Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire, 78B.68 (2017), 12 pp.

Cesar Ceballos, Arnau Padrol and Carmilo Sarmiento

Geometry of ν-Tamari Lattices in Types A and B

Abstract. In this extended abstract, we exploit the combinatorics and geometry of triangulations of products of simplices to reinterpret and generalize a number of constructions in Catalan combinatorics. In our framework, the main role of "Catalan objects" is played by (I,J-)-trees: bipartite trees associated to a pair (I,J-) of finite index sets that stand in simple bijection with lattice paths weakly above a lattice path ν = ν(I,J-). Such trees label the maximal simplices of a triangulation of a subpolytope of the cartesian product of two simplices, which provides a geometric realization of the ν-Tamari lattice introduced by Préville-Ratelle and Viennot. Dualizing this triangulation, we obtain a polyhedral complex induced by an arrangement of tropical hyperplanes whose 1-skeleton realizes the Hasse diagram of the ν-Tamari lattice, and thus generalizes the simple associahedron. Specializing to the Fuß-Catalan case realizes the m-Tamari lattices as 1-skeleta of regular subdivisions of classical associahedra, giving a positive answer to a question of F. Bergeron. The simplicial complex underlying our triangulation has its h-vector given by a suitable generalization of the Narayana numbers. We propose it as a natural generalization of the classical simplicial associahedron, alternative to the rational associahedron of Armstrong, Rhoades and Williams.

Our methods are amenable to cyclic symmetry, which we use to present type-B analogues of our constructions. Notably, we define a partial order that generalizes the type B Tamari lattice, introduced independently by Thomas and Reading, along with corresponding geometric realizations.


Received: November 14, 2016. Accepted: February 17, 2017. Final version: April 1, 2017.

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