Local properties of simplicial complexes (Q367421)

The article deals with various classes of simplicial complexes. Each of these is defined recursively and is contained in the class of contractible complexes. Connections among these concepts, and in particular with collapsibility, are explained. Little mention is made of related notions. The class of \textit{retractable} complexes coincides with that of LC-reducible complexes of [\textit{Y. Civan} and \textit{E. Yalçın}, J. Comb. Theory, Ser. A 114, No. 7, 1315--1331 (2007; Zbl 1126.05046)], [\textit{J. Matoušek}, Contrib. Discrete Math. 3, No. 2, 37--39 (2008; Zbl 1191.52011)], and strong collapsible complexes of [\textit{J. A. Barmak}, Algebraic topology of finite topological spaces and applications. Berlin: Springer (2011; Zbl 1235.55001)], [\textit{J. A. Barmak} and \textit{E. G. Minian}, Discrete Comput. Geom. 47, No. 2, 301--328 (2012; Zbl 1242.57019)]. With the latter approach it is obvious that retractable complexes are collapsible (Theorem 3.1). The fixed-simplex property mentioned in Theorem 2.1 is in fact a fixed point property (the stronger result for continuous maps) which follows directly from the Lefschetz fixed point Theorem. The notions of \(s-\) and *-recursive contractibility are closely related to the notions of evasiveness, shellability and constructibility. In particular, the existence of a non-collapsible *-recursively contractible complex follows from \textit{M. Hachimori}'s example in Section 5.4 of [Combinatorics of constructible complexes. PhD thesis, University of Tokyo (2000)].