On contractible polyhedra that are not simply contractible

In answer to a question of Michael, Dydak, Segal and Spiez have constructed a contractible polyhedron that is not strictly contractible. In the present note we prove a related result; by using alternative methods we show that there exist contractible polyhedra that are not simply (hence not strictly) contractible.

     

Covering contractible edges in 3-connected graphs. I: Covers of size three are cutsets

An edge of a 3-connected graph is said to be contractible if its contraction results in a 3-connected graph. In this paper, a covering of contractible edges is studied. We give an alternative proof to the result of Ota and Saito (Scientia (A) 2 (1988) 101–105) that the set of contractible edges in a 3-connected graph cannot be covered by two vertices, and extended this result to a three-vertex covering. We also study the existence of a contractible edge whose contraction preserves a specified cycle, and show that a non-hamiltonian 3-connected graph has a contractible edge whose contraction preserves the circumference.     

Every DFS Tree of a 3‐Connected Graph Contains a Contractible Edge

Tutte proved that every 3‐connected graph G on more than 4 vertices contains a contractible edge. We strengthen this result by showing that every depth‐first‐search tree of G contains a contractible edge. Moreover, we show that every spanning tree of G contains a contractible edge if G is 3‐regular or if G does not contain two disjoint pairs of adjacent degree‐3 vertices.     

On the Structure of Contractible Vertex Pairs in Chordal Graphs

An edge/non-edge in a k-connected graph is contractible if its contraction does not result in a graph of lower connectivity. We focus our study on contractible edges and non-edges in chordal graphs. Firstly, we characterize contractible edges in chordal graphs using properties of tree decompositions with respect to minimal vertex separators. Secondly, we show that in every chordal graph each non-edge is contractible. We also characterize non-edges whose contraction leaves a k-connected chordal graph.     

Contractability of l 1 -Munn algebras with applications

A Banach algebra \A is called contractible if every bounded derivation from A into any Banach A bimodule is inner. In this article we show that a l ¹ -Munn algebra LM(A, P) is contractible if and only if A is contractible and LM(A, P) is unital. As a consequence, if a semigroup algebra l ¹(S) is contractible, then S is finite. March 30, 1999     

Longest cycles in 3-connected graphs contain three contractible edges

We show that if G is a 3-connected graph of order at least seven, then every longest path between distinct vertices in G contains at least two contractible edges. An immediate corollary is that longest cycles in such graphs contain at least three contractible edges.     

Symplectic homology and periodic orbits near symplectic submanifolds

We show that a small neighborhood of a closed symplectic submanifold in a geometrically bounded aspherical symplectic manifold has non-vanishing symplectic homology. As a consequence, we establish the existence of contractible closed characteristics on any thickening of the boundary of the neighborhood. When applied to twisted geodesic flows on compact symplectically aspherical manifolds, this implies the existence of contractible periodic orbits for a dense set of low energy values.     

Annulus and Disk Complex Is Contractible and Quasi-convex

The annulus and disk complex is defined and researched. Especially, we prove that this complex is contractible and quasi-convex in the curve complex.     

Contractible Exact Squares

Exact squares in Cat are not necessarily absolute (i.e., preserved by any 2-functor Cat → Cat), or even preserved by any 2-functor given by exponentiation (?)^? : Cat → Cat: if a square is preserved by exponentiation it will be called a contractible exact square. We will characterize diagrammatically these contractible squares, and among them the contractible categories, and the so called fibering and cofibering squares, with especially the comma squares and the adjunction squares. As an application we conclude with a diagrammatical characterization of absolutely absolute Kan extensions and especially of absolutely final functors and of absolutely absolute colimits.     

On Algebraic and Geometric Dimensions for Groups with Torsion

Various notions of dimension for discrete groups are compared.A group is exhibited that acts with finite stabilizers on anacyclic 2-complex in such a way that the fixed point subcomplexfor any non-trivial finite subgroup is contractible, but suchthat the group does not admit any such action on a contractible2-complex. This group affords a counterexample to a naturalgeneralization of the Eilenberg–Ganea conjecture.     

The simple geometry of perfect information games

Perfect information games have a particularly simple structure of equilibria in the associated normal form. For generic such games each of the finitely many connected components of Nash equilibria is contractible. For every perfect information game there is a unique connected and contractible component of subgame perfect equilibria. Finally, the graph of the subgame perfect equilibrium correspondence, after a very mild deformation, looks like the space of perfect information extensive form games.     

