Le nombre chromatique relatif $c_0(S)$ d’une surface compacte S à bord est défini comme la borne supérieure des nombres chromatiques des graphes plongés dans S avec tous leurs sommets sur $\partial S$ . Cet invariant topologique a été introduit pour l’étude de la multiplicité de la première valeur propre de Steklov sur S. Dans cet article, on montre que $c_0(S)$ est aussi pertinent pour l’étude des plongements polyédraux tendus de S en établissant deux résultats. Le premier est que s’il existe un plongement polyédral tendu de S dans $\mathbb {R}^n$ qui n’est pas contenu dans un hyperplan, alors $n\leq c_0(S)-1$ . Le second est que cette inégalité est optimale pour les surfaces de petit genre.

We study lower bounds for the number of vertices in a PL-triangulation of a given manifold M. While most of the previous estimates are based on the dimension and the connectivity of M, we show that further information can be extracted by studying the structure of the fundamental group of M and applying techniques from the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category theory. In particular, we prove that every PL-triangulation of a d-dimensional manifold (d ⩾ 3) whose fundamental group is not free has at least 3d + 1 vertices. As a corollary, every d-dimensional homology sphere that admits a combinatorial triangulation with less than 3d vertices is PL-homeomorphic to Sd. Another important consequence is that every triangulation with small links of M is combinatorial.

A $(d-1)$-dimensional simplicial complex is called balanced if its underlying graph admits a proper $d$-coloring. We show that many well-known face enumeration results have natural balanced analogs (or at least conjectural analogs). Specifically, we prove the balanced analog of the celebrated lower bound theorem (LBT) for normal pseudomanifolds and characterize the case of equality; we introduce and characterize the balanced analog of the Walkup class; and we propose the balanced analog of the generalized lower bound conjecture (GLBC) and establish some related results. We close with constructions of balanced manifolds with few vertices.

For every polytope $\mathcal{P}$ there is the universal regular polytope of the same rank as $\mathcal{P}$ corresponding to the Coxeter group $\mathcal{C}\,=\,\left[ \infty ,\,.\,.\,.\,,\,\infty \right]$. For a given automorphism $d$ of $\mathcal{C}$, using monodromy groups, we construct a combinatorial structure ${{P}^{d}}$. When ${{P}^{d}}$ is a polytope isomorphic to $\mathcal{P}$ we say that $\mathcal{P}$ is self-invariant with respect to $d$, or $d$-invariant. We develop algebraic tools for investigating these operations on polytopes, and in particular give a criterion on the existence of a $d$-automorphism of a given order. As an application, we analyze properties of self-dual edge-transitive polyhedra and polyhedra with two flag-orbits. We investigate properties of medials of such polyhedra. Furthermore, we give an example of a self-dual equivelar polyhedron which contains no polarity (duality of order 2). We also extend the concept of Petrie dual to higher dimensions, and we show how it can be dealt with using self-invariance.

We construct, for all $d\,\ge \,4$, a cellulation of ${{\mathbb{S}}^{d-1}}$. We prove that these cellulations cannot be polytopal with maximal combinatorial symmetry. Such non-realizability phenomenon was first described in dimension 4 by Bokowski, Ewald and Kleinschmidt, and, to the knowledge of the author, until now there have not been any known examples in higher dimensions. As a starting point for the construction, we introduce a new class of (Wythoffian) uniform polytopes, which we call duplexes. In proving our main result, we use some tools that we developed earlier while studying perfect polytopes. In particular, we prove perfectness of the duplexes; furthermore, we prove and make use of the perfectness of another new class of polytopes which we obtain by a variant of the so-called $E$-construction introduced by Eppstein, Kuperberg and Ziegler.