Foundations of a Connectivity Theory for Simplicial Complexes

This paper lays the foundations of a combinatorial homotopy theory, called A-theory, for simplicial complexes, which reflects their connectivity properties. A collection of bigraded groups is constructed, and methods for computation are given. A Seifert?Van Kampen type theorem and a long exact sequence of relative A-groups are derived. A related theory for graphs is constructed as well. This theory provides a general framework encompassing homotopy methods used to prove connectivity results about buildings, graphs, and matroids.