Classification and enumeration of special classes of posets and polytopes

Abstract

This thesis concerns combinatorial and enumerative aspects of different classes of posets and polytopes. The first part concerns the finite Eulerian posets which are binomial, Sheffer or triangular. These important classes of posets are related to the theory of generating functions and to geometry. Ehrenborg and Readdy [ER2] gave a complete classification of the factorial functions of infinite Eulerian binomial posets and infinite Eulerian Sheffer posets, where infinite posets are those posets which contain an infinite chain. We answer questions asked by R. Ehrenborg and M. Readdy [ER2]. We completely determine the structure of Eulerian binomial posets and, as a conclusion, we are able to classify factorial functions of Eulerian binomial posets; We give an almost complete classification of factorial functions of Eulerian Sheffer posets by dividing the original question into several cases; In most cases above, we completely determine the structure of Eulerian Sheffer posets, a result stronger than just classifying factorial functions of these Eulerian Sheffer posets. This work is also motivated by the work of R. Stanley about recognizing the boolean lattice by looking at smaller intervals. In the second topic concerns lattice path matroid polytopes. The theory of matroid polytopes has gained prominence due to its applications in algebraic geometry, combinatorial optimization, Coxeter group theory, and, most recently, tropical geometry. In general matroid polytopes are not well understood. Lattice path matroid polytopes (LPMP) belong to two famous classes of polytopes, sorted closed matroid polytopes [LP] and polypositroids [Pos]. We study several properties of LPMPs and build a new connection between the theories of matroid polytopes and lattice paths. I investigate many properties of LPMPs, including their face structure, decomposition, and triangulations, as well as formulas for calculating their Ehrhart polynomial and volume.