On Vietoris-Rips complexes of ellipses

For $X$ a metric space and $r>0$ a scale parameter, the Vietoris-Rips complex $VR_<(X;r)$ (resp. $VR_\leq(X;r)$) has $X$ as its vertex set, and a finite subset $\sigma\subseteq X$ as a simplex whenever the diameter of $\sigma$ is less than $r$ (resp. at most $r$). Though Vietoris-Rips complexes have been studied at small choices of scale by Hausmann and Latschev, they are not well-understood at larger scale parameters. In this paper we investigate the homotopy types of Vietoris-Rips complexes of ellipses $Y=\{(x,y)\in \mathbb{R}^2~|~(x/a)^2+y^2=1\}$ of small eccentricity, meaning $1<a\le\sqrt{2}$. Indeed, we show there are constants $r_1 < r_2$ such that for all $r_1 < r< r_2$, we have $VR_<(X;r)\simeq S^2$ and $VR_\leq(X;r)\simeq \bigvee^5 S^2$, though only one of the two-spheres in $VR_\leq(X;r)$ is persistent. Furthermore, we show that for any scale parameter $r_1 < r < r_2$, there are arbitrarily dense subsets of the ellipse such that the Vietoris-Rips complex of the subset is not homotopy equivalent to the Vietoris-Rips complex of the entire ellipse. As our main tool we link these homotopy types to the structure of infinite cyclic graphs

On the homotopy type of complexes of graphs with bounded domination number

Let $D_{n,\gamma}$ be the complex of graphs on $n$ vertices and domination number at least $\gamma$. We prove that $D_{n,n-2}$ has the homotopy type of a finite wedge of 2-spheres. This is done by using discrete Morse theory techniques. Acyclicity of the needed matching is proved by introducing a relativized form of a much used method for constructing acyclic matchings on suitable chunks of simplices. Our approach allows us to extend our results to the realm of infinite graphs. We give evidence supporting the assertion that the homotopy equivalence $D_{n,n-2}\simeq\bigvee_{N_n}S^2$ does not generalize as expected for $D_{n,\gamma}$, if $\gamma\leq n-3$.Comment: 19 page

On Vietoris-Rips complexes of Finite Metric Spaces with Scale 22

We examine the homotopy types of Vietoris-Rips complexes on certain finite metric spaces at scale $2$. We consider the collections of subsets of $[m]=\{1, 2, \ldots, m\}$ equipped with symmetric difference metric $d$, specifically, $\mathcal{F}^m_n$, $\mathcal{F}_n^m\cup \mathcal{F}^m_{n+1}$, $\mathcal{F}_n^m\cup \mathcal{F}^m_{n+2}$, and $\mathcal{F}_{\preceq A}^m$. Here $\mathcal{F}^m_n$ is the collection of size $n$ subsets of $[m]$ and $\mathcal{F}_{\preceq A}^m$ is the collection of subsets $\preceq A$ where $\preceq$ is a total order on the collections of subsets of $[m]$ and $A\subseteq [m]$ (see the definition of $\preceq$ in Section~\ref{Intro}). We prove that the Vietoris-Rips complexes $\mathcal{VR}(\mathcal{F}^m_n, 2)$ and $\mathcal{VR}(\mathcal{F}_n^m\cup \mathcal{F}^m_{n+1}, 2)$ are either contractible or homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of $S^2$'s; also, the complexes $\mathcal{VR}(\mathcal{F}_n^m\cup \mathcal{F}^m_{n+2}, 2)$ and $\mathcal{VR}(\mathcal{F}_{\preceq A}^m, 2)$ are either contractible or homotopy equivalent to a wedge sum of $S^3$'s. We provide inductive formula for these homotopy types extending the result of Barmak in \cite{Bar13} about the independence complexes of Kneser graphs \text{KG}$_{2, k}$ and the result of Adamamszek and Adams in \cite{AA22} about Vietoris-Rips complexes of hypercube graphs with scale $2$

On string topology of classifying spaces

Let G be a compact Lie group. By work of Chataur and Menichi, the homology of the space of free loops in the classifying space of G is known to be the value on the circle in a homological conformal field theory. This means in particular that it admits operations parameterized by homology classes of classifying spaces of diffeomorphism groups of surfaces. Here we present a radical extension of this result, giving a new construction in which diffeomorphisms are replaced with homotopy equivalences, and surfaces with boundary are replaced with arbitrary spaces homotopy equivalent to finite graphs. The result is a novel kind of field theory which is related to both the diffeomorphism groups of surfaces and the automorphism groups of free groups with boundaries. Our work shows that the algebraic structures in string topology of classifying spaces can be brought into line with, and in fact far exceed, those available in string topology of manifolds. For simplicity, we restrict to the characteristic 2 case. The generalization to arbitrary characteristic will be addressed in a subsequent paper.Comment: 93 pages; v4: minor changes; to appear in Advances in Mathematic

Hom complexes and homotopy theory in the category of graphs

We investigate a notion of $\times$-homotopy of graph maps that is based on the internal hom associated to the categorical product in the category of graphs. It is shown that graph $\times$-homotopy is characterized by the topological properties of the \Hom complex, a functorial way to assign a poset (and hence topological space) to a pair of graphs; \Hom complexes were introduced by Lov\'{a}sz and further studied by Babson and Kozlov to give topological bounds on chromatic number. Along the way, we also establish some structural properties of \Hom complexes involving products and exponentials of graphs, as well as a symmetry result which can be used to reprove a theorem of Kozlov involving foldings of graphs. Graph $\times$-homotopy naturally leads to a notion of homotopy equivalence which we show has several equivalent characterizations. We apply the notions of $\times$-homotopy equivalence to the class of dismantlable graphs to get a list of conditions that again characterize these. We end with a discussion of graph homotopies arising from other internal homs, including the construction of `$A$-theory' associated to the cartesian product in the category of reflexive graphs.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, final version, to be published in European J. Com