Embeddings between partially commutative groups: two counterexamples. (Q2437943)

A right-angled Artin group is defined by a finite simplicial graph, with one generator for each vertex and a commutation relation between pairs of adjacent vertices. The authors study the correspondence between the existence of injective homomorphisms between right-angled Artin groups \(A(\Lambda)\) and \(A(\Gamma)\), and the relationship between the graphs \(\Lambda\) and \(\Gamma\). \textit{S.-H. Kim} and \textit{T. Koberda} [Geom. Topol. 17, No. 1, 493-530 (2013; Zbl 1278.20049)] associated two canonical graphs to \(\Gamma\), called the extension graph and the clique graph of the extension graph and denoted by \(\Gamma^e\) and \((\Gamma^e)_k\), respectively, which are useful in the study of injective homomorphisms between right-angled Artin groups. It is shown that if a graph \(\Lambda\) embeds in \(\Gamma^e\) then \(A(\Lambda)\) embeds in \(A(\Gamma)\). Conversely, if \(A(\Lambda)\) embeds in \(A(\Gamma)\) then \(\Lambda\) embeds in \((\Gamma^e)_k\). In many cases, one can show that \(A(\Lambda)\) embeds in \(A(\Gamma)\) if and only if \(\Lambda\) embeds in \(\Gamma^e\). It was an open question as to whether this was always the case, a question which was formulated as the ``extension graph conjecture''. In the paper under review, the authors show that there exist graphs \(\Lambda\) and \(\Gamma\) such that \(A(\Lambda)<A(\Gamma)\) but \(\Lambda\) does not embed in \(\Gamma^e\), which provides a negative answer to the Kim-Koberda extension graph conjecture. The authors also provide an example of an embedding of \(A(C_5)\) into \(A(P_7^{opp})\), where \(C_5\) is the pentagon graph and where \(P_7^{opp}\) is the opposite graph of the path on seven vertices. This example gives a counterexample to the ``weakly chordal conjecture'' of Kim-Koberda, which states that if \(A(C_n)<A(\Gamma)\) for some \(n\geq 5\) then \(\Gamma\) contains a subgraph isomorphic to \(C_m\) or to \(C_m^{opp}\) for some \(m\geq 5\). The resolution of this conjecture constitutes progress in the understanding of which right-angled Artin groups contain closed hyperbolic surface groups. Finally, the authors extend the class of graphs for which the extension graph conjecture holds.