A classification of the face numbers of Buchsbaum simplicial posets

Abstract

The family of Buchsbaum simplicial posets generalizes the family of simplicial cell manifolds. The $h'$-vector of a simplicial complex or simplicial poset encodes the combinatorial and topological data of its face numbers and the reduced Betti numbers of its geometric realization. Novik and Swartz showed that the $h'$-vector of a Buchsbaum simplicial poset satisfies certain simple inequalities; in this paper we show that these necessary conditions are in fact sufficient to characterize the $h'$-vectors of Buchsbaum simplicial posets with prescribed Betti numbers.