23 pages; final version, to appear in Discrete Mathematics. At suggestion of anonymous referee, a section briefly summarizing the topological prerequisites has been added to make the article accessible to a wider audience
In a seminal paper, Erdos and Renyi identified the threshold for connectivity of the random graph G(n,p). In particular, they showed that if p >> log(n)/n then G(n,p) is almost always connected, and if p << log(n)/n then G(n,p) is almost always disconnected, as n goes to infinity.
The clique complex X(H) of a graph H is the simplicial complex with all complete subgraphs of H as its faces. In contrast to the zeroth homology group of X(H), which measures the number of connected components of H, the higher dimensional homology groups of X(H) do not correspond to monotone graph properties. There are nevertheless higher dimensional analogues of the Erdos-Renyi Theorem.
We study here the higher homology groups of X(G(n,p)). For k > 0 we show the following. If p = n^alpha, with alpha < -1/k or alpha > - 1/(2k+1), then the kth homology group of X(G(n,p)) is almost always vanishing, and if -1/k < alpha < -1/(k+1), then it is almost always nonvanishing.
We also give estimates for the expected rank of homology, and exhibit explicit nontrivial classes in the nonvanishing regime. These estimates suggest that almost all d-dimensional clique complexes have only one nonvanishing dimension of homology, and we cannot rule out the possibility that they are homotopy equivalent to wedges of spheres.
We study fundamental groups of clique complexes associated to random graphs. We establish thresholds for their cohomological and geometric dimension and torsion. We also show that in certain regime any aspherical subcomplex of a random clique complex satisfies the Whitehead conjecture, i.e. all irs subcomplexes are also aspherical.
We prove a sufficient condition for a finite clique complex to collapse to a $k$-dimensional complex, and use this to exhibit thresholds for $(k+1)$-collapsibility in a sparse random clique complex. In particular, if every strongly connected, pure $(k+1)$-dimensional subcomplex of a clique complex $X$ has a vertex of degree at most $2k+1$, then $X$ is $(k+1)$-collapsible. In the random model $X(n,p)$ of clique complexes of an Erdős--Rényi random graph $G(n,p)$, we then show that for any fixed $k\geq 0$, if $p=n^{-α}$ for fixed $1/(k+1) < α< 1/k$, then a clique complex $X\overset{dist}{=} X(n,p…
The clique complex of a graph G is a simplicial complex whose simplices are all the cliques of G, and the line graph L(G) of G is a graph whose vertices are the edges of G and the edges of L(G) are incident edges of G. In this article, we determine the homotopy type of the clique complexes of line graphs for several classes of graphs including triangle-free graphs, chordal graphs, complete multipartite graphs, wheel-free graphs, and 4-regular circulant graphs. We also give a closed form formula for the homotopy type of these complexes in several cases.
In extremal graph theory, the problem of finding the elements of a given class of graphs which contain the most cliques traces its routes back to Turán's famous theorem. We consider the implications of the connectivity property of simplicial complexes known as shellability on clique complexes associated with graphs. In this paper, we find the graphs which maximize cliques among all graphs on $n$ vertices with $Δ(G)\leq r$ that have shellable clique complexes.
For a simplicial complex $X$, the $d$-clique complex $Δ_d(X)$ is the simplicial complex having all subsets of vertices whose $(d + 1)$-subsets are contained by $X$ as its faces. We prove that if $p = n^α$, with $α< \max\{\frac{-1}{k-d +1},-\frac{d+1}{\binom{k}{d}}\}$ or $α> \frac{-1}{\binom{2k+2}{d}}$, then the $k$-th reduced homology group of the random $d$-clique complex $Δ_d(G_d(n,p))$ is asymptotically almost surely vanishing, and if $\frac{-1}{t} < α< \frac{-1}{t+1}$ where $t = (\frac{(d+1)(k+1)}{\binom{(d+1)(k+1)}{d+1}-(k+1)})^{-1}$, then the $(kd + d -1)$-st reduced homology group of $Δ…
In previous work, we have defined---intrinsically, entirely within the digital setting---a fundamental group for digital images. Here, we show that this group is isomorphic to the edge group of the clique complex of the digital image considered as a graph. The clique complex is a simplicial complex and its edge group is well-known to be isomorphic to the ordinary (topological) fundamental group of its geometric realization. This identification of our intrinsic digital fundamental group with a topological fundamental group---extrinsic to the digital setting---means that many familiar facts abou…
We study the persistent homology of an Erdős--Rényi random clique complex filtration on $n$ vertices. Here, each edge $e$ appears at a time $p_e \in [0,1]$ chosen uniform randomly in the interval, and the \emph{persistence} of a cycle $σ$ is defined as $p_2 / p_1$, where $p_1$ and $p_2$ are the birth and death times of the cycle respectively. We show that for fixed $k \ge 1$, with high probability the maximal persistence of a $k$-cycle is of order roughly $n^{1/k(k+1)}$. These results are in sharp contrast with the random geometric setting where earlier work by Bobrowski, Kahle, and Skraba sho…
A recent conjecture that appeared in three papers by Bigdeli--Faridi, Dochtermann, and Nikseresht, is that every simplicial complex whose clique complex has shellable Alexander dual, is ridge-chordal. This strengthens the long-standing Simon's conjecture that the $k$-skeleton of the simplex is extendably shellable, for any $k$. We show that the stronger conjecture has a negative answer, by exhibiting an infinite family of counterexamples.
Let $H$ be a simple undirected graph and $G=\mathrm{L}(H)$ be its line graph. Assume that $Δ(G)$ denotes the clique complex of $G$. We show that $Δ(G)$ is sequentially Cohen-Macaulay if and only if it is shellable if and only if it is vertex decomposable. Moreover if $Δ(G)$ is pure, we prove that these conditions are also equivalent to being strongly connected. Furthermore, we state a complete characterizations of those $H$ for which $Δ(G)$ is Cohen-Macaulay, sequentially Cohen-Macaulay or Gorenstein. We use these characterizations to present linear time algorithms which take a graph $G$, chec…
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.
We consider a multi-parameter model for randomly constructing simplicial complexes. This model interpolates between random clique complexes and Linial-Meshulam random $k$-dimensional complexes, two models that have been extensively studied. While these models asymptotically exhibit nontrivial cohomology in only one or two dimensions, we show that in this generalized setting nontrivial cohomology can occur in several dimensions simultaneously. We establish upper and lower thresholds for the appearance of nontrivial cohomology in a particular dimension, and in some instances characterize the beh…
We introduce a new model for random simplicial complexes which with high probability generates a complex that has a simply-connected double cover. Hence we develop a model for random simplicial complexes with fundamental group $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$. We establish results about the typical asymptotic topology of these complexes. As a consequence we give bounds for the dimension $d$ such that $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$-equivariant maps from the double cover to $\mathbb{R}^d$ have zeros with high probability, thus establishing a random Borsuk--Ulam theorem. We apply this to derive a structural re…
The partition number $π(K)$ of a simplicial complex $K\subset 2^{[m]}$ is the minimum integer $ν$ such that for each partition $A_1\uplus\ldots\uplus A_ν= [m]$ of $[m]$ at least one of the sets $A_i$ is in $K$. A complex $K$ is $r$-unavoidable if $π(K)\leq r$. We say that a complex $K$ is globally $r$-non-embeddable in $\mathbb{R}^d$ if for each continuous map $f: | K| \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^d$ there exist $r$ vertex disjoint faces $σ_1,\ldots, σ_r$ of $| K|$ such that $f(σ_1)\cap\ldots\cap f(σ_r)\neq\emptyset$. Motivated by the problems of Tverberg-Van Kampen-Flores type we prove several resu…
As part of various obstruction theories, non-trivial Massey products have been studied in symplectic and complex geometry, commutative algebra and topology for a long time. We introduce a general approach to constructing non-trivial Massey products in the cohomology of moment-angle complexes, using homotopy theoretical and combinatorial methods. Our approach sets a unifying way of constructing higher Massey products of arbitrary cohomological classes and generalises all existing examples of non-trivial Massey products in moment-angle complexes. As a result, we obtain explicit constructions of …
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…
We consider the random clique complex process - the process of clique complexes induced by the complete graph with i.i.d. Uniform edge weights. We investigate the evolution of the Betti numbers of the clique complex process in the critical window and in particular, show a process-level convergence of the Betti numbers to a Poisson process. Our proof technique gives easily an hitting time result i.e, with high probability, the $k$th cohomology becomes trivial when there are no more isolated $k$-faces. Our results imply that the thresholds for vanishing of cohomology of the clique complex proces…
In this article, we derive two spectral gap bounds for the reduced Laplacian of a general simplicial complex. Our two bounds are proven by comparing a simplicial complex in two different ways with a larger complex and with the corresponding clique complex respectively. Both of these bounds generalize the result of Aharoni et al. (2005) \cite{ABM} which is valid only for clique complexes. As an application, we investigate the thresholds for vanishing of cohomology of the neighborhood complex of the Erdös-Rényi random graph. We improve the upper bound derived in Kahle (2007) \cite{kahle} by a lo…
Let $\mathbf{k}$ be the field $\mathbb{F}_p$ or the ring $\mathbb{Z}$. We study combinatorial and topological properties of the universal simplicial complexes $X(\mathbf{k}^n)$ and $K(\mathbf{k}^n)$ whose simplices are certain unimodular subsets of $\mathbf{k}^n$. As a main result we show that $X(\mathbf{k}^n)$, $K(\mathbf{k}^n)$ and the links of their simplicies are homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres specifying the exact number of spheres in the corresponding wedge decompositions. This is a generalisation of Davis and Januszkiewicz's result that $K(\mathbb{Z}^n)$ and $K(\mathbb{F}_2^n)…
The Linial-Meshulam complex model is a natural higher-dimensional analog of the Erdős-Rényi graph model. In recent years, Linial and Peled established a limit theorem for Betti numbers of Linial-Meshulam complexes with an appropriate scaling of the underlying parameter. The present paper aims to extend that result to more-general random simplicial complex models. We introduce a class of homogeneous and spatially independent random simplicial complexes, including the Linial-Meshulam complex model and the random clique complex model as special cases, and we study the asymptotic behavior of their…
It is proved that fundamental groups of boolean representable simplicial complexes are free and the rank is determined by the number and nature of the connected components of their graph of flats for dimension $\geq 2$. In the case of dimension 2, it is shown that boolean representable simplicial complexes have the homotopy type of a wedge of spheres of dimensions 1 and 2. Also in the case of dimension 2, necessary and sufficient conditions for shellability and being sequentially Cohen-Macaulay are determined. Complexity bounds are provided for all the algorithms involved.
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.
There has been considerable recent interest, primarily motivated by problems in applied algebraic topology, in the homology of random simplicial complexes. We consider the scenario in which the vertices of the simplices are the points of a random point process in $\mathbb {R}^d$, and the edges and faces are determined according to some deterministic rule, typically leading to Čech and Vietoris-Rips complexes. In particular, we obtain results about homology, as measured via the growth of Betti numbers, when the vertices are the points of a general stationary point process. This significantly ex…
In toric topology, to a simplicial complex $K$ with $m$ vertices, one associates two spaces, the moment-angle complex $\mathcal{Z}_K$ and the Davis-Januszkiewicz space $DJ_K$. These spaces are connected by a homotopy fibration $\mathcal{Z}_K\to DJ_K\to(\mathbb{C}P^\infty)^m$. In this paper, we show that the map $\mathcal{Z}_K\to DJ_K$ is identified with a wedge of iterated (higher) Whitehead products for a certain class of simplicial complexes $K$ including dual shellable complexes. We will prove the result in a more general setting of polyhedral products.
The augmented Bergman complex of a matroid is a simplicial complex introduced recently in work of Braden, Huh, Matherne, Proudfoot and Wang. It may be viewed as a hybrid of two well-studied pure shellable simplicial complexes associated to matroids: the independent set complex and Bergman complex. It is shown here that the augmented Bergman complex is also shellable, via two different families of shelling orders. Furthermore, comparing the description of its homotopy type induced from the two shellings re-interprets a known convolution formula counting bases of the matroid. The representation …
Random shapes arise naturally in many contexts. The topological and geometric structure of such objects is interesting for its own sake, and also for applications. In physics, for example, such objects arise naturally in quantum gravity, in material science, and in other settings. Stochastic topology may also be considered as a null hypothesis for topological data analysis. In this chapter we overview combinatorial aspects of stochastic topology. We focus on the topological and geometric properties of random simplicial complexes. We introduce a few of the fundamental models in Section 23.1. We…
We study a natural model of random 2-dimensional cubical complex which is a subcomplex of an n-dimensional cube, and where every possible square $2$-face is included independently with probability p. Our main result is to exhibit a sharp threshold p=1/2 for homology vanishing as $n \to \infty$. This is a 2-dimensional analogue of the Burtin and Erdős-Spencer theorems characterizing the connectivity threshold for random cubical graphs. Our main result can also be seen as a cubical counterpart to the Linial--Meshulam theorem for random 2-dimensional simplicial complexes. However, the models exhi…
We use the topology of simplicial complexes to model political structures following [1]. Simplicial complexes are a natural tool to encode interactions in the structures since a simplex can be used to represent a subset of compatible agents. We translate the wedge, cone, and suspension operations into the language of political structures and show how these constructions correspond to merging structures and introducing mediators. We introduce the notions of the viability of an agent and the stability of a political system and examine their interplay with the simplicial complex topology, casting…
