We present a number of lower bounds for the h-vectors of k-CM, broken circuit and independence complexes. These lead to bounds on the coefficients of the characteristic and reliability polynomials of matroids. The main techniques are the use of series and parallel constructions on matroids and the short simplicial h-vector for pure complexes.
In this article, we define a family of regular bipartite graphs and show that the homotopy type of the independence complexes of this family is the wedge sum of spheres of certain dimensions.
The bounded degree complex $BD(G,λ)$ is a generalization of the matching complexes of a graph. In this paper, we show that the bounded degree complex of a forest is shellable, by using independence complexes of hypergraphs. We obtain a wedge decomposition result of bounded degree complexes when a graph $G$ has a leaf
We study the class of independence complexes of claw-free graphs. The main theorem give good bounds on the connectivity of these complexes, given bounds for a few subcomplexes of the same class. Two applications are presented. Firstly, we show that the independence complex of a claw-free graph with n vertices and maximal degree d is (cn/d+epsilon)-connected, where c=2/3. This can be compared with the result of Szabo and Tardos that c=1/2 is optimal with no restrictions on the graphs. Secondly, we calculate the connectivity of a family of complexes used in Babson and Kozlov's proof of Lovasz co…
We show that the independence complex of a chordal graph is contractible if and only if this complex is dismantlable (strong collapsible) and it is homotopy equivalent to a sphere if and only if its core is a cross-polytopal sphere. The proof uses the properties of tree models of chordal graphs.
Shelling orders are a ubiquitous tool used to understand invariants of cell complexes. Significant effort has been made to develop techniques to decide when a given complex is shellable. However, empirical evidence shows that some shelling orders are better than others. In this article, we explore this phenomenon in the case of matroid independence complexes. Based on a new relation between shellability of dual matroid polytopes and independence complexes, we outline a systematic way to investigate and compare different shellings orders. We explain how our new tools recast and deepen various c…
Let $G$ be the circulant graph $C_n(S)$ with $S\subseteq\{ 1,\ldots,\left \lfloor\frac{n}{2}\right \rfloor\}$. We study the reduced Euler characteristic $\tildeχ$ of the independence complex $Δ(G)$ for $n=p^k$ with $p$ prime and for $n=2p^k$ with $p$ odd prime, proving that in both cases $\tildeχ$ does not vanish. We also give an example of circulant graph whose independence complex has $\tildeχ$ equals to $0$, giving a negative answer to R. Hoshino.
Faculty of Education, An Giang University Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City(安江大学越南国立大学胡志明市教育学院);Institute of Mathematics, VAST(越南科学技术院数学研究所)
We use two cofibre sequences to identify some combinatorial situations when the independence complex of a graph splits into a wedge sum of smaller independence complexes. Our main application is to give a recursive relation for the homotopy types of the independence complexes of powers of cycles, which answers an open question of D. Kozlov.
We determine the homotopy types of the independence complexes of the $(n \times 6)$-square grid graphs. In fact, we show that these complexes are homotopy equivalent to wedges of spheres.
We prove that the independence complexes of some grids have exponential Betti numbers. This corresponds to the number of ground states in the hard-core model in statistical physics with fermions in the vertices of the grid.
We show that if a graph $G$ involves a certain square grid graph as a full subgraph, then a certain operation on it yields a simplicial suspension of the independence complex of $G$. This generalizes a result of Csorba. As a corollary, we determine the simple homotopy types of the independence complexes of some grid graphs.
We show that the independence complexes of generalised Mycielskian of complete graphs are homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of spheres, and determine the number of copies and the dimensions of these spheres. We also prove that the independence complexes of categorical product of complete graphs are wedge sum of circles, upto homotopy. Further, we show that if we perturb a graph $G$ in a certain way, then the independence complex of this new graph is homotopy equivalent to the suspension of the independence complex of $G$.
We introduce the notion of \textit{star cluster} of a simplex in a simplicial complex. This concept provides a general tool to study the topology of independence complexes of graphs. We use star clusters to answer a question arisen from works of Engström and Jonsson on the homotopy type of independence complexes of triangle-free graphs and to investigate a large number of examples which appear in the literature. We present an alternative way to study the chromatic number of a graph from a homotopical point of view and obtain new results regarding the connectivity of independence complexes.
