Skip to main content

Questions tagged [computational-topology]

Computational topology is the study of decidability problems in topology and the algorithms that determine decidability. Examples of area of study include Normal Surface theory and the subproblems of unknot and $S^3$ recognition.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
0 votes
0 answers
51 views

Two-parameter “$\varepsilon$-$\delta$ filtration” given a function between metric spaces

Let $X,Y$ be metric space and $f : X \to Y$ a (not necessarily continuous) function. I'm interested in the two-parameter filtration $(X_{\varepsilon, \delta})_{{\varepsilon, \delta} > 0}$ where $X_{...
user1892304's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
65 views

Computational tasks resulting from Chern-Weil theory

I have recently learned Chern-Weil theory for smooth and complex manifolds, as well as surrounding material on cohomology with integral coefficients. I am curious what computational tasks are ...
user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
861 views

What is $\pi_{23}(S^2)$?

The first $22$ homotopy groups of the $2$-sphere were worked out by Toda in 1962, but I cannot find any results extending that to any higher homotopy groups of $S^2$. Are any more of these groups ...
Joe Shipman's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
189 views

Local to global complexity of triangulations

Alright 3rd time's the charm - editing again to put all my cards on the table. Consider a PL $n$-manifold $M$. Define the complexity $c(M)$ of $M$ to be the minimum number of $n$-simplices needed to ...
rab's user avatar
  • 159
4 votes
1 answer
425 views

Upper bounds on the Gromov–Hausdorff distance using persistent homology

In persistent homology theory, stability theorems are important to show that the topological signatures extracted are stable under small changes. A key result is the following bound on the bottleneck ...
Vahid Shams's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
145 views

Hochschild cohomology of path algebra as a cohomology of simplicial complex

M. Gerstenhaber and S. D. Schack have shown that a cohomology of simplicial complex can be expressed as a Hochschild cohomology of path algebra constructed from this complex (link). Is the opposite ...
Alexander's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
104 views

Description of a point cloud being "undersampled" wrt persistent homology, confidence level?

I am completely new to topological data analysis, so I apologise if this is a well-known area of persistent homology, as well as for any imprecise language. Suppose we know completely the topological ...
Jake Lai's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
100 views

KLO for operations over braids

KLO is a program that permits you to the do twistings, band operations over knots or Kirby diagram. However, I couldn't find a function on KLO that permits me to do the same thing over braids. Is ...
Ivan So's user avatar
  • 141
3 votes
1 answer
180 views

Homeomorphic extension of a discrete function

Let $f : \{ 0,1 \} ^ {n} \rightarrow \{ 0,1 \} ^ {n}$ be a bijective map. Then is there a known computable way to extend it to a homeomorphism $g:[ 0,1 ] ^ {n} \rightarrow [ 0,1 ] ^ {n}?$
Guill Guill's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
521 views

Knot Diffie–Hellman

Here's an idea for a knot-based Diffie–Hellman exchange: Public: random (oriented) knot $P$. Private: random (oriented) knots $A$ and $B$. Exchange: Alice sends (randomized or canonical ...
yoyo's user avatar
  • 609
-2 votes
1 answer
244 views

Are there any non-elementary functions that are computable?

Does a function $\mathit{f}:\mathbb{R}→\mathbb{R}$ being non-elementary (not expressible as a combination of finitely many elementary operations), imply that it is not computable? The particular case ...
mishmish's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
54 views

If a set is covered by simplices then can it be covered by "almost disjoint" simplices?

Let $x_1,\dots,x_N$ be points in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$ (positive $d$), $r>0$, and consider set $X\subset\mathbb{R}^d$ defined as the collection of all $x\in \mathbb{R}^d$ of the form $$ x =...
ABIM's user avatar
  • 5,261
14 votes
4 answers
2k views

Is there an algorithm for the genus of a knot?

A Seifert surface of a knot is a surface whose boundary is the knot. The genus of a knot is the minimal genus among all the Seifert surfaces of the knot. My question is, is any algorithm known to ...
Keshav Srinivasan's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
357 views

Are hyperbolic $n$-manifolds recursively enumerable?

Fixing a dimension $n \ge 4$, is the class of closed hyperbolic $n$-manifolds recursively enumerable? Since hyperbolic manifolds are triangulable I can reformulate this in the following more explicit ...
Jean Raimbault's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Deep learning for knot theory. Classification

As far as I know, there is a classification of all prime knots with less than 16 crossings. It seems that there is already a fast enough algorithm to distinguish a knot from an unknot. So in principle ...
GSM's user avatar
  • 193
9 votes
1 answer
729 views

Properties a triangulation must have in order to describe a manifold

I am mainly interested in the $3$-dimensional case. It is a well-known fact, following from the work of E. E. Moise and R. H. Bing in the 1950s, that every $3$-dimensional topological manifold (with ...
G. Blaickner's user avatar
  • 1,299
10 votes
6 answers
1k views

Homology software

What software is there to efficiently compute homology? Specifically: What software can take a simplicial complex (provided by a file listing maximal simplices, for example) and quickly compute its ...
4 votes
0 answers
224 views

What field of mathematics is this? Necessary and sufficient corridors for topological routing

I am a computer scientist working on a problem in electronics design. The overall problem is about how to route traces on a circuit board, and I am looking for help on one of the subproblems. We ...
Patrick Li's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
122 views

Is finding boundary-reducing discs for PL 3-manifolds with boundary pattern computationally efficient?

I am working with manifolds with boundary pattern, as defined by Matveev in his book Algorithmic Topology and Classification of 3-Manifolds. A manifold with boundary pattern is a pair $(M, P)$ where $...
JPQ's user avatar
  • 41
1 vote
0 answers
125 views

(Best) ways to reduce knot complexity?

Lets say I have a diagram of a knot in some notation. What's the fastest algorithm to simplify it? Or asked differently: what algorithms do software usually use? I do not need to put it into the very ...
Jake B.'s user avatar
  • 1,445
8 votes
2 answers
462 views

Quantitative word problem for 3-manifold groups

The word problem for 3-manifold groups is solvable: given a based loop $\gamma$ in $M^3$ there is an algorithm to decide whether $\gamma$ bounds a disk. What kinds of quantitative results are known ...
Ben Cooper's user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is being simply connected very rare?

Essentially, my question is how strong a restriction it is to be simply connected. Here is a way of making this precise: Let's say we want to count simplicial complexes (of dimension 2, though that ...
Karim Adiprasito's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
103 views

Direct representation of simplical complexes in a HoTT implementation

Persistent homology can be used to transform a point-cloud into a simplical complex. Do such simplical complexes have a first-class representation: Conceptually, within HoTT? Concretely, within some ...
NietzscheanAI's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
54 views

Uniform closure of a neighbourhood complex in the tritetragonal tiling

Consider a neighbourhood complex of eight vertices (red) with vertex configuration $(3.4)^3$ which gives rise to the tritetragonal tiling of the hyperbolic plane: Not knowing if this complex can be ...
Hans-Peter Stricker's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
165 views

Looking through a bunch of links for unlinks?

I am looking for a bit of orientation with regards to computational topology resources, as I am personally totally ignorant on the subject. I have lots of different links in $S^3$ (hundreds of ...
user101010's user avatar
  • 5,349
9 votes
1 answer
285 views

Smooth Morse function from Forman's discrete Morse function

Let $M$ be a smooth manifold and $K$ a triangulation of $M$, so $K$ is a regular CW-complex and in particular a simplicial complex. Assume that $M$ is compact so $K$ is finite. Let $f\colon K \to \...
D1811994's user avatar
  • 909
3 votes
0 answers
127 views

Motivation for persistent homology with respect to eigenfunctions of distance kernel operator in a recent preprint

I have a question about a recent preprint https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.02225.pdf by Maria, Oudot, and Solomon. As far as I understand, in Section 8 they prove that persistent homology (persistence ...
Yellow Pig's user avatar
  • 2,744
5 votes
2 answers
353 views

Is there an upper bound on the number of points in point cloud for which we compute the persistent homology?

I am interested in the topic of persistent homology (topological data analysis). According to what I read, there is some roadblock in the analysis of "big data" using persistent homology as it is ...
yoyostein's user avatar
  • 1,219
3 votes
0 answers
172 views

The complexity of cutting hackers in a computer network

Let $l_1,l_2,\dots,l_m$ be parallel lines in the plane, say $l_k=\mathbb R\times\{k\}$. On the $k$th line fix a set $V_k$ consisting of $n_k$ points. Let $(V,E)$ be a directed graph whose set of ...
Lviv Scottish Book's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
176 views

Coarsifying persistence modules

The context Let $I=[0,∞)$ and consider the category of persistence modules $(V,π)$ indexed over $I$ satisfying: For all $t$ in $I$ but a closed discrete set of points $T$, there exists a ...
user148575's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
255 views

Representations of modular lattices, extension to cellular sheaves

There are various "representation theorems" for lattices such as Birkhoff's Representation Theorem that states that every finite distributive lattice is isomorphic to a quasi-sublattice of the lattice ...
Hans's user avatar
  • 137
2 votes
0 answers
189 views

Discrete Morse theory, choice of Morse function, and removing noise

If I have a simplicial complex, and a discrete Morse function defined on the simplices, I can use persistent homology to produce a barcode which helps me distinguish "persistent" shape from noise. To ...
apg's user avatar
  • 640
5 votes
3 answers
515 views

Triangulations of 3-manifolds in Regina and SnapPy

I have been doing some statistical studies on small 3-manifolds, and I note that one can produce larg-ish censuses of triangulations in Regina. Now, the Regina documentation tells us how to convert a ...
Igor Rivin's user avatar
  • 96.1k
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Products, coproducts and equalizers in category of lattices

Background: Let $\mathbf{Lat}$ be the 2-category of lattices which can be viewed as a subcategory of the 2-cateogry of posets $\mathbf{Pos}$, that is, objects in $\mathbf{Pos}$ that have all finite ...
Hans's user avatar
  • 137
12 votes
0 answers
157 views

Known obstruction for efficient computation of Stable homotopy groups?

Computation of stable homotopy groups (for example of sphere) is hard, but still, not as hard as unstable ones. For unstable homotopy groups there are some results showing that there cannot be ...
Simon Henry's user avatar
  • 41.3k
40 votes
5 answers
3k views

Reference on Persistent Homology

I will be teaching a course on algebraic topology for MSc students and this semester, unlike previous ