Nerve complexes of circular arcs

We show that the nerve complex of n arcs in the circle is homotopy equivalent to either a point, an odd-dimensional sphere, or a wedge sum of spheres of the same even dimension. Moreover this homotopy type can be computed in time O(n log n). For the particular case of the nerve complex of evenly-spaced arcs of the same length, we determine the dihedral group action on homology, and we relate the complex to a cyclic polytope with n vertices. We give three applications of our knowledge of the homotopy types of nerve complexes of circular arcs. First, we use the connection to cyclic polytopes to give a novel topological proof of a known upper bound on the distance between successive roots of a homogeneous trigonometric polynomial. Second, we show that the Lovasz bound on the chromatic number of a circular complete graph is either sharp or off by one. Third, we show that the Vietoris--Rips simplicial complex of n points in the circle is homotopy equivalent to either a point, an odd-dimensional sphere, or a wedge sum of spheres of the same even dimension, and furthermore this homotopy type can be computed in time O(n log n)

Vietoris-Rips and Cech Complexes of Metric Gluings

We study Vietoris-Rips and Cech complexes of metric wedge sums and metric gluings. We show that the Vietoris-Rips (resp. Cech) complex of a wedge sum, equipped with a natural metric, is homotopy equivalent to the wedge sum of the Vietoris-Rips (resp. Cech) complexes. We also provide generalizations for certain metric gluings, i.e. when two metric spaces are glued together along a common isometric subset. As our main example, we deduce the homotopy type of the Vietoris-Rips complex of two metric graphs glued together along a sufficiently short path. As a result, we can describe the persistent homology, in all homological dimensions, of the Vietoris-Rips complexes of a wide class of metric graphs

Strong collapsibility of the arc complexes of orientable and non-orientable crowns

We prove that the arc complex of a polygon with a marked point in its interior is a strongly collapsible combinatorial ball. We also show that the arc complex of a M\"{o}bius strip, with finitely many marked points on its boundary, is a simplicially collapsible combinatorial ball but is not strongly collapsible

The Vietoris-Rips complexes of a circle

Given a metric space X and a distance threshold r>0, the Vietoris-Rips simplicial complex has as its simplices the finite subsets of X of diameter less than r. A theorem of Jean-Claude Hausmann states that if X is a Riemannian manifold and r is sufficiently small, then the Vietoris-Rips complex is homotopy equivalent to the original manifold. Little is known about the behavior of Vietoris-Rips complexes for larger values of r, even though these complexes arise naturally in applications using persistent homology. We show that as r increases, the Vietoris-Rips complex of the circle obtains the homotopy types of the circle, the 3-sphere, the 5-sphere, the 7-sphere, ..., until finally it is contractible. As our main tool we introduce a directed graph invariant, the winding fraction, which in some sense is dual to the circular chromatic number. Using the winding fraction we classify the homotopy types of the Vietoris-Rips complex of an arbitrary (possibly infinite) subset of the circle, and we study the expected homotopy type of the Vietoris-Rips complex of a uniformly random sample from the circle. Moreover, we show that as the distance parameter increases, the ambient Cech complex of the circle also obtains the homotopy types of the circle, the 3-sphere, the 5-sphere, the 7-sphere, ..., until finally it is contractible.Comment: Final versio

Triangulations

The earliest work in topology was often based on explicit combinatorial models – usually triangulations – for the spaces being studied. Although algebraic methods in topology gradually replaced combinatorial ones in the mid-1900s, the emergence of computers later revitalized the study of triangulations. By now there are several distinct mathematical communities actively doing work on different aspects of triangulations. The goal of this workshop was to bring the researchers from these various communities together to stimulate interaction and to benefit from the exchange of ideas and methods

LC reductions yield isomorphic simplicial complexes

We say that a vertex $v$ of a finite simplicial complex $K4 is LC-removable if the link of$v$is a cone, and that$K$is LC-irreducible if it has no LC-removable vertices. Answering a question of Civan and Yal\,cın [J. Comb. Theory Ser. A(2007), doi:10.1016/j.jcta.2007.02.001], we prove that all LC-irreducible simplicial complexes that can be obtained from a given$K$ by repeatedly deleting LC-removable vertices (plus all simplices containing them) are isomorphic

LC reductions yield isomorphic simplicial complexes

We say that a vertex $v$ of a finite simplicial complex $K4 is LC-removable if the link of$v$is a cone, and that$K$is LC-irreducible if it has no LC-removable vertices. Answering a question of Civan and Yal\,cın [J. Comb. Theory Ser. A(2007), doi:10.1016/j.jcta.2007.02.001], we prove that all LC-irreducible simplicial complexes that can be obtained from a given$K$ by repeatedly deleting LC-removable vertices (plus all simplices containing them) are isomorphic