On the combinatorial structure of 0/1-matrices representing nonobtuse simplices

TL;DR

This paper investigates the structure of 0/1-matrices representing nonobtuse simplices in the unit cube, proving properties of their inverses and exploring how these simplices can be decomposed and related through their facets.

Contribution

It introduces new structural results about nonobtuse 0/1-simplices, including properties of their matrix representations and an extension of the one neighbor theorem.

Findings

Positive part of the inverse transpose is doubly stochastic with the same support as P.

Nonobtuse simplices with partly decomposable matrices can be split into orthogonal facets.

Extended one neighbor theorem applies to a broader class of nonobtuse simplices.

Abstract

A 0/1-simplex is the convex hull of n+1 affinely independent vertices of the unit n-cube I^n. It is nonobtuse if none its dihedral angles is obtuse, and acute if additionally none of them is right. Acute 0/1-simplices in I^n can be represented by 0/1-matrices P of size n x n whose Gramians have an inverse that is strictly diagonally dominant, with negative off-diagonal entries. In this paper, we will prove that the positive part D of the transposed inverse of P is doubly stochastic and has the same support as P. The negated negative part C of P^-T is strictly row-substochastic and its support is complementary to that of D, showing that P^-T=D-C has no zero entries and has positive row sums. As a consequence, for each facet F of an acute 0/1-facet S there exists at most one other acute 0/1-simplex T in I^n having F as a facet. We call T the acute neighbor of S at F. If P represents a 0/1-simplex that is merely nonobtuse, P^-T can have entries equal to zero. Its positive part D is still doubly stochastic, but its support may be strictly contained in the support of P. This allows P to be partly decomposable. In theory, this might cause a nonobtuse 0/1-simplex S to have several nonobtuse neighbors at each of its facets. Next, we study nonobtuse 0/1-simplices S having a partly decomposable matrix representation P. We prove that such a simplex also has a block diagonal matrix representation with at least two diagonal blocks, and show that a nonobtuse simplex with partly decomposable matrix representation can be split in mutually orthogonal fully indecomposable simplicial facets whose dimensions add up to n. Using this insight, we are able to extend the one neighbor theorem for acute simplices to a larger class of nonobtuse simplices.