Tree homology and a conjecture of Levine (Q422830)

The authors prove a conjecture made by \textit{J. Levine} in [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 2, 1197--1204 (2002; Zbl 1065.57501)]. The conjecture says that some homomophism between certain abelian groups defined combinatorially using trivalent trees is an isomorphism. The groups considered and the result obtained have connections with mapping class groups, homology cylinders, finite type invariants, Whitney tower invariants and the homology of \(\mathrm{Out}(F_n)\). The proof of the result uses discrete Morse theory associated to certain chain complexes generated by trees which are subcomplexes of a Kontsevich-type graph complex. The authors identify particular homology groups of these chain complexes with the domain and the range of Levine's isomorphism. This isomorphism is fundamental in the classification of the structure of links up to grope and Whitney tower concordance. The authors also confirm and improve upon a conjectural relation made by Levine between two filtrations of the group of homology cylinders.