Collapsibility of CAT(0) spaces

Karim Adiprasito, Bruno Benedetti

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Collapsibility is a combinatorial strengthening of contractibility. We relate this property to
metric geometry by proving the collapsibility of any complex that is CAT(0) with a metric
for which all vertex stars are convex. This strengthens and generalizes a result by Crowley.
Further consequences of our work are:
(1) All CAT(0) cube complexes are collapsible.
(2) Any triangulated manifold admits a CAT(0) metric if and only if it admits collapsible
triangulations.
(3) All contractible d-manifolds (d = 4) admit collapsible CAT(0) triangulations. This
discretizes a classical result by Ancel–Guilbault.
Original languageEnglish
JournalGeometriae Dedicata
Volume206
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)181-199
ISSN0046-5755
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2020

Keywords

  • CAT(0) spaces
  • Collapsibility
  • Discrete Morse theory
  • Convexity
  • Evasiveness
  • Triangulations

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