Kalai–Meshulam Euler characteristic conjecture for independence complexes

Let GG be a graph. Its independence complex Ind(G)\mathrm{Ind}(G) is the simplicial complex whose faces are the independent sets of GG, and let χ~\tilde{\chi} denote reduced Euler characteristic. For every induced subgraph HH of GG, consider χ~(Ind(H))\tilde{\chi}(\mathrm{Ind}(H)).

Kalai–Meshulam Euler characteristic conjecture. For any graph GG, we have

1χ~(Ind(H))1-1 \leq \tilde{\chi}(\mathrm{Ind}(H)) \leq 1

for every induced subgraph HH of GG if and only if there are no induced cycles of length divisible by three in GG.

The forward and reverse characterization was proved by Chudnovsky, Scott, Seymour, and Spirkl, building on Gauthier's earlier result for graphs with no cycles of length divisible by three, induced or otherwise.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Alexander Engstrom, “On the topological Kalai-Meshulam conjecture”, arXiv:2009.11077 (2020).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.