Combinatorial Laplacian of the Matching Complex

Xun Dong and Michelle L. Wachs

Abstract: A striking result of Bouc gives the decomposition of the representation of the symmetric group on the homology of the matching complex into irreducibles that are self-conjugate. We show how the combinatorial Laplacian can be used to give an elegant proof of this result. We also show that the spectrum of the Laplacian is integral.


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