Gessel's formula for the toric $h$-vector of a cube, and may be used to prove that the nonnegativity of the toric $h$-vector of a simple polytope is a consequence of the Generalized Lower Bound Theorem holding for simplicial polytopes.Comment: Minor correction

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

The toric h-vector of a cubical complex in terms of noncrossing partition statistics

This paper introduces a new and simple statistic on noncrossing partitions that expresses each coordinate of the toric $h$-vector of a cubical complex, written in the basis of the Adin $h$-vector entries, as the total weight of all noncrossing partitions. The same model may also be used to obtain a very simple combinatorial interpretation of the contribution of a cubical shelling component to the toric $h$-vector. In this model, a strengthening of the symmetry expressed by the Dehn-Sommerville equations may be derived from the self-duality of the noncrossing partition lattice, exhibited by the involution of Simion and Ullman

Relative Tutte polynomials of tensor products of colored graphs

The tensor product $(G_1,G_2)$ of a graph $G_1$ and a pointed graph $G_2$ (containing one distinguished edge) is obtained by identifying each edge of $G_1$ with the distinguished edge of a separate copy of $G_2$, and then removing the identified edges. A formula to compute the Tutte polynomial of a tensor product of graphs was originally given by Brylawski. This formula was recently generalized to colored graphs and the generalized Tutte polynomial introduced by Bollob\'as and Riordan. In this paper we generalize the colored tensor product formula to relative Tutte polynomials of relative graphs, containing zero edges to which the usual deletion-contraction rules do not apply. As we have shown in a recent paper, relative Tutte polynomials may be used to compute the Jones polynomial of a virtual knot