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First page of The Hibi–Li (2016) conjecture is fully resolved

The Hibi–Li (2016) conjecture is fully resolved

Dave Goel

math.CO Oct 28, 2026 · v1 math.MG
All results are formally verified in Lean 4, with published results and two results from Fourier's preprint taken as axioms. A public repository is provided.
Hibi and Li conjectured that the order polytope $\mathcal{O}(P)$ of a finite poset $P$ has at most as many faces of each dimension as its chain polytope $\mathcal{C}(P)$, and that equality in some dimension $k$ with $1\leq k\leq|P|-1$ forces the two polytopes to be unimodularly equivalent. Fourier proved the inequality in a 2026 preprint. Let $X$ be the five-element poset in which an element lies above two incomparable elements and below two other incomparable elements. Building on Fourier's proof, we show that if an $n$-element poset contains $X$ as an induced subposet, then, for every $k$ with $2\leq k\leq n-1$, its chain polytope has at least $\binom{n-3}{k-2}$ more $k$-dimensional faces than its order polytope, and that for every $n\geq5$ some $n$-element poset containing $X$ attains all these bounds at once. Since Hibi and Li showed that $\mathcal{O}(P)$ and $\mathcal{C}(P)$ are unimodularly equivalent exactly when $P$ does not contain $X$, this proves the equality statement for these $k$. For $k=1$ the equality statement is false: $\mathcal{O}(X)$ and $\mathcal{C}(X)$ have equally many edges (Hibi, Li, Sahara and Shikama) but are not unimodularly equivalent. With Fourier's inequality, these results settle the conjecture. Every result is formally verified in Lean 4, with only published results and two results of Fourier's preprint as axioms.

Hibi and Li conjectured that the chain polytope of a finite poset has at least as many k-faces as its order polytope, and that equality for some k forces unimodular equivalence. Fourier proved the inequality. The equality statement remained open for 3 ≤ k ≤ n-2.

Building on Fourier's chain–order polytope interpolation method, the author derives a local lower bound on face-count changes at the switch of the middle element of the five-element poset X. The bound is summed over faces to obtain a global coefficientwise bound on face polynomials. All results are machine-checked in Lean 4, with Fourier's unrefereed lemmas and published results stated as axioms.

If P contains X, then F_C(P) − F_O(P) ≥ t^2(1+t)^{n-3} coefficientwise, and this bound is sharp for every n ≥ 5. This proves the equality statement for 2 ≤ k ≤ n-1, and the statement is shown to be false for k=1. Together with Fourier's inequality, these results settle the conjecture.