English

The worst way to collapse a simplex

Combinatorics 2020-08-14 v3 Algebraic Topology Probability

Abstract

In general a contractible complex need not be collapsible. Moreover, there exist complexes which are collapsible but even so admit a collapsing sequence where one "gets stuck", that is one can choose the collapses in such a way that one arrives at a nontrivial complex which admits no collapsing moves. Here we examine this phenomenon in the case of a simplex. In particular we characterize all values of nn and dd so that the n-simplex may collapse to a d-complex from which no further collapses are possible. Equivalently and in the language of high-dimensional generalizations of trees, we construct hypertrees that are anticollapsible, but not collapsible. Furthermore we examine anticollapsibility in random simplicial complexes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.07329,
  title  = {The worst way to collapse a simplex},
  author = {Davide Lofano and Andrew Newman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.07329},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

13 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T09:10:55.508Z