Elementary symmetric polynomials in Stanley--Reisner face ring

Let $P$ be a simple polytope of dimension $n$ with $m$ facets. In this paper we pay our attention on those elementary symmetric polynomials in the Stanley--Reisner face ring of $P$ and study how the decomposability of the $n$-th elementary symmetric polynomial influences on the combinatorics of $P$ and the topology and geometry of toric spaces over $P$. We give algebraic criterions of detecting the decomposability of $P$ and determining when $P$ is $n$-colorable in terms of the $n$-th elementary symmetric polynomial. In addition, we define the Stanley--Reisner {\em exterior} face ring $\mathcal{E}(K_P)$ of $P$, which is non-commutative in the case of ${\Bbb Z}$ coefficients, where $K_P$ is the boundary complex of dual of $P$. Then we obtain a criterion for the (real) Buchstaber invariant of $P$ to be $m-n$ in terms of the $n$-th elementary symmetric polynomial in $\mathcal{E}(K_P)$. Our results as above can directly associate with the topology and geometry of toric spaces over $P$. In particular, we show that the decomposability of the $n$-th elementary symmetric polynomial in $\mathcal{E}(K_P)$ with ${\Bbb Z}$ coefficients can detect the existence of the almost complex structures of quasitoric manifolds over $P$, and if the (real) Buchstaber invariant of $P$ is $m-n$, then there exists an essential relation between the $n$-th equivariant characteristic class of the (real) moment-angle manifold over $P$ in $\mathcal{E}(K_P)$ and the characteristic functions of $P$.