On Skeletons, Diameters and Volumes of Metric Polyhedra

We survey and present new geometric and combinatorial properties, of some polyhedra with application in combinatorial optimization, for example, the max-cut and multicommodity flow problems. Namely we consider the volume, symmetry group, facets, vertices, face lattice, diameter, adjacency and incidence relations and connectivity of the metric polytope and its relatives. In particular, using its large symmetry group, we completely describe all the 13 orbits which form the 275 840 vertices of the 21-dimensional metric polytope on 7 nodes and their incidence and adjacency relations. The edge connectivity, the i-skeletons and a lifting procedure valid for a large class of vertices of the metric polytope are also given. Finally, we present an ordering of the facets of a polytope, based on their adjacency relations, for the enumeration of its vertices by the double description method.

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