Connectivity of partial basis complexes of freely decomposable groups (Q6879306)

The paper under review studies simplicial complexes naturally associated with free groups and more generally, with finitely generated freely decomposable groups. The central object is the complex \(\mathcal C_n\) of partial bases of the free group \(F_n\), whose vertices are conjugacy classes of primitive elements and whose simplices correspond to subsets that can be completed to a basis.\N\NThe main result, Theorem~1.1, shows that \(\mathcal C_n\) is Cohen-Macaulay of dimension \(n-1\). In particular, \(\mathcal C_n\) is \((n-2)\)-connected, confirming a conjecture by \textit{M.~Day} and \textit{A.~Putman} [Geom. Dedicata 164, 139--153 (2013; Zbl 1294.20041)]. The proof proceeds via a more general result for free products. For a finitely generated freely decomposable group \(A\) with free factor system \(\mathcal G\), Theorem~1.2 establishes that the poset \(\mathcal{FF}(A,\mathcal G)\) is \(c\)-connected, where \(c=\max\{\mathrm{crk}(\mathcal G)+|\mathcal G|-4,\mathrm{crk}(\mathcal G)-2\}\).\N\NA key intermediate object is the frame complex \(\mathcal{PC}(A,\mathcal G)\), defined as a subposet of \(\mathcal{FF}(A,\mathcal G)\) consisting of free factor systems whose non-peripheral factors are infinite cyclic. Theorem~1.3 establishes that \(\mathcal{PC}(A,\mathcal G)\) is Cohen-Macaulay of dimension \(\mathrm{crk}(\mathcal G)-1\). Theorem~1.1 is then deduced by observing that \(\mathcal{PC}(F_n,\emptyset)\) is an inflation of \(\mathcal C_n\).