A Lower Bound Theorem for $d$-Polytopes with $2d+2$ Vertices

Abstract

We establish a lower bound theorem for the number of $k$-faces ($1\le k\le d-2$) in a $d$-dimensional polytope $P$ (abbreviated as a $d$-polytope) with $2d+2$ vertices, building on the known case for $k=1$. There are two distinct lower bounds depending on the number of facets in the $d$-polytope. We identify all minimisers for $d\le 5$. If $P$ has $d+2$ facets, the lower bound is tight when $d$ is odd. For $d\ge 5$ and $P$ with at least $d+3$ facets, the lower bound is always tight. Moreover, for $1\le k\le \lceil d/3\rceil-2$, minimisers among $d$-polytopes with $2d+2$ vertices are those with at least $d+3$ facets, while for $\lfloor 0.4d\rfloor\le k\le d-1$, the lower bound arises from $d$-polytopes with $d+2$ facets. These results support Pineda-Villavicencio's lower bound conjecture for $d$-polytopes with at most $3d-1$ vertices.