We study the independence complexes of families of well-covered circulant graphs discovered by Boros-Gurvich-Milanič, Brown-Hoshino, and Moussi. Because these graphs are well-covered, their independence complexes are pure simplicial complexes. We determine when these pure complexes have extra combinatorial (e.g. vertex decomposable, shellable) or topological (e.g. Cohen-Macaulay, Buchsbaum) structure. We also provide a table of all well-covered circulant graphs on 16 or less vertices, and for each such graph, determine if it is vertex decomposable, shellable, Cohen-Macaulay, and/or Buchsbaum. …
In this article, we introduce the notion of a wedge of graphs and provide detailed computations for the independence complex of a wedge of path and cycle graphs. In particular, we show that these complexes are either contractible or wedges of spheres.
The topology of the matching complex for the $2\times n$ grid graph is mysterious. We describe a discrete Morse matching for a family of independence complexes $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$ that include these matching complexes. Using this matching, we determine the dimensions of the chain spaces for the resulting Morse complexes and derive bounds on the location of non-trivial homology groups for certain $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$. Further, we determine the Euler characteristic of $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$ and prove that several homology groups of $\mathrm{Ind}(Δ_n^m)$ are non-zero.
The independence complex of a graph G is a simplicial complex whose simplices are the independent sets in G. In the last couple of decades, the independence complexes of square grids (with various boundary conditions) have gained much attention because of their connections with the hard square model from statistical physics. In this article, we prove that if G is an $m\times n$ grid with open or cylindrical boundary condition then its independence complex is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. A part of this result settles a conjecture of Iriye.
For $r\geq 1$, the $r$-independence complex of a graph $G$ is a simplicial complex whose faces are subset $I \subseteq V(G)$ such that each component of the induced subgraph $G[I]$ has at most $r$ vertices. In this article, we determine the homotopy type of $r$-independence complexes of certain families of graphs including complete $s$-partite graphs, fully whiskered graphs, cycle graphs and perfect $m$-ary trees. In each case, these complexes are either homotopic to a wedge of equi-dimensional spheres or are contractible. We also give a closed form formula for their homotopy types.
The theory of complexes of directed trees was initiated by Kozlov to answer a question by Stanley, and later on, results from the theory were used by Babson and Kozlov in their proof of the Lovasz conjecture. We develop the theory and prove that complexes on directed acyclic graphs are shellable. A related concept is that of independence complexes: construct a simplicial complex on the vertex set of a graph, by including each independent set of vertices as a simplex. Two theorems used for breaking and gluing such complexes are proved and applied to generalize results by Kozlov. A fruitful rest…
We consider the random hypergraph on a finite vertex set by choosing each set of vertices as an hyperedge independently at random. We express the probability distributions of the (lower-)associated simplicial complex and the (lower-)associated independence hypergraph of the random hypergraph in terms of the probability distributions of certain random simplicial complex and certain random independence hypergraph of Erdös-Rényi type. We construct a graded structure of the map algebra explicitly and give algorithms to generate random hypergraphs and random simplicial complexes.
Let $(h_0,h_1,\ldots,h_s)$ with $h_s\ne0$ be the $h$-vector of the broken circuit complex of a series-parallel network $M$. Let $G$ be a graph whose cycle matroid is $M$. We give a formula for the difference $h_{s-1}-h_1$ in terms of an ear decomposition of $G$. A number of applications of this formula are provided, including several bounds for $h_{s-1}-h_1$, a characterization of outerplanar graphs, and a solution to a conjecture on $A$-graphs posed by Fenton. We also prove that $h_{s-2}\geq h_2$ when $s\geq 4$.
The independence complex $\mathrm{Ind}(G)$ of a graph $G$ is the simplicial complex formed by its independent sets. This article introduces a deformation of the simplicial boundary map of $\mathrm{Ind}(G)$ that gives rise to a double complex with trivial homology. Filtering this double complex in the right direction induces a spectral sequence that converges to zero and contains on its first page the homology of the independence complexes of $G$ and various subgraphs of $G$, obtained by removing independent sets and their neighborhoods from $G$. It is shown that this spectral sequence may be u…
For integers n\geq 1, k\geq 0, the stable Kneser graph SG_{n,k} (also called the Schrijver graph) has as vertex set the stable n-subsets of [2n+k] and as edges disjoint pairs of n-subsets, where a stable n-subset is one that does not contain any 2-subset of the form {i,i+1} or {1,2n+k}. The stable Kneser graphs have been an interesting object of study since the late 1970's when A. Schrijver determined that they are a vertex critical class of graphs with chromatic number k+2. This article contains a study of the independence complexes of SG_{n,k} for small values of n and k. Our contributions a…
For each finite simple graph $G$, Aharoni, Berger and Ziv consider a recursively defined number $ψ(G) \in \mathbb{Z}\cup \{+ \infty \}$ which gives a lower bound for the topological connectivity of the independence complex $I_G$. They conjecture that this bound is optimal for every graph. We use a result of recursion theory to give a short disproof of this claim.
