Contractibility of the Rips complexes of integer lattices via local domination (Q7017041)

The main result of this paper is that the Rips complex of \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) (for any \(n\)) is contractible for large enough Rips parameter. This answers a question of the reviewer, which had been ``in the air'' for about six or seven years before finally being proved here. Recall that the \textit{Rips complex} \(\mathrm{Rips}(X,r)\) of a metric space \(X\) with Rips parameter \(r\in\mathbb{R}\) is the simplicial complex with vertex set \(X\) and a \(k\)-simplex for each \((k+1)\)-element subset of \(X\) with diameter at most \(r\). In previous work of the reviewer [Am. J. Math. 144, No. 5, 1177--1200 (2022; Zbl 1504.57043)], it was shown that \(\mathrm{Rips}(\mathbb{Z}^n,r)\) using the Euclidean (\(L^2\)) metric on \(\mathbb{Z}^n\) is contractible for large enough \(r\), but the case of the taxicab (\(L^1\)) metric proved more difficult in the absence of non-positive curvature. One of the key insights in the present paper is that, despite the lack of non-positive curvature, the space \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with the \(L^1\) metric nonetheless has Jung constant strictly less than \(1\). This provides a foothold to approach the problem. In order to do the necessary topological manipulations, the author also develops a new tool called \textit{local domination} of a vertex, which generalizes the usual notion of domination by allowing it to be ``dominated'' not necessarily by another vertex but by a simplex.