<p>This thesis consists of two papers.</p><p>The first paper is a study of the structure of the k-assignment polytope, whose vertices are the <em>m x n</em> (0; 1)-matrices with exactly <em>k</em> 1:s and at most one 1 in each row and each column. This is a natural generalisation of the Birkhoff polytope and many of the known properties of the Birkhoff polytope are generalised. Two equivalent representations of the faces are given, one as (0; 1)-matrices and one as ear decompositions of bipartite graphs. These tools are used to describe properties of the polytope, especially a complete description of the cover relation in the face lattice of the polytope and an exact expression for the diameter.</p><p>The second paper studies the edge-product space <em>Є(X)</em> for trees on <em>X</em>. This space is generated by the set of edge-weighted finite trees on <em>X</em>, and arises by multiplying the weights of edges on paths in trees. These spaces are closely connected to tree-indexed Markov processes in molecular evolutionary biology. It is known that <em>Є(X)</em> has a natural <em>CW</em>-complex structure, and a combinatorial description of the associated face poset exists which is a poset <em>S(X)</em> of <em>X</em>-forests. In this paper it is shown that the edge-product space is a regular cell complex. One important part in showing that is to conclude that all intervals <em>[Ô, Г], Г </em>Є<em> S(X),</em> have recursive coatom orderings.</p> / Report code: LiU-TEK-LIC-2004:46.

This thesis consists of two papers. The first paper is a study of the structure of the k-assignment polytope, whose vertices are the m x n (0; 1)-matrices with exactly k 1:s and at most one 1 in each row and each column. This is a natural generalisation of the Birkhoff polytope and many of the known properties of the Birkhoff polytope are generalised. Two equivalent representations of the faces are given, one as (0; 1)-matrices and one as ear decompositions of bipartite graphs. These tools are used to describe properties of the polytope, especially a complete description of the cover relation in the face lattice of the polytope and an exact expression for the diameter. The second paper studies the edge-product space Є(X) for trees on X. This space is generated by the set of edge-weighted finite trees on X, and arises by multiplying the weights of edges on paths in trees. These spaces are closely connected to tree-indexed Markov processes in molecular evolutionary biology. It is known that Є(X) has a natural CW-complex structure, and a combinatorial description of the associated face poset exists which is a poset S(X) of X-forests. In this paper it is shown that the edge-product space is a regular cell complex. One important part in showing that is to conclude that all intervals [Ô, Г], Г Є S(X), have recursive coatom orderings.