Weighted \(L^2\)-cohomology of Coxeter groups based on barycentric subdivisons (Q1882842)

A classical construction of Mike Davis associates to any finite flag complex \(L\) a right-angled Coxeter group \(W_{L}\) together with a proper, cocompact action of \(W_{L}\) on a contractible cubical cell complex \(\Sigma_{L}\), each vertex having a link isomorphic to \(L\). In particular, when \(L\) is a homology \((n-1)\)-sphere then \(\Sigma_{L}\) is a homology \(n\)-manifold. If \(M\) is a closed aspherical \(n\)-manifold the Singer conjecture predicts that the \(L^{2}\) cohomology of \(M\) vanishes except in the dimension \(n/2\). Recall that Poincaré Duality holds for \(L^{2}{\mathcal H}^{i}(M)\) so that it is sufficient to prove vanishing for \(i > n/2\). In [\textit{M. W. Davis, T. Januszkiewicz, J. Dymara} and \textit{B. L. Okun}, ``Weighted \(L^{2}\)-cohomology of Coxeter groups'', arXiv:math.GT/0402377], weighted \(L^{2}\)-cohomology is introduced for \(\Sigma_{L}\) -- denoted by \(L_{{\mathbf q}}^{2}{\mathcal H}^{i}( \Sigma_{L})\) where \({\mathbf q}\) is an assignment of weights to each vertex of \(L\). The generalised Singer conjecture states that \(L_{{\mathbf q}}^{2}{\mathcal H}^{i}( \Sigma_{L}) = 0\) for all \(i > n/2\) providing each weight is less than or equal to \(1\). Proving first the generalised Singer conjecture for the barycentric subdivision of \(\partial \Delta^{2k+1}\), the author's main result is the corollary that the generalised Singer conjecture holds for a homology \((n-1)\)-sphere when \(n\) is even. The method of proof depends heavily on the results and methods of the Davis-Januszkiewicz-Dymara-Okun paper.