We initiate a statistical study of Kalai’s exterior algebraic shifting, focusing on concentration phenomena for random triangulations of a fixed space. First, for a uniform n-vertex refinement of any given graph G, we show that asymptotically almost-surely (a.a.s.) its exterior algebraic shifting is an explicit shifted graph depending only on n and the Betti numbers of G. Next, for any given compact connected Riemannian surface S, sample n points independently at random according to the volume measure, and consider the resulted a.a.s. unique Delaunay triangulation. We prove that a.a.s. its exterior algebraic shifting is an explicit shifted complex depending only on n and the Euler genus of S, and in particular is area-rigid. In both results the expected shifted complex is a homology lex-segment complex, a notion we define combinatorially and characterize numerically à la Björner-Kalai. As a tool to prove the result on surfaces, we prove a universality result on edge contractions: for every fixed surface triangulation K, every dense enough point set in the surface yields a Delaunay triangulation that edge contracts to K.

International audience

The well known fractional Helly theorem and colorful Helly theorem can be merged into the so called colorful fractional Helly theorem. It states: For every $α\in (0, 1]$ and every non-negative integer $d$, there is $β_{col} = β_{col}(α, d) \in (0, 1]$ with the following property. Let $\mathcal{F}_1, \dots, \mathcal{F}_{d+1}$ be finite nonempty families of convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ of sizes $n_1, \dots, n_{d+1}$ respectively. If at least $αn_1 n_2 \cdots n_{d+1}$ of the colorful $(d+1)$-tuples have a nonempty intersection, then there is $i \in [d+1]$ such that $\mathcal{F}_i$ contains a subfamily of size at least $β_{col} n_i$ with a nonempty intersection. (A colorful $(d+1)$-tuple is a $(d+1)$-tuple $(F_1, \dots , F_{d+1})$ such that $F_i$ belongs to $\mathcal{F}_i$ for every $i$.) The colorful fractional Helly theorem was first stated and proved by Bárány, Fodor, Montejano, Oliveros, and Pór in 2014 with $β_{col} = α/(d+1)$. In 2017 Kim proved the theorem with better function $β_{col}$, which in particular tends to $1$ when $α$ tends to $1$. Kim also conjectured what is the optimal bound for $β_{col}(α, d)$ and provided the upper bound example for the optimal bound. The conjectured bound coincides with the optimal bounds for the (non-colorful) fractional Helly theorem proved independently by Eckhoff and Kalai around 1984. We verify Kim's conjecture by extending Kalai's approach to the colorful scenario. Moreover, we obtain optimal bounds also in more general setting when we allow several sets of the same color.