The topology of the external activity complex of a matroid

We prove that the external activity complex Act<(M) of a matroid is shellable. In fact, we show that every linear extension of Las Vergnas's external/internal order <ext/int on M provides a shelling of Act<(M). We also show that every linear extension of Las Vergnas's internal ord...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Federico Ardila, Federico Castillo, Jose Samper
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science 2020-04-01
Series:Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dmtcs.episciences.org/6355/pdf
Description
Summary:We prove that the external activity complex Act<(M) of a matroid is shellable. In fact, we show that every linear extension of Las Vergnas's external/internal order <ext/int on M provides a shelling of Act<(M). We also show that every linear extension of Las Vergnas's internal order <int on M provides a shelling of the independence complex IN(M). As a corollary, Act<(M) and M have the same h-vector. We prove that, after removing its cone points, the external activity complex is contractible if M contains U3,1 as a minor, and a sphere otherwise.
ISSN:1365-8050