6,123 research outputs found
Universality theorems for inscribed polytopes and Delaunay triangulations
We prove that every primary basic semialgebraic set is homotopy equivalent to
the set of inscribed realizations (up to M\"obius transformation) of a
polytope. If the semialgebraic set is moreover open, then, in addition, we
prove that (up to homotopy) it is a retract of the realization space of some
inscribed neighborly (and simplicial) polytope. We also show that all algebraic
extensions of are needed to coordinatize inscribed polytopes.
These statements show that inscribed polytopes exhibit the Mn\"ev universality
phenomenon.
Via stereographic projections, these theorems have a direct translation to
universality theorems for Delaunay subdivisions. In particular, our results
imply that the realizability problem for Delaunay triangulations is
polynomially equivalent to the existential theory of the reals.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure
Topology of random simplicial complexes: a survey
This expository article is based on a lecture from the Stanford Symposium on
Algebraic Topology: Application and New Directions, held in honor of Gunnar
Carlsson, Ralph Cohen, and Ib Madsen.Comment: After revisions, now 21 pages, 5 figure
Bounding Helly numbers via Betti numbers
We show that very weak topological assumptions are enough to ensure the
existence of a Helly-type theorem. More precisely, we show that for any
non-negative integers and there exists an integer such that
the following holds. If is a finite family of subsets of such that for any
and every
then has Helly number at most . Here
denotes the reduced -Betti numbers (with singular homology). These
topological conditions are sharp: not controlling any of these first Betti numbers allow for families with unbounded Helly number.
Our proofs combine homological non-embeddability results with a Ramsey-based
approach to build, given an arbitrary simplicial complex , some well-behaved
chain map .Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure
Good covers are algorithmically unrecognizable
A good cover in R^d is a collection of open contractible sets in R^d such
that the intersection of any subcollection is either contractible or empty.
Motivated by an analogy with convex sets, intersection patterns of good covers
were studied intensively. Our main result is that intersection patterns of good
covers are algorithmically unrecognizable.
More precisely, the intersection pattern of a good cover can be stored in a
simplicial complex called nerve which records which subfamilies of the good
cover intersect. A simplicial complex is topologically d-representable if it is
isomorphic to the nerve of a good cover in R^d. We prove that it is
algorithmically undecidable whether a given simplicial complex is topologically
d-representable for any fixed d \geq 5. The result remains also valid if we
replace good covers with acyclic covers or with covers by open d-balls.
As an auxiliary result we prove that if a simplicial complex is PL embeddable
into R^d, then it is topologically d-representable. We also supply this result
with showing that if a "sufficiently fine" subdivision of a k-dimensional
complex is d-representable and k \leq (2d-3)/3, then the complex is PL
embeddable into R^d.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; result extended also to acyclic covers in
version
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