Configuration spaces of disks in an infinite strip (Q2239806)

Consider the space of configurations of \(n\) hard disks of unit diameter inside an infinite strip of width \(w\): \[ \mathcal{C}(n, w) = \{ (x_1, y_1, \dotsc, x_n, y_n) \in \mathbb{R}^{2n} \mid (x_i - x_j)^2 + (y_i - y_j)^2 \geq 1 \; \forall \, i \neq j, \;\, {\textstyle\frac12} \leq y_i \leq w - {\textstyle\frac12} \; \forall \, i \}. \] This paper studies the homology of \(\mathcal{C}(n, w)\). Specifically, the main result describes the asymptotic growth of the Betti numbers \(\beta_j[\mathcal{C}(n, w)]\) for \(n\to \infty\) and for any fixed \(j\) and \(w\): \begin{itemize} \item[1.] If \(w \geq 2\) and \(0 \leq j \leq w-2\), then \(H_j[\mathcal{C}(n, w)]\) is isomorphic to the homology of the well-studied configuration space of \(n\) points in the plane (denoted by \(\mathcal C (n, \mathbb{R}^2)\)). In particular, the asymptotic rate of growth of the Betti numbers is \(\beta_j[\mathcal{C}(n, w)] \asymp n^{2j}\). The Betti numbers of \(\mathcal C (n, \mathbb{R}^2)\) were determined in [\textit{V. I. Arnol'd}, Math. Notes 5, 138--140 (1969; Zbl 0277.55002); translation from Mat. Zametki 5, 227--231 (1969)]. \item[2.] If \(w\geq 2\) and \(j \geq w-1\), then \(\beta_j[\mathcal{C}(n, w)] \asymp (q+1)^n \, n^{qw+2r}\) where \(j = q(w-1)+r\) is the Euclidean division of \(j\) by \(w-1\). Note that \(q \geq 1\), so the growth is exponential in \(n\). If \(w=1\) and \(j=0\), then \(\beta_0[\mathcal{C}(n, 1)] = n!\). \item[3.] If either \(w = 0\), or \(w = 1\) and \(j \geq 1\), then \(\beta_j[\mathcal{C}(n, w)] = 0\). \end{itemize} By analogy with systems of hard spheres, the three cases above are named ``homological gas'', ``homological liquid'', and ``homological solid'', respectively. In the gas regime, the disks behave as points (from the point of view of homology). In the solid regime, the configuration space is rigid and the homology vanishes. The bulk of this paper is devoted to estimating the Betti numbers in the liquid regime. The ``phase transitions'' between these three regimes are also characterized for any finite value of \(n\) and not only asymptotically. In order to study the homology of \(\mathcal{C}(n, w)\), the authors first introduce a polyhedral cell complex \(\text{cell}(n, w)\) homotopy equivalent to \(\mathcal{C}(n, w)\). The complex \(\text{cell}(n, w)\) is a subcomplex of the Salvetti complex associated with the braid arrangement (which is homotopy equivalent to \(\mathcal C (n, \mathbb{R}^2)\)) [\textit{M. Salvetti}, Invent. Math. 88, 603--618 (1987; Zbl 0594.57009)]. The construction of \(\text{cell}(n,w)\) already yields the desired results in the gas and solid regimes. In the liquid regime, the asymptotic lower bound on \(\beta_j[\mathcal{C}(n, w)]\) is obtained by constructing a large number of linearly independent homology classes. Finally, the asymptotic upper bound is obtained with discrete Morse theory, by constructing appropriate discrete vector fields and upper-bounding the number of critical cells. The authors also show that \(\mathcal{C}(n, 2)\) is a \(K(\pi, 1)\) (or Eilenberg-MacLane) space, since \(\text{cell}(n, 2)\) is a cube complex that admits a locally CAT(0) metric. On the other hand, \(C(n, w)\) is not a \(K(\pi, 1)\) space if \(3 \leq w \leq n - 1\), because the \(2\)-skeleton of \(\text{cell}(n, w)\) coincides with the \(2\)-skeleton of the Salvetti complex (which is a \(K(\pi, 1)\) space) but their homology is different.