Simplicial complex

In mathematics, a simplicial complex is a structured set composed of

points, line segments, triangles, and their n-dimensional counterparts,
called simplices, such that all the faces and intersections of the
elements are also included in the set (see illustration). Simplicial
complexes should not be confused with the more abstract notion of a
simplicial set appearing in modern simplicial homotopy theory. The
purely combinatorial counterpart to a simplicial complex is an
abstract simplicial complex. To distinguish a simplicial complex from
an abstract simplicial complex, the former is often called a geometric
simplicial complex.[1]: 7
A simplicial 3-complex.

Definitions
A simplicial complex is a set of simplices that satisfies the following conditions:

1. Every face of a simplex from is also in .

2. The non-empty intersection of any two simplices is a face of both and .

See also the definition of an abstract simplicial complex, which loosely speaking is a simplicial complex
without an associated geometry.

A simplicial k-complex is a simplicial complex where the largest dimension of any simplex in
equals k. For instance, a simplicial 2-complex must contain at least one triangle, and must not contain any
tetrahedra or higher-dimensional simplices.

A pure or homogeneous simplicial k-complex is a simplicial complex where every simplex of

dimension less than k is a face of some simplex of dimension exactly k. Informally, a pure 1-
complex "looks" like it's made of a bunch of lines, a 2-complex "looks" like it's made of a bunch of
triangles, etc. An example of a non-homogeneous complex is a triangle with a line segment attached to
one of its vertices. Pure simplicial complexes can be thought of as triangulations and provide a definition
of polytopes.

A facet is a maximal simplex, i.e., any simplex in a complex that is not a face of any larger simplex.[2]
(Note the difference from a "face" of a simplex). A pure simplicial complex can be thought of as a
complex where all facets have the same dimension. For (boundary complexes of) simplicial polytopes
this coincides with the meaning from polyhedral combinatorics.

Sometimes the term face is used to refer to a simplex of a complex, not to be confused with a face of a
simplex.

For a simplicial complex embedded in a k-dimensional space, the k-faces are sometimes referred to as its
cells. The term cell is sometimes used in a broader sense to denote a set homeomorphic to a simplex,
leading to the definition of cell complex.
The underlying space, sometimes called the carrier of a simplicial complex, is the union of its
simplices. It is usually denoted by or .

Support
The relative interiors of all simplices in form a partition of its underlying space : for each point
, there is exactly one simplex in containing in its relative interior. This simplex is called the
support of x and denoted .[3]: 9

Closure, star, and link

Two simplices and their closure.

A vertex and its star.

A vertex and its link.

Let K be a simplicial complex and let S be a collection of simplices in K.

The closure of S (denoted ) is the smallest simplicial subcomplex of K that contains each simplex in
S. is obtained by repeatedly adding to S each face of every simplex in S.
The star of S (denoted ) is the union of the stars of each simplex in S. For a single simplex s, the star
of s is the set of simplices in K that have s as a face. The star of S is generally not a simplicial complex
itself, so some authors define the closed star of S (denoted ) as the closure of the star of S.

The link of S (denoted ) equals . It is the closed star of S minus the stars of
all faces of S.

Algebraic topology
In algebraic topology, simplicial complexes are often useful for concrete calculations. For the definition
of homology groups of a simplicial complex, one can read the corresponding chain complex directly,
provided that consistent orientations are made of all simplices. The requirements of homotopy theory lead
to the use of more general spaces, the CW complexes. Infinite complexes are a technical tool basic in
algebraic topology. See also the discussion at Polytope of simplicial complexes as subspaces of Euclidean
space made up of subsets, each of which is a simplex. That somewhat more concrete concept is there
attributed to Alexandrov. Any finite simplicial complex in the sense talked about here can be embedded
as a polytope in that sense, in some large number of dimensions. In algebraic topology, a compact
topological space which is homeomorphic to the geometric realization of a finite simplicial complex is
usually called a polyhedron (see Spanier 1966, Maunder 1996, Hilton & Wylie 1967).

