Geometric Topology – Do Combinatorially Equivalent Polytopes Have the Same Triangulations?

convex-polytopesdiscrete geometrygt.geometric-topologysimplicial-complexestriangulations

A triangulation of a convex polytope $P\subset\Bbb R^n$ is a partition of $P$ into $n$-simplices $\{\Delta_1,…,\Delta_m\}$ each of which has all its vertices among the vertices of $P$. A polytope may have many different triangulations.

Question I: do all combinatorially equivalent polytopes have the same triangulations?

More precisely, let $P,Q\subset\Bbb R^n$ be combinatorially equivalent, $\phi:\mathcal F(P)\to\mathcal F(Q)$ be a face-lattice isomorphism, and $\{\Delta_1,…,\Delta_m\}$ a triangulation of $P$.
If $\Delta_i$ has vertices $p_1,…,p_{n+1}\in\mathcal F_0(P)$, then let $\phi(\Delta_i)\subset Q$ be the simplex with vertices $\phi(p_1),…,\phi(p_{n+1})$. Do the simplices $\phi(\Delta_1),…,\phi(\Delta_m)$ form a triangulation of $Q$? That is, do they have disjoint interiors and cover all of $Q$?

Question II: if not, is there always a universal triangulation? That is, a special triangulation for $P$ that carries over to every combinatorially equivalent polytope in the way described above?

Best Answer

Just to mark this question as answered, the comment by Tobias Fritz is spot on. In this answer to a Math Stack Exchange question, Francisco Santos completely resolves your questions. On the one hand, the answer to Question I is no: combinatorially equivalent polytopes can have different triangulations. On the other hand, the answer to Question II is: yes, there is at least one triangulation they all share (the so-called "pulling triangulations").

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