For $r\geq 1$, the $r$-independence complex of a graph $G$, denoted Ind$_r(G)$, is a simplicial complex whose faces are subsets $A \subseteq V(G)$ such that each component of the induced subgraph $G[A]$ has at most $r$ vertices. In this article, we establish a relation between the distance $r$-domination number of $G$ and (homological) connectivity of Ind$_r(G)$. We also prove that Ind$_r(G)$, for a chordal graph $G$, is either contractible or homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres. Given a wedge of spheres, we also provide a construction of a chordal graph whose $r$-independence complex ha…
Fendley, Schoutens and van Eerten [Fendley et al., J. Phys. A: Math. Gen., 38 (2005), pp. 315-322] studied the hard square model at negative activity. They found analytical and numerical evidence that the eigenvalues of the transfer matrix with periodic boundary were all roots of unity. They also conjectured that for an m times n square grid, with doubly periodic boundary, the partition function is equal to 1 when m and n are relatively prime. These conjectures were later proven by Jonsson [Jonsson, Electronic J. Combin., 13(1) (2006), R67]. There, it was also noted that the cylindrical case s…
We study Stanley-Reisner ideals of broken circuits complexes and characterize those ones admitting a linear resolution or being complete intersections. These results will then be used to characterize arrangements whose Orlik-Terao ideal has the same properties. As an application, we improve a result of Wilf on upper bounds for the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial of a maximal planar graph. We also show that for an ordered matroid with disjoint minimal broken circuits, the supersolvability of the matroid is equivalent to the Koszulness of its Orlik-Solomon algebra.
Motivated by Gröbner basis theory for finite point configurations, we define and study the class of "standard complexes" associated to a matroid. Standard complexes are certain subcomplexes of the independence complex that are invariant under matroid duality. For the lexicographic term order, the standard complexes satisfy a deletion-contraction-type recurrence. We explicitly determine the lexicographic standard complexes for lattice path matroids using classical bijective combinatorics.
We consider a certain class of simplicial complexes which includes the independence complexes of forests. We show that if a simplicial complex $K$ belongs to this class, then the polyhedral join $\mathcal{Z}^*_{K}(\underline{X}, \emptyset)$ is homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of CW complexes of the form $Σ^r X_{i_1} * X_{i_2} * \cdots * X_{i_k}$, where $\underline{X}$ is a family $\{X_i\}_{i \in V(K)}$ of CW complexes and $Σ$ denotes the unreduced suspension. This result is applied to study the homotopy type of the independence complex of the lexicographic product $G[H]$ of a graph $H$ over …
It is proved that the broken circuit complex of an ordered matroid is Gorenstein if and only if it is a complete intersection. Several characterizations for a matroid that admits such an order are then given, with particular interest in the $h$-vector of broken circuit complexes of the matroid. As an application, we prove that the Orlik--Terao algebra of a hyperplane arrangement is Gorenstein if and only if it is a complete intersection. Interestingly, our result shows that the complete intersection property (and hence the Gorensteinness as well) of the Orlik--Terao algebra can be determined f…
We introduce the notion of a quasi-matroidal class of ordered simplicial complexes: an approximation to the idea of a matroid cryptomorphism in the landscape of ordered simplicial complexes. A quasi-matroidal class contains pure shifted simplicial complexes and ordered matroid independence complexes. The essential property is that if a fixed simplicial complex belongs to this class for every ordering of its vertex set, then it is a matroid independence complex. Some examples of such classes appear implicitly in the matroid theory literature. We introduce various such classes that highlight dif…
We study the problem of maximizing Betti numbers of simplicial complexes. We prove an upper bound of 1.32^n for the sum of Betti numbers of any n-vertex flag complex and 1.25^n for the independence complex of a triangle-free graph. These findings imply upper bounds for the Betti numbers of various related classes of spaces, including the neighbourhood complex of a graph. We also make some related observations.
