Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
We consider k-dimensional random simplicial complexes that are generated from the binomial random (k+1)-uniform hypergraph by taking the downward-closure, where k >= 2. For each 1 <= j <= k-1, we determine when all cohomology groups with coefficients in F_2 from dimension one up to j vanish and the zero-th cohomology group is isomorphic to F_2. This property is not monotone, but nevertheless we show that it has a single sharp threshold. Moreover, we prove a hitting time result, relating the vanishing of these cohomology groups to the disappearance of the last minimal obstruction. Furthermore, we study the asymptotic distribution of the dimension of the j-th cohomology group inside the critical window. As a corollary, we deduce a hitting time result for a different model of random simplicial complexes introduced in [Linial and Meshulam, Combinatorica, 2006], a result which has only been known for dimension two [Kahle and Pittel, Random Structures Algorithms, 2016].
@InProceedings{cooley_et_al:LIPIcs.AofA.2018.7,
author = {Cooley, Oliver and Del Giudice, Nicola and Kang, Mihyun and Spr\"{u}ssel, Philipp},
title = {{Vanishing of Cohomology Groups of Random Simplicial Complexes}},
booktitle = {29th International Conference on Probabilistic, Combinatorial and Asymptotic Methods for the Analysis of Algorithms (AofA 2018)},
pages = {7:1--7:14},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-078-1},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2018},
volume = {110},
editor = {Fill, James Allen and Ward, Mark Daniel},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AofA.2018.7},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-89006},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.AofA.2018.7},
annote = {Keywords: Random hypergraphs, random simplicial complexes, sharp threshold, hitting time, connectedness}
}