[Math] Triangulations coming from a poset. Or: What conditions are necessary and sufficient for a finite simplicial complex to be the order complex of a poset

gt.geometric-topologysimplicial-stuff

Every partially ordered set gives a triangulation of (the geometric realisation of) its order complex. (The n-simplices of the order complex are the chains $x_0\leq x_1\leq\cdots\leq x_n$.) However, there are triangulations of topological spaces that do not arise this way.

Is there a name for triangulations having this special property of "coming from a poset?"

EDIT: Apparently, the following formulation of my question is cleaner: what conditions are necessary and sufficient for a finite simplicial complex to be the order complex of a poset?

Best Answer

Here are necessary and sufficient conditions for an abstract, finite simplicial complex $\mathcal{S}$ to be the order complex of some partially ordered set.

(i) $\mathcal{S}$ has no missing faces of cardinality $\geq 3$; and

(ii) The graph given by the edges (=$1$-dimensional simplices) of $\mathcal{S}$ is a comparability.

[Definitions. (a) A missing face of $\mathcal{S}$ is a subset $M$ of its vertices (=$0$-dimensional simplices) such that $M \not \in \mathcal{S}$, but all proper subsets $P\subseteq M$ satisfy $P\in \mathcal{S}$. (b) A graph (=undirected graph with no loops nor multiple edges) is a comparability if its edges can be transitively oriented, meaning that whenever edges $\{p, r_1\}, \{r_1, r_2\},\ldots, \{r_{u−1}, r_u\}, \{r_u, q\}$ are oriented as $(p, r_1), (r_1, r_2),\ldots, (r_{u−1}, r_u), (r_u, q)$, then there exists an edge $\{p, q\}$ oriented as $(p, q)$.]

This characterisation appears with a sketch of proof $-$ which is not hard, anyway $-$ in

M. M. Bayer, Barycentric subdivisions. Pacific J. Math. 135 (1988), no. 1, pp. 1-16.

As Bayer points out, the result was first observed in

R. Stanley, Balanced Cohen-Macaulay complexes, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc, 249 (1979), pp. 139-157.

@Rasmus and @Gwyn: The characterisation might perhaps disappoint you if you were expecting something more topological. However, it's easy to prove that no topological characterisation of order complexes is possible, and therefore a combinatorial condition such as the one on comparabilities must be used. For this, first check that the barycentric subdivision of any simplicial complex indeed is an order complex. Next observe that barycentric subdivision of a simplicial complex does not change the homeomorphism type of the underlying polyhedron of the complex. Finally, conclude that for any topological space $T$ that is homeomorphic to a compact polyhedron, there is an order complex whose underlying polyhedron is homeomorphic to $T$.

I hope this helps.

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