Combinatorics
Combinatorialists often study the f-vector of a simplicial d-complex Δ, which is the integer sequence
, where fi is the number of (i−1)-dimensional faces of Δ (by convention, f0 = 1
unless Δ is the empty complex). For instance, if Δ is the boundary of the octahedron, then its f-vector is
(1, 6, 12, 8), and if Δ is the first simplicial complex pictured above, its f-vector is (1, 18, 23, 8, 1). A
complete characterization of the possible f-vectors of simplicial complexes is given by the Kruskal–
Katona theorem.

By using the f-vector of a simplicial d-complex Δ as coefficients of a polynomial (written in decreasing

order of exponents), we obtain the f-polynomial of Δ. In our two examples above, the f-polynomials
would be and , respectively.

Combinatorists are often quite interested in the h-vector of a simplicial complex Δ, which is the sequence
of coefficients of the polynomial that results from plugging x − 1 into the f-polynomial of Δ. Formally, if
we write FΔ(x) to mean the f-polynomial of Δ, then the h-polynomial of Δ is

and the h-vector of Δ is

We calculate the h-vector of the octahedron boundary (our first example) as follows:
So the h-vector of the boundary of the octahedron is (1, 3, 3, 1). It is not an accident this h-vector is
symmetric. In fact, this happens whenever Δ is the boundary of a simplicial polytope (these are the Dehn–
Sommerville equations). In general, however, the h-vector of a simplicial complex is not even necessarily
positive. For instance, if we take Δ to be the 2-complex given by two triangles intersecting only at a
common vertex, the resulting h-vector is (1, 3, −2).

A complete characterization of all simplicial polytope h-vectors is given by the celebrated g-theorem of
Stanley, Billera, and Lee.

Simplicial complexes can be seen to have the same geometric structure as the contact graph of a sphere
packing (a graph where vertices are the centers of spheres and edges exist if the corresponding packing
elements touch each other) and as such can be used to determine the combinatorics of sphere packings,
such as the number of touching pairs (1-simplices), touching triplets (2-simplices), and touching
quadruples (3-simplices) in a sphere packing.

Computational problems
The simplicial complex recognition problem is: given a finite simplicial complex, decide whether it is
homeomorphic to a given geometric object. This problem is undecidable for any d-dimensional manifolds
for d ≥ 5.

See also
Abstract simplicial complex
Barycentric subdivision
Causal dynamical triangulation
Delta set
Loop quantum gravity
Polygonal chain – 1 dimensional simplicial complex
Tucker's lemma
Simplex tree

References
1. Matoušek, Jiří (2007). Using the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem: Lectures on Topological Methods in
Combinatorics and Geometry (2nd ed.). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-
540-00362-5. "Written in cooperation with Anders Björner and Günter M. Ziegler" , Section
4.3
2. De Loera, Jesús A.; Rambau, Jörg; Santos, Francisco (2010), Triangulations: Structures for
Algorithms and Applications (https://books.google.com/books?id=SxY1Xrr12DwC&pg=PA49
3), Algorithms and Computation in Mathematics, vol. 25, Springer, p. 493,
ISBN 9783642129711.
3. Matoušek, Jiří (2007). Using the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem: Lectures on Topological Methods in
Combinatorics and Geometry (2nd ed.). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-
540-00362-5. "Written in cooperation with Anders Björner and Günter M. Ziegler" , Section
4.3
 Spanier, Edwin H. (1966), Algebraic Topology, Springer, ISBN 0-387-94426-5
Maunder, Charles R.F. (1996), Algebraic Topology (Reprint of the 1980 ed.), Mineola, NY:
Dover, ISBN 0-486-69131-4, MR 1402473 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?
mr=1402473)
Hilton, Peter J.; Wylie, Shaun (1967), Homology Theory, New York: Cambridge University
Press, ISBN 0-521-09422-4, MR 0115161 (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet-getitem?
mr=0115161)

External links
Weisstein, Eric W. "Simplicial complex" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/SimplicialComplex.h
tml). MathWorld.
Norman J. Wildberger. "Simplices and simplicial complexes". A Youtube talk. (https://www.yo
utube.com/watch?v=2wn10l9qbJI).

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