Comparing minimal simplicial models (Q1946126)

For a given topological space \(X\), this paper studies relations between the minimal sizes (in number of vertices) of various types of simplicial complexes which have the same homotopy type as \(X\) : \(m_s(X)\) denotes the minimal number of vertices obtained when all simplicial complexes (having the homotopy type of \(X\)) are considered while \(m_f(X)\) (resp. \(m_p(X)\)) denotes the minimum obtained when one restricts to flag complexes (resp. to partially ordered sets whose order complex is homotopy equivalent to \(X\)). The following inequalities follow from the definition of these invariants: \(m_s(X) \leq m_f(X)\leq m_p(X)\leq 2^{m_s(X)}\). In this paper, among other results, the author proves (Theorem 1.2) that for any non-acyclic space \(X\) with \(m_s(X)\) finite : \[ \lim_{k \to +\infty} \frac{m_s(\Sigma^k X)}{k}=1~~~~\text{and}~~~~ \lim_{k \to +\infty} \frac{m_f(\Sigma^k X)}{k}=\lim_{k \to +\infty} \frac{m_p(\Sigma^k X)}{k}=2 \] (where \(\Sigma\) denotes the suspension). Actually, all these invariants are related to the \textit{homological dimension} \(h(X)\) of \(X\), i.e. the maximal integer \(k\) such that \(\widetilde{H}_k(X,\Lambda)\) is non trivial for some group \(\Lambda\) (which is well defined for any non-acyclic space \(X\)). The author obtains certain characterizations concerning \(m_f(X)-2h(X)\) and \(m_s(X)-h(X)\) and the proofs give also interesting results about homology groups of flag complexes and their dependance on the number of vertices of the complex.