English

Recovering Lexicographic Triangulations

Combinatorics 2017-11-21 v1

Abstract

Given a finite set V={v1,,vn}RdV=\{v^1, \dots, v^n\} \subset \mathbb R^d with dim conv (V)=d(V)=d, a triangulation TT of VV is a collection of distinct subsets {T1,,Tm}\{T_1, \dots, T_m\} where TiVT_i \subseteq V is the vertex set of a dd-simplex, conv(V)=i=1mconv(Ti)\mathrm{conv} (V)=\bigcup_{i=1}^m \mathrm{conv} (T_i), and TiTjT_i \cap T_j is a common (possibly empty) face of both TiT_i and TjT_j. Associated with each triangulation TT of VV is the GKZ-vector ϕ(T)=(z1,,zn)\phi(T)=(z_1, \dots, z_n) where ziz_i is the sum of the volumes of all dd-simplices of TT having viVv^i \in V as a vertex. It is clear that given VV and a triangulation TT we can find ϕ(T)\phi(T). The focus of this paper is recovering a lexicographic triangulation from its GKZ-vector. The motivation for studying triangulations and their GKZ-vectors arises from the work of Gel'fand, Kapranov, and Zelevinski\v{\i} in which they illuminate connections between regular triangulations and subdivisions of Newton polytopes, and generalized discriminants and determinants. The secondary polytope, Σ(V)\Sigma (V), of an arbitrary finite point set VRdV \subset \mathbb R^d, introduced by Gel'fand, Kapranov, and Zelevinski\v{\i}, is defined to be the convex hull of the GKZ-vectors of all triangulations of VV. They showed the vertices of Σ(V)\Sigma (V) are in one-to-one correspondence with the regular triangulations of VV. Since the GKZ-vector of a regular triangulation is uniquely associated with that triangulation, a natural question is how that triangulation can be recovered from its vector. We answer this question in the case that the associated triangulation is lexicographic.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.06699,
  title  = {Recovering Lexicographic Triangulations},
  author = {Carl W. Lee and Wendy Weber},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.06699},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:49:48.836Z