Products of free groups inside graph braid groups (Q6910841)

The paper under review studies graph braid groups \(B_n(\Gamma)\), the fundamental groups of unordered configuration spaces of \(n\) points on a graph \(\Gamma\). Let \(m(\Gamma)\) denote the number of essential vertices (those of degree \(\ge 3\)) and let \(m_3(\Gamma)\) be the number of vertices of degree \(3\).\N\NThe main result (Theorem 2) shows that for \(n \ge 2m(\Gamma) + m_3(\Gamma)\), the group \(B_n(\Gamma)\) contains a direct product \(F_2^{m(\Gamma)}\) of \(m(\Gamma)\) copies of the rank-2 free group. This strengthens a result by \textit{J. 'Swiątkowski} [Colloq. Math. 89, No. 1, 69--79 (2001; Zbl 1007.55013)], who proved that \(B_n(\Gamma)\supseteq\mathbb{Z}^{m(\Gamma)}\) for large \(n\). The argument uses the Crisp-Wiest embedding of configuration spaces into Salvetti complexes of right-angled Artin groups, from which suitable free subgroups around each essential vertex yield the product structure.\N\NA key application (Theorem 3) determines the topological complexity \(\mathrm{TC}(B_n(\Gamma)) = 2m(\Gamma)\) for \(n \ge 2m(\Gamma) + m_3(\Gamma)\), thereby answering Problem 1 posed by \textit{B. Knudsen} [Ser. Ind. Appl. Math. 4, 309--333 (2024; Zbl 1556.55016)].