Skip to main content
Log in

A Lower Bound on the Number of Homotopy Types of Simplicial Complexes on N Vertices

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Combinatorica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

For n ∈ ℕ, let h(n) denote the number of simplicial complexes on n vertices up to homotopy equivalence. Here we prove that \(h(n)\geq 2^{2^{0.02n}}\) when n is large enough. Together with the trivial upper bound of \(2^{2^{n}}\) on the number of labeled simplicial complexes on n vertices this proves a conjecture of Kalai that h(n) is doubly exponential in n.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. N. Alon and J. H. Spencer: The probabilistic method, fourth ed., Wiley Series in Discrete Mathematics and Optimization, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2016.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. A. Björner and G. Kalai: An extended Euler-Poincaré theorem, Acta Math. 161 (1988), 279–303.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. F. Criado and A. Newman: Randomized construction of complexes with large diameter, Discrete & Computational Geometry 66 (2021), 687–700.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. P. Erdős and L. Lovász: Problems and results on 3-chromatic hypergraphs and some related questions, Colloq. Math. Soc. János Bolyai 10, (1975), 609–627.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. G. H. Hardy and S. Ramanujan: Asymptotic formulæ in combinatory analysis Proc. London Math. Soc. 17 (1918), 75–115, (2000), 276–309.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. A. Hatcher: Algebraic topology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. M. Kahle, F. H. Lutz, A. Newman and K. Parsons: Cohen-Lenstra heuristics for torsion in homology of random complexes, Exp. Math. 29 (2020), 347–359.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. G. Kalai: Enumeration of Q-acyclic simplicial complexes, Israel J. Math. 45 (1983), 337–351.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. G. Kalai: How many simplicial complexes on n vertices up to homotopy equivalence?, MathOverflow, https://mathoverflow.net/q/230095 (version: 2016-02-03).

  10. G. O. H. Katona: A theorem of finite sets, Theory of Graphs, Proc. Coll. held at Tihany, Hungary, September, 1966, Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest, 1968, 187–207, reprinted in Classic Papers in Combinatorics, Ed. I. Gessel and G.-C. Rota, Birkhuser, Boston, 1987.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. D. Kleitman and G. Markowsky: On Dedekind’s problem: the number of isotone Boolean functions. II, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 213 (1975), 373–390.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. J. B. Kruskal: The optimal number of simplices in a complex, Math. Optim. Tech. (1963), 251–268.

  13. V. Nanda: How many simplicial complexes on n vertices up to homotopy equivalence?, MathOverflow, https://mathoverflow.net/q/102587 (version: 2012-07-18).

  14. A. Newman: Torsion in homology of random simplicial complexes, 2018, Ph. D. Thesis — The Ohio State University.

  15. A. Newman: Small Simplicial Complexes with Prescribed Torsion in Homology: Discrete Comput. Geom. 62 (2019), 433–460.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew Newman.

Additional information

Some of this work was conducted at Ohio State University and funded in part by the National Science Foundation grants NSF-DMS #1547357 and #60041693, and the rest was conducted at Technische Universität Berlin funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Graduiertenkolleg “Facets of Complexity” (GRK 2434)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Newman, A. A Lower Bound on the Number of Homotopy Types of Simplicial Complexes on N Vertices. Combinatorica 42 (Suppl 2), 1439–1450 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00493-022-4877-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00493-022-4877-6

Mathematics Subject Classification (2020)

Navigation