On the Falk invariant of Shi and Linial arrangements

Abstract

It is an open question to give a combinatorial interpretation of the Falk invariant of a hyperplane arrangement, i.e. the third rank of successive quotients in the lower central series of the fundamental group of the arrangement. In this article, we give a combinatorial formula for this invariant in the case of hyperplane arrangements that are complete lift representation of certain gain graphs. As a corollary, we compute the Falk invariant for the cone of the braid, Shi, Linial and semiorder arrangements.