Algebraic Shifting and Basic Constructions on Simplicial Complexes

Eran Nevo

Published 2003-03-19, updated 2006-02-23Version 3

We try to understand the behavior of exterior algebraic shifting with respect to basic constructions on simplicial complexes, like union and join. In particular we give a complete combinatorial description of the shifting of a disjoint union, and more generally of a union along a simplex, in terms of the shifting of its components. As a corollary, we prove the following, conjectured by Kalai: $\Delta(K \cup L) = \Delta (\Delta(K) \cup \Delta(L))$, where $K,L$ are complexes, $\cup$ means disjoint union, and $\Delta$ is the exterior shifting operator. We give an example showing that replacing the operation 'union' with the operation 'join' in the above equation is wrong, disproving a conjecture made by Kalai. We adopt a homological point of view on the algebraic shifting operator, which is used throughout this work.