Posets, clique graphs and their homotopy type (Q2462344): Difference between revisions

For a finite poset \(P\) the authors denote by \(\min (P)\) and \(\max (P),\) respectively, the sets of minimal and maximal elements of \(P\) and define \( \Omega (P)\) as the graph with vertex set \(\min (P)\) in which two distinct vertices \(x,y\) are adjacent if and only if there is \(z\in P\) such that \( x,y\leq z\) and dually \(\mho (P)\) with \(\vee (\mho (P))=\max (P)\) where \( x\thicksim y\) if they have a common lower bound. Posets \(P\) and graphs \(G\) have associated simplicial complexes \(\Delta (P)\) and \(\Delta (G),\) whose vertices are respectively the points in \(P\) and the vertices of \(G,\) the simplices in \(\Delta (P)\) are the totally ordered subsets, and the simplices in \(\Delta (G)\) are the complete subgraphs. \(P\) and \(G\) are homotopy equivalent, denoted \(P\backsimeq G\) if \(\left| \Delta (P)\right| \) and \(\left| \Delta (G)\right| \) are so. The clique graph \(K(G)\) of \(G\) is the intersection graph of its (maximal) cliques. In this paper the authors interpret graphs and posets as simplicial complexes using complete subgraphs and chains as simplices and study and compare the homotopy types of \(\Omega (P),\mho (P)\) and \(P.\) As main application they obtain a theorem, stronger than those previously known, giving sufficient conditions for a graph to be homotopy equivalent to its clique graph. Also, they introduce a new graph operator \(H\) that preserves clique-Hellyness and dismantlability and is such that \(H(G)\) is homotopy equivalent to both its clique graph and the graph \(G.\)