The homotopy theory of polyhedral products associated with flag complexes

Abstract

If $K$ is a simplicial complex on $m$ vertices, the flagification of $K$ is the minimal flag complex $K^{f}$ on the same vertex set that contains $K$. Letting $L$ be the set of vertices, there is a sequence of simplicial inclusions $L\stackrel{}{\longrightarrow }K\stackrel{}{\longrightarrow }K^{f}$. This induces a sequence of maps of polyhedral products $(\text{}\underline{X},\text{}\underline{A})^{L}\stackrel{g}{\longrightarrow }(\text{}\underline{X},\text{}\underline{A})^{K}\stackrel{f}{\longrightarrow }(\text{}\underline{X},\text{}\underline{A})^{K^{f}}$. We show that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}f$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}f\circ \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}g$ have right homotopy inverses and draw consequences. For a flag complex $K$ the polyhedral product of the form $(\text{}\underline{CY},\text{}\underline{Y})^{K}$ is a co-$H$-space if and only if the 1-skeleton of $K$ is a chordal graph, and we deduce that the maps $f$ and $f\circ g$ have right homotopy inverses in this case.