Tight triangulations of some 4-manifolds

Abstract

Walkup's class ${\cal K}(d)$ consists of the $d$-dimensional simplicial complexes all whose vertex links are stacked $(d-1)$-spheres. According to a result of Walkup, the face vector of any triangulated 4-manifold $X$ with Euler characteristic $\chi$ satisfies $f_1 \geq 5f_0 - 15/2 \chi$, with equality only for $X \in {\cal K}(4)$. K\"{u}hnel observed that this implies $f_0(f_0 - 11) \geq -15\chi$, with equality only for 2-neighborly members of ${\cal K}(4)$. For $n = 6, 11$ and 15, there are triangulated 4-manifolds with $f_0=n$ and $f_0(f_0 - 11) = -15\chi$. In this article, we present triangulated 4-manifolds with $f_0 = 21, 26$ and 41 which satisfy $f_0(f_0 - 11) = -15\chi$. All these triangulated manifolds are tight and strongly minimal.