Algebraic Topology

The chapter provides an introduction to the basic concepts of Algebraic Topology with an emphasis on motivation from applications in the physical sciences. It finishes with a brief review of computational work in algebraic topology, including persistent homology.Comment: This manuscript will be published as Chapter 5 in Wiley's textbook \emph{Mathematical Tools for Physicists}, 2nd edition, edited by Michael Grinfeld from the University of Strathclyd

Cuts and flows of cell complexes

We study the vector spaces and integer lattices of cuts and flows associated with an arbitrary finite CW complex, and their relationships to group invariants including the critical group of a complex. Our results extend to higher dimension the theory of cuts and flows in graphs, most notably the work of Bacher, de la Harpe and Nagnibeda. We construct explicit bases for the cut and flow spaces, interpret their coefficients topologically, and give sufficient conditions for them to be integral bases of the cut and flow lattices. Second, we determine the precise relationships between the discriminant groups of the cut and flow lattices and the higher critical and cocritical groups with error terms corresponding to torsion (co)homology. As an application, we generalize a result of Kotani and Sunada to give bounds for the complexity, girth, and connectivity of a complex in terms of Hermite's constant.Comment: 30 pages. Final version, to appear in Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric

K-area, Hofer metric and geometry of conjugacy classes in Lie groups

Given a closed symplectic manifold $(M,\omega)$ we introduce a certain quantity associated to a tuple of conjugacy classes in the universal cover of the group ${\hbox{\it Ham}} (M,\omega)$ by means of the Hofer metric on ${\hbox{\it Ham}} (M,\omega)$. We use pseudo-holomorphic curves involved in the definition of the multiplicative structure on the Floer cohomology of a symplectic manifold $(M,\omega)$ to estimate this quantity in terms of actions of some periodic orbits of related Hamiltonian flows. As a corollary we get a new way to obtain Agnihotri-Belkale-Woodward inequalities for eigenvalues of products of unitary matrices. As another corollary we get a new proof of the geodesic property (with respect to the Hofer metric) of Hamiltonian flows generated by certain autonomous Hamiltonians. Our main technical tool is K-area defined for Hamiltonian fibrations over a surface with boundary in the spirit of L.Polterovich's work on Hamiltonian fibrations over $S^2$.Comment: Corrected final version, accepted for publication in Inventiones Mathematica