Exact Sequences for the Homology of the Matching Complex

Building on work by Bouc and by Shareshian and Wachs, we provide a toolbox of long exact sequences for the reduced simplicial homology of the matching complex $M_n$, which is the simplicial complex of matchings in the complete graph $K_n$. Combining these sequences in different ways, we prove several results about the 3-torsion part of the homology of $M_n$. First, we demonstrate that there is nonvanishing 3-torsion in $H_d(M_n;Z)$ whenever \nu_n \le d \le (n-6}/2, where $\nu_n= \lceil (n-4)/3 \rceil$. By results due to Bouc and to Shareshian and Wachs, $H_{\nu_n}(M_n;Z)$ is a nontrivial elementary 3-group for almost all $n$ and the bottom nonvanishing homology group of $M_n$ for all $n \neq 2$. Second, we prove that $H_d(M_n;Z)$ is a nontrivial 3-group whenever $\nu_n \le d \le (2n-9)/5$. Third, for each $k \ge 0$, we show that there is a polynomial $f_k(r)$ of degree 3k such that the dimension of $H_{k-1+r}(M_{2k+1+3r};Z_3)$, viewed as a vector space over $Z_3$, is at most $f_k(r)$ for all $r \ge k+2$.