Families of minimally non-Golod complexes and their polyhedral products

Abstract

We consider families of simple polytopes $P$ and simplicial complexes $K$ well-known in polytope theory and convex geometry, and show that their moment-angle complexes have some remarkable homotopy properties which depend on combinatorics of the underlying complexes and algebraic properties of their Stanley--Reisner rings. We introduce infinite series of Golod and minimally non-Golod simplicial complexes $K$ with moment-angle complexes $\mathcal Z_K$ having free integral cohomology but not homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres or a connected sum of products of spheres respectively. We then prove a criterion for a simplicial multiwedge and composition of complexes to be Golod and minimally non-Golod and present a class of minimally non-Golod polytopal spheres.