$P$-associahedra

Abstract: For each poset $P$, we construct a polytope $A(P)$ called the $P$-associahedron. Similarly to the case of graph associahedra, the faces of $A(P)$ correspond to certain nested collections of subsets of $P$. The Stasheff associahedron is a compactification of the configuration space of $n$ points on a line, and we recover $A(P)$ as an analogous compactification of the space of order-preserving maps $P\to\mathbb{R}$. Motivated by the study of totally nonnegative critical varieties in the Grassmannian, we introduce affine poset cyclohedra and realize these polytopes as compactifications of configuration spaces of $n$ points on a circle. For particular choices of (affine) posets, we obtain associahedra, cyclohedra, permutohedra, and type B permutohedra as special cases.