Flow polytopes with Catalan volumes

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12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Chan–Robbins–Yuen polytope can be thought of as the flow polytope of the complete graph with netflow vector (1,0,…,0,−1). The normalized volume of the Chan–Robbins–Yuen polytope equals the product of consecutive Catalan numbers, yet there is no combinatorial proof of this fact. We consider a natural generalization of this polytope, namely, the flow polytope of the complete graph with netflow vector (1,1,0,…,0,−2). We show that the volume of this polytope is a certain power of 2 times the product of consecutive Catalan numbers. Our proof uses constant-term identities and further deepens the combinatorial mystery of why these numbers appear. In addition, we introduce two more families of flow polytopes whose volumes are given by product formulas.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)248-259
Number of pages12
JournalComptes Rendus Mathematique
Volume355
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2017

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