The Noncrossing Bond Poset of a Graph

The partition lattice and noncrossing partition lattice are well studied objects in combinatorics. Given a graph $G$ on vertex set $\{1,2,\dots, n\}$, its bond lattice, $L_G$, is the subposet of the partition lattice formed by restricting to the partitions whose blocks induce connected subgraphs of $G$. In this article, we introduce a natural noncrossing analogue of the bond lattice, the noncrossing bond poset, $NC_G$, obtained by restricting to the noncrossing partitions of $L_G$. Both the noncrossing partition lattice and the bond lattice have many nice combinatorial properties. We show that, for several families of graphs, the noncrossing bond poset also exhibits these properties. We present simple necessary and sufficient conditions on the graph to ensure the noncrossing bond poset is a lattice. Additionally, for several families of graphs, we give combinatorial descriptions of the Möbius function and characteristic polynomial of the noncrossing bond poset. These descriptions are in terms of a noncrossing analogue of non-broken circuit (NBC) sets of the graphs and can be thought of as a noncrossing version of Whitney's NBC theorem for the chromatic polynomial. We also consider the shellability and supersolvability of the noncrossing bond poset, providing sufficient conditions for both. We end with some open problems.

Proof of the $$K(\pi , 1)$$ conjecture for affine Artin groups

We prove the $$K(\pi ,1)$$ K ( π , 1 ) conjecture for affine Artin groups: the complexified complement of an affine reflection arrangement is a classifying space. This is a long-standing problem, due to Arnol’d, Pham, and Thom. Our proof is based on recent advancements in the theory of dual Coxeter and Artin groups, as well as on several new results and constructions. In particular: we show that all affine noncrossing partition posets are EL-shellable; we use these posets to construct finite classifying spaces for dual affine Artin groups; we introduce new CW models for the orbit configuration spaces associated with arbitrary Coxeter groups; we construct finite classifying spaces for the braided crystallographic groups introduced by McCammond and Sulway.

The Absolute Orders on the Coxeter Groups $A_n$ and $B_n$ are Sperner

There are several classes of ranked posets related to reflection groups which are known to have the Sperner property, including the Bruhat orders and the generalized noncrossing partition lattices (i.e., the maximal intervals in absolute orders). In 2019, Harper–Kim proved that the absolute orders on the symmetric groups are (strongly) Sperner. In this paper, we give an alternate proof that extends to the signed symmetric groups and the dihedral groups. Our simple proof uses techniques inspired by Ford–Fulkerson's theory of networks and flows, and a product theorem.

Symmetric Chain Decompositions and the Strong Sperner Property for Noncrossing Partition Lattices

International audience We prove that the noncrossing partition lattices associated with the complex reflection groups G(d, d, n) for d, n ≥ 2 admit a decomposition into saturated chains that are symmetric about the middle ranks. A consequence of this result is that these lattices have the strong Sperner property, which asserts that the cardinality of the union of the k largest antichains does not exceed the sum of the k largest ranks for all k ≤ n. Subsequently, we use a computer to complete the proof that any noncrossing partition lattice associated with a well-generated complex reflection group is strongly Sperner, thus affirmatively answering a special case of a question of D. Armstrong. This was previously established only for the Coxeter groups of type A and B.

Undesired Parking Spaces and Contractible Pieces of the Noncrossing Partition Link

There are two natural simplicial complexes associated to the noncrossing partition lattice: the order complex of the full lattice and the order complex of the lattice with its bounding elements removed. The latter is a complex that we call the noncrossing partition link because it is the link of an edge in the former. The first author and his coauthors conjectured that various collections of simplices of the noncrossing partition link (determined by the undesired parking spaces in the corresponding parking functions) form contractible subcomplexes. In this article we prove their conjecture by combining the fact that the star of a simplex in a flag complex is contractible with the second author's theory of noncrossing hypertrees.

A Decomposition of Parking Functions by Undesired Spaces

There is a well-known bijection between parking functions of a fixed length and maximal chains of the noncrossing partition lattice which we can use to associate to each set of parking functions a poset whose Hasse diagram is the union of the corresponding maximal chains. We introduce a decomposition of parking functions based on the largest number omitted and prove several theorems about the corresponding posets. In particular, they share properties with the noncrossing partition lattice such as local self-duality, a nice characterization of intervals, a readily computable Möbius function, and a symmetric chain decomposition. We also explore connections with order complexes, labeled Dyck paths, and rooted forests.