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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kong, Bochao, Zeng, Ji
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13877
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author Kong, Bochao
Zeng, Ji
author_facet Kong, Bochao
Zeng, Ji
contents The permutohedron $P_n$ of order $n$ is a polytope embedded in $\mathbb{R}^n$ whose vertex coordinates are permutations of the first $n$ natural numbers. It is obvious that $P_n$ lies on the hyperplane $H_n$ consisting of points whose coordinates sum up to $n(n+1)/2$. We prove that if the vertices of $P_n$ are contained in the union of $m$ affine hyperplanes different from $H_n$, then $m\geq n$ when $n \geq 3$ is odd, and $m \geq n-1$ when $n \geq 4$ is even. This result has been established by Pawlowski in a more general form. Our proof is shorter, rather different, and gives an algebraic criterion for a non-standard permutohedron generated by $n$ distinct real numbers to require at least $n$ non-trivial hyperplanes to cover its vertices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_13877
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle To cover a permutohedron
Kong, Bochao
Zeng, Ji
Combinatorics
The permutohedron $P_n$ of order $n$ is a polytope embedded in $\mathbb{R}^n$ whose vertex coordinates are permutations of the first $n$ natural numbers. It is obvious that $P_n$ lies on the hyperplane $H_n$ consisting of points whose coordinates sum up to $n(n+1)/2$. We prove that if the vertices of $P_n$ are contained in the union of $m$ affine hyperplanes different from $H_n$, then $m\geq n$ when $n \geq 3$ is odd, and $m \geq n-1$ when $n \geq 4$ is even. This result has been established by Pawlowski in a more general form. Our proof is shorter, rather different, and gives an algebraic criterion for a non-standard permutohedron generated by $n$ distinct real numbers to require at least $n$ non-trivial hyperplanes to cover its vertices.
title To cover a permutohedron
topic Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13877