A combinatorial technique for simplicial complexes and some applications to finite groups (Q803276)

In several recent papers on simplicial complexes defined on the subgroup lattice of a finite group, a central role is played by the topological notion of contractibility and, more generally, homotopy equivalence of a subcomplex with the whole complex. We propose to show that these can be advantageously replaced by the following non-topological properties of a complex \({\mathfrak K}\). (a) \({\mathfrak K}\) is strongly collapsible; (b) \({\mathfrak K}\) strongly collapses to a subcomplex of \({\mathfrak K}.\) Property (a) (termed ``non-evasiveness'' in [Combinatorica 4, 297-306 (1984; Zbl 0577.05061)]) has an interesting combinatorial interpretation arising from complexity questions in graph theory; its usefulness was pointed out in [op.cit.] by \textit{J. Kahn}, \textit{M. Saks} and \textit{D. Sturtevant}. In Section 1 we collect the basic definitions and results. The central part of the paper is Section 2, where we study order complexes (defined over posets). Among other, we prove and generalize, in a rather elementary way, results obtained by G. C. Rota, A. Björner and J. W. Walker. In the remaining we apply the results of Section 2 to various complexes arising from finite groups.