Numerably Contractible Categories

We develop the notion of numerably contractible category and use it for describing conditions when a homotopy associative H-category has a homotopy inverse. We prove that complex categories are numerably contractible. The results play a role in Bak’s program for constructing delooping machines for global actions, small categories and related objects. (Received: February 2006)     

關於Borsuk的絕對同倫擴充性質的討論

<正> 序言.在同倫論中,常常需要考慮滿足這種性質的拓撲空間X設Y為任意的一個正規空間,B為Y的任何一個非空閉集,任何一個由B×(0,1)+Y×(0)到X的映像都可以扩充為一個由Y×(0,1)到X的映像,我們稱這種性質為絕對同倫扩充性質,具有這種性質的空間以及用AHE表示.Borsuk曾經介紹這樣一個重要的定理:     

On the Structure of Contractible Edges in <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-connected Partial <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-trees

Contraction of an edge e merges its end points into a new single vertex, and each neighbor of one of the end points of e is a neighbor of the new vertex. An edge in a k-connected graph is contractible if its contraction does not result in a graph with lesser connectivity; otherwise the edge is called non-contractible. In this paper, we present results on the structure of contractible edges in k-trees and k-connected partial k-trees. Firstly, we show that an edge e in a k-tree is contractible if and only if e belongs to exactly one (k + 1) clique. We use this characterization to show that the graph formed by contractible edges is a 2-connected graph. We also show that there are at least |V(G)| + k − 2 contractible edges in a k-tree. Secondly, we show that if an edge e in a partial k-tree is contractible then e is contractible in any k-tree which contains the partial k-tree as an edge subgraph. We also construct a class of contraction critical 2k-connected partial 2k-trees.     

Peeling phylogenetic ‘oranges’

We investigate the combinatorics of a topological space that is generated by the set of edge-weighted finite trees. This space arises by multiplying the weights of edges on paths in trees and is closely connected to tree reconstruction problems involving finite state Markov processes. We show that this space is a contractible finite CW-complex whose face poset can be described via a partial order on semilabelled forests. We then describe some combinatorial properties of this poset, showing that, for example, it is pure, thin and contractible.     

Complete controllability and contractibility in multimodal systems

The concept of a strictly positive definite set of Hermitian matrices is introduced. It is shown that a strictly positive definite set is always a positive definite set, and conditions are found under which a positive definite set is strictly positive definite. We also show that a set of Hermitian matrices is strictly positive definite if and only if some nonnegative linear combination of these matrices is a positive definite matrix. For state dimension two, we use this concept to find necessary and sufficient conditions for a two-mode completely controllable irreducible multimodal system to be contractible relative to an elliptic norm. For general state dimensions, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for a special-type two-mode completely controllable irreducible system to be contractible relative to a weakly monotone norm. Applying the above results, we show that, for state dimension two, there exists a completely controllable two-mode system which is not contractible relative to either an elliptic or a weakly monotone norm. We leave open the question whether or not complete controllability implies contractibility, relative to some norm, for multimodal systems of two or more modes.     

Contractible elements in k‐connected graphs not containing some specified graphs

In 15 , Thomassen proved that any triangle‐free k‐connected graph has a contractible edge. Starting with this result, there are several results concerning the existence of contractible elements in k‐connected graphs which do not contain specified subgraphs. These results extend Thomassen's result, cf., 2 , 3 , 9 - 13 . In particular, Kawarabayashi 12 proved that any k‐connected graph without K subgraphs contains either a contractible edge or a contractible triangle. In this article, we further extend these results, and prove the following result. Let k be an integer with k ≥ 6. If G is a k‐connected graph such that G does not contain as a subgraph and G does not contain as an induced subgraph, then G has either a contractible edge which is not contained in any triangle or a contractible triangle. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 58:97–109, 2008     

Taming 3-manifolds using scalar curvature

In this paper we address the issue of uniformly positive scalar curvature on noncompact 3-manifolds. In particular we show that the Whitehead manifold lacks such a metric, and in fact that \mathbbR³{\mathbb{R}^3} is the only contractible noncompact 3-manifold with a metric of uniformly positive scalar curvature. We also describe contractible noncompact manifolds of higher dimension exhibiting this curvature phenomenon. Lastly we characterize all connected oriented 3-manifolds with finitely generated fundamental group allowing such a metric.     

An Extremal Problem on Contractible Edges in 3-Connected Graphs

An edge e in a 3-connected graph G is contractible if the contraction G/e is still 3-connected. The existence of contractible edges is a very useful induction tool. Let G be a simple 3-connected graph with at least five vertices. Wu [7] proved that G has at most vertices that are not incident to contractible edges. In this paper, we characterize all simple 3-connected graphs with exactly vertices that are not incident to contractible edges. We show that all such graphs can be constructed from either a single vertex or a 3-edge-connected graph (multiple edges are allowed, but loops are not allowed) by a simple graph operation. Research partially supported by an ONR grant under grant number N00014-01-1-0917     

The 3-connected graphs with a maximum matching containing precisely one contractible edge

It has previously been shown that if M is a maximum matching in a 3-connected graph G, other than K₄, then M contains at least one contractible edge of G. In this paper, we give a constructive characterization of the 3-connected graphs G having a maximum matching containing only one contractible edge of G.