Cohomology of generalised configuration spaces of points on $\mathbb{R}^r$

Abstract

We compute the cohomology ring of a generalised type of configuration space of points in $\mathbb{R}^r$. This configuration space is indexed by a graph. In the case the graph is complete the result is known and it is due to Arnold and Cohen. However, our computations give a generalisation to any graph and an alternative proof of the classical result. Moreover, we show that there are deletion-contraction short exact sequences for this cohomology rings.