The universality of Hom complexes of graphs (Q987561)

The Hom complex is a functional way to assign a poset (and hence a topological space) Hom\((T,G)\) to a pair of graphs \(T\) and \(G\). P. Csorba proved that any free \(\mathbb Z_2\)-space can be realized, up to \(\mathbb Z_2\)-homotopy type, as Hom\((K_2,G)\) for some suitably chosen graph \(G\) (here \(K_2\) is an edge) [see \textit{P. Csorba}, Combinatorica 27, No. 6, 669--682 (2007; Zbl 1236.05067)]. A natural question is to ask what homotopy types can be realized as Hom\((T,?)\) for other test graphs \(T\). The author proves that, given a connected graph \(T\) with at least one edge and an arbitrary finite simplicial complex \(X\), there is a graph \(G\) such that the complex Hom\((T,G)\) is homotopy equivalent to \(X\). Other results on Hom complexes, exponentials of graphs, and subdivisions complete the paper.