We introduce the signless 1-Laplacians and the dual Cheeger constants on simplicial complexes. The connection of its spectrum to the combinatorial properties like independence number, chromatic number and dual Cheeger constant is investigated. Our estimates can be comparable to Hoffman's bounds in virtue of Laplacian on simplicial complexes. An interesting inequality relating multiplicity of the largest eigenvalue, independence number and chromatic number are provided, which could be regarded as a variant version of Lovasz sandwich theorem. Also, the behavior of the operator under the topologi…
One of the major open questions in matroid theory asks whether the $h$-vector $(h_0,h_1,\ldots,h_s)$ of the broken circuit complex of a matroid $M$ satisfies the following inequalities: $$ h_0\leq h_1\leq \cdots\leq h_{\lfloor s/2\rfloor} \quad \text{and}\qua h_i\le h_{s-i}\ \text{ for }\ 0\leq i \leq \lfloor s/2\rfloor. $$ This paper affirmatively answers the question for matroids that are representable over a field of characteristic zero.
Let F be a field and let G be a finite graph with a total ordering on its edge set. Richard Stanley noted that the Stanley-Reisner ring F(G) of the broken circuit complex of G is Cohen-Macaulay. Jason Brown gave an explicit description of a homogeneous system of parameters for F(G) in terms of fundamental cocircuits in G. So F(G) modulo this hsop is a finite dimensional vector space. We conjecture an explicit monomial basis for this vector space in terms of the circuits of G and prove that the conjecture is true for two infinite families of graphs. We also explore an application of these ideas…
We analyze the quantum ground state structure of a specific model of itinerant, strongly interacting lattice fermions. The interactions are tuned to make the model supersymmetric. Due to this, quantum ground states are in one-to-one correspondence with cohomology classes of the so-called independence complex of the lattice. Our main result is a complete description of the cohomology, and thereby of the quantum ground states, for a two-dimensional square lattice with periodic boundary conditions. Our work builds on results by J. Jonsson, who determined the Euler characteristic (Witten index) vi…
Brown has shown that the Stanley-Reisner ring of the broken circuit complex of a graph has a linear system of parameters which is defined in terms of the circuits and cocircuits of the graph. Later on Brown and Sagan conjectured a special set of monomials - a so-called NBC basis - described in terms of the circuits and cocircuits of the graph to be a monomial basis for the corresponding quotient of the Stanley-Reisner ring and proved this to be true for theta and phi graphs. We generalize the aforementioned linear system of parameters to broken circuit complexes of regular matroids and transfe…
The enumeration of independent sets of regular graphs is of interest in statistical mechanics, as it corresponds to the solution of hard-particle models. In 2004, it was conjectured by Fendleyet al. that for some rectangular grids, with toric boundary conditions, the alternating number of independent sets is extremely simple. More precisely, under a coprimality condition on the sides of the rectangle, the number of independent sets of even and odd cardinality always differ by 1. In physics terms, this means looking at the hard-particle model on these grids at activity -1. This conjecture was r…
It is known that there are finitely many simplicial complexes (up to isomorphism) with a given number of vertices. Translating to the language of $h$-vectors, there are finitely many simplicial complexes of bounded dimension with $h_1=k$ for any natural number $k$. In this paper we study the question at the other end of the $h$-vector: Are there only finitely many $(d-1)$-dimensional simplicial complexes with $h_d=k$ for any given $k$? The answer is no if we consider general complexes, but when focus on three cases coming from matroids: (i) independence complexes, (ii) broken circuit complexes…
The matching complex $M(G)$ of a simple graph $G$ is the simplicial complex consisting of the matchings on $G$. The matching complex $M(G)$ is isomorphic to the independence complex of the line graph $L(G)$. Braun and Hough introduced a family of graphs $Δ^m_n$, which is a generalization of the line graph of the $(n \times 2)$-grid graph. In this paper, we show that the independence complex of $Δ^m_n$ is a wedge of spheres. This gives an answer to a problem suggested by Braun and Hough.
We study ordered matroids and generalized permutohedra from a Hopf theoretic point of view. Our main object is a Hopf monoid in the vector species of extended generalized permutahedra equipped with an order of the coordinates; this monoid extends the Hopf monoid of generalized permutahedra studied by Aguiar and Ardila. Our formula for the antipode is cancellation-free and multiplicity-free, and is supported only on terms that are compatible with the local geometry of the polyhedron. Our result is part of a larger program to understand orderings on ground sets of simplicial complexes (for insta…