Linear colorings of simplicial complexes and collapsing

A vertex coloring of a simplicial complex $\Delta$ is called a linear coloring if it satisfies the property that for every pair of facets $(F_1, F_2)$ of $\Delta$, there exists no pair of vertices $(v_1, v_2)$ with the same color such that $v_1\in F_1\backslash F_2$ and $v_2\in F_2\backslash F_1$. We show that every simplicial complex $\Delta$ which is linearly colored with $k$ colors includes a subcomplex $\Delta'$ with $k$ vertices such that $\Delta'$ is a strong deformation retract of $\Delta$. We also prove that this deformation is a nonevasive reduction, in particular, a collapsing.Comment: 18 page

Vertex decomposable graphs, codismantlability, Cohen-Macaulayness and Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity

We call a (simple) graph G codismantlable if either it has no edges or else it has a codominated vertex x, meaning that the closed neighborhood of x contains that of one of its neighbor, such that G-x codismantlable. We prove that if G is well-covered and it lacks induced cycles of length four, five and seven, than the vertex decomposability, codismantlability and Cohen-Macaulayness for G are all equivalent. The rest deals with the computation of Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of codismantlable graphs. Note that our approach complements and unifies many of the earlier results on bipartite, chordal and very well-covered graphs

Homotopy decompositions and K-theory of Bott towers

We describe Bott towers as sequences of toric manifolds M^k, and identify the omniorientations which correspond to their original construction as toric varieties. We show that the suspension of M^k is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of Thom complexes, and display its complex K-theory as an algebra over the coefficient ring. We extend the results to KO-theory for several families of examples, and compute the effects of the realification homomorphism; these calculations breathe geometric life into Bahri and Bendersky's recent analysis of the Adams Spectral Sequence. By way of application we investigate stably complex structures on M^k, identifying those which arise from omniorientations and those which are almost complex. We conclude with observations on the role of Bott towers in complex cobordism theory.Comment: 26 page

Four-cycled graphs with topological applications

We call a simple graph G a 4-cycled graph if either it has no edges or every edge of it is contained in an induced 4-cycle of G. Our interest on 4-cycled graphs is motivated by the fact that their clique complexes play an important role in the simple-homotopy theory of simplicial complexes. We prove that the minimal simple models within the category of flag simplicial complexes are exactly the clique complexes of some 4-cycled graphs. We further provide structural properties of 4-cycled graphs and describe constructions yielding such graphs. We characterize 4-cycled cographs, and 4-cycled graphs arising from finite chessboards. We introduce a family of inductively constructed graphs, the external extensions, related to an arbitrary graph, and determine the homotopy type of the independence complexes of external extensions of some graphs.Both authors are supported by TUBA through Young Scientist Award Program (TUBA-GEBIP/2009-06 and 2008-08)Publisher's Versio