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