Nice Partitions, Supersolvability, and Freeness in Deformations of Graphic Arrangements

Source abstract

We study affine deformations $\mathcal{A}(G_{\mathcal{S}})$ of graphic arrangements and their cones. Here $G=([n],E(G))$ is a simple graph, $\mathcal{S}=(S_{ij})$ is a family of finite gain sets, and $\mathcal{A}(G_{\mathcal{S}})$ consists of the hyperplanes $x_i-x_j=a$ with $a\in S_{ij}$. We call $G_{\mathcal{S}}$ blockwise admissible if every block has a vertex ordering $v_1,\ldots,v_m$ satisfying $S_{v_kv_j}-S_{v_kv_i}\subseteq S_{v_iv_j}$ for every $k$ and all distinct $i,j>k$. Every such ordering is a perfect elimination ordering. We prove, for arbitrary $G$, that the following are equivalent: (i) $G_{\mathcal{S}}$ is blockwise admissible; (ii) the cone $c\mathcal{A}(G_{\mathcal{S}})$ is supersolvable; and (iii) $\mathcal{A}(G_{\mathcal{S}})$ admits a nice partition. We give a direct arrangement-theoretic proof of these equivalences. For a block, the equivalence between admissibility and supersolvability is already contained in Zaslavsky's characterization of supersolvable graphic-lift lattices. We further show that every nice partition on a block is induced by an admissible ordering and that its induced edge classes are stars with distinct centers. Under these equivalent conditions, we construct a maximal modular chain through the hyperplane at infinity. We also prove that if $c\mathcal{A}(G_{\mathcal{S}})$ is free, then $G$ is chordal.