A strong collapse increasing the geometric simplicial Lusternik-Schnirelmann category

Abstract

In [3], after defining notions of LS category in the simplicial context, the authors show that the geometric simplicial LS category is non-decreasing under strong collapses. However, they do not give examples where it increases strictly, but they conjecture that such an example should exist, and thus that the geometric simplicial LS category is not strong homotopy invariant. The purpose of this note is to provide with such an example. We construct a simplicial complex whose simplicial and geometric simplicial LS categories are different, and using this, we provide an example of a strong collapse that increases the geometric simplicial LS category, thus settling the geometric simplicial LS category not being strong homotopy invariant.