Topology of posets with special partial matchings

Abstract

Special partial matchings (SPMs) are a generalisation of Brenti's special matchings. Let a \emph{pircon} be a poset in which every non-trivial principal order ideal is finite and admits an SPM. Thus pircons generalise Marietti's zircons. We prove that every open interval in a pircon is a PL ball or a PL sphere. It is then demonstrated that Bruhat orders on certain twisted identities and quasiparabolic $W$-sets constitute pircons. Together, these results extend a result of Can, Cherniavsky, and Twelbeck, prove a conjecture of Hultman, and confirm a claim of Rains and Vazirani.