Research Proposal

Samir Shukla

My area of research is combinatorial topology. I am interested in the applications of topol-

ogy in graph theory and related topics. In particular, I am interested in the study of the
topological properties of the graph complexes. Graph complexes are simplicial complexes
constructed from graphs. Our objective of this proposal and future plan is as follows.

Objectives
A classical problem in graph theory is the determination of the chromatic number of a
graph which nds application in several elds. In 1955, Kneser posed the Kneser conjecture
which dealt with the computation of the chromatic number of a certain class of graphs [17].
This conjecture was proved in 1975 by Lovsz [21]. Lovaz constructed a simplicial complex
called the neighborhood complex N (G) of a graph G to prove the Kneser conjecture.
In [1], Lovsz generalised the neighborhood complex by the prodsimplicial complex
called the Hom complex, denoted by Hom(G, H) for graphs G and H . In particular,
Hom(K2 , G) (where K2 denotes a complete graph with 2 vertices) and N (G) are homotopy
equivalent. The idea was to be able to estimate the chromatic number of an arbitrary graph
G by understanding the connectivity of the Hom complex from some standard graph into
G.
The independence complex of a graph G is the simplicial complex, whose simplices
are the independent sets of G. Kozlov ([20]) used the independence complex to answer
a question related to the complexes of directed graphs posed by Stanley. Independence
complexes have a wealth of information and a lot of research has been done lately with
respect to them. See, for example, [3], [4], [5], [6], [9], [10], [11], [14], [15], [16], [20] etc.
Our aim is to study the topological properties of the Hom complex, neighborhood
complex and independence complexes. In particular, to study the homotopy type and
connectedness of these graph complexes.
This problem is both interesting and relevant as in many cases there is a correlation
between the topological connectivity of the complex and the chromatic number of the
underlying graph.

Work done so for

1. In [1] Babson and Kozlov conjectured that:
For a graph G with maximal degree d, Hom (G, Kn ) is at least nd2 connected.

uki and Kozlov presented a proof for this conjecture in [7].

In [23] we have considered the regular bipartite graphs of the type K2 Km and proved
that the connectedness of the complex Hom(K2 Km , Kn ) is n m 1 if n m and n 3
in the other cases. In particular, we have shown that for this class of graphs, Hom(G, Kn )
is exactly n d 2 connected, n m, where d is the maximal degree of the graph G.

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2. For the special case n = m + 1, in [25], we have computed the Z2 -homology groups of
the complex Hom(K2 Km , Km+1 ). We also proved that Hom(K2 Km , Kn ) is homotopic
to S n2 , if n < m.
3. In [24] we have considered a particular family of regular bipartite graphs and computed
the homotopy type of their independence complexes. We have shown that the independence
complexes of these class of graphs have the same homotopy type as of the wedge sum of
spheres of certain dimensions.

Future plan
My future plans for research include the following problems :

Problem 1. A graph T is called a homotopy test graph, if, for an arbitrary graph G, the
following equation is satised
(G) (T )+ conn (Hom(T, G)) + 1

where (H) is the chromatic number of the graph H .

Lovsz ([21]) proved that K2 is a homotopy test graph. More generally, it has been
asked by Lovsz, whether every graph is a homotopy test graph. Hoory and Linial ([13]),
answered this question negatively by constructing a graph G of chromatic number 5 and
proved that Hom (G, K5 ) is connected, i.e., 0 connected. It has been proved that, cyclic
graph [2], complete graph [1], bipartite graphs [22] etc. are test graphs.
I am interested in nding other classes of homotopy test graphs.

Problem 2. To classify the class of graphs G for which the complex Hom (G, Kn ) is
exactly n d 2 connected.

Problem 3. To compute the homotopy type of the independence complexes of all regular
graphs.

References
[1] E. Babson and D. Kozlov, Complexes of graph homomorphisms . Israel J. Math. Vol 152,
2006, 285312.

[2] E. Babson and D. Kozlov, Proof of the Lovaz conjecture .Annals of Math. (2) Vol 165, 2007,
9651007.

[3] J. A. Barmak, Star clusters in independence complexes of graphs. Adv. Math. 243, V. 241,
pp. 33-57.

[4] M. Bousqet-Mlou, S. Linusson and E. Nevo, On the independence complex of square-grid .

J. Algebraic Comb. 2008, V. 27, pp. 423-450.

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 [5] B. Braun, Independence complexes of stable Kneser graphs . Electron. J. Combin. 2011, V.
18 no. 1, Paper 118, 17 pp.

[6] P. Csorba, Subdivision yields Alexander duality on independence complexes. Electron. J.

Combin. 2009, V. 16 no. 2, Special volume in honor of Anders Bjrner, Research Paper 11,
7 pp.

[7] S. uki and D. Kozlov, Higher Connectivity of Graph Coloring Complexes . Int. Math. Res.
Not. 2005, no. 25, 15431562.

[8] A. Dochtermann, Hom complexes and homotopy type in the category of graphs . European
Journal of Combinatorics Vol 30, 2009, 490-509.

[9] R. Ehrenborg and G. Hetyei, The topology of the independence complex, European J. Combin.
2006, V. 27 no. 6, pp. 906-923.

[10] A. Engstrm, Complexes of directed trees and independence complexes . Discrete Math. 2009,
V. 309 no. 10, pp. 3299-3309.

[11] A. Engstrm, Independence complexes of claw-free graphs , European J. Combin., 2008, V.

29 no. 1, pp. 234-241.

[12] R. Forman, Morse Theory for Cell complexes . Adv. Math. Vol 134(1), 1998, 90-145.

[13] S. Hoory and N. Linial, A counterexample to a conjecture of Bjrner and Lovsz on the

-coloring complex. Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B 95.2 (2005): 346-349.

[14] J. Jonsson, On the topology of independence complexes of triangle-free graphs . Preprint.

[15] K. Kawamura, Homotopy types of independence complexes of forests. Contrib. Discrete Math.
2010, V. 5 no. 2, 67-75.

[16] K. Kawamura, Independence complexes of chordal graphs , Discrete Math. 2010, V. 310 no.
15-16, pp. 2204-2211.

[17] M. Kneser, Aufgabe 300 , Jber. Deutsch. Math. - Verein. 58 (1955).

[18] D. Kozlov, Chromatic numbers, morphism complexes and Steifel Whitney Classes. Geometric
Combinatorics, IAS Park City Math. Ser,. 13, Amer. Math. Soc, 2007, 249315.

[19] D. Kozlov, Combinatorial Algebraic Topology . Springer Verlag, Berlin 1928, 2008.

[20] D. Kozlov, Complexes of directed trees , J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 1999, V. 88 no. 1, pp.
112-122.

[21] L. Lovsz, Kneser's conjecture, chromatic number and homotopy . J. Combinatorial Theory
Ser. B Vol 25, 1978, 319-324.

[22] T. Matsushita, Answers to some problems about graph coloring test graphs. European Journal
of Combinatorics 45 (2015): 59-64.

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[23] N. Nilakantan and S. Shukla, Connectedness of Certain Graph Coloring Complexes

https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.03527.

[24] N. Nilakantan and S. Shukla, Homotopy type of the independence complexes of a family of

regular bipartite graphs (Communicated).

[25] N. Nilakantan and S. Shukla, Neighborhood Complexes of Some Exponential Graphs . The
Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 23, no. 2 (2016): P2-26.