Realizations of Multiassociahedra via Rigidity

Abstract

Let $$\Delta _{k}(n)$$ Δ k ( n ) denote the simplicial complex of $$(k+1)$$ ( k + 1 ) -crossing-free subsets of edges in $${\left( {\begin{array}{c}[n]\\ 2\end{array}}\right) }$$ [ n ] 2 . Here $$k,n\in \mathbb {N}$$ k , n ∈ N and $$n\ge 2k+1$$ n ≥ 2 k + 1 . Jonsson (2003) proved that [neglecting the short edges that cannot be part of any $$(k+1)$$ ( k + 1 ) -crossing], $$\Delta _{k}(n)$$ Δ k ( n ) is a shellable sphere of dimension $$k(n-2k-1)-1$$ k ( n - 2 k - 1 ) - 1 , and conjectured it to be polytopal. The same result and question arose in the work of Knutson and Miller (Adv Math 184(1):161-176, 2004) on subword complexes. Despite considerable effort, the only values of (k, n) for which the conjecture is known to hold are $$n\le 2k+3$$ n ≤ 2 k + 3 (Pilaud and Santos, Eur J Comb. 33(4):632–662, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejc.2011.12.003) and (2, 8) (Bokowski and Pilaud, On symmetric realizations of the simplicial complex of 3-crossing-free sets of diagonals of the octagon. In: Proceedings of the 21st annual Canadian conference on computational geometry, 2009). Using ideas from rigidity theory and choosing points along the moment curve we realize $$\Delta _{k}(n)$$ Δ k ( n ) as a polytope for $$(k,n)\in \{(2,9), (2,10) , (3,10)\}$$ ( k , n ) ∈ { ( 2 , 9 ) , ( 2 , 10 ) , ( 3 , 10 ) } . We also realize it as a simplicial fan for all $$n\le 13$$ n ≤ 13 and arbitrary k, except the pairs (3, 12) and (3, 13). Finally, we also show that for $$k\ge 3$$ k ≥ 3 and $$n\ge 2k+6$$ n ≥ 2 k + 6 no choice of points can realize $$\Delta _{k}(n)$$ Δ k ( n ) via bar-and-joint rigidity with points along the moment curve or, more generally, via cofactor rigidity with arbitrary points in convex position.