Marked tubes and the graph multiplihedron

Abstract

Given a graph G, we construct a convex polytope whose face poset is based on marked subgraphs of G. Dubbed the graph multiplihedron, we provide a realization using integer coordinates. Not only does this yield a natural generalization of the multiplihedron, but features of this polytope appear in works related to quilted disks, bordered Riemann surfaces and operadic structures. Certain examples of graph multiplihedra are related to Minkowski sums of simplices and cubes and others to the permutohedron. © 2008 Mathematical Sciences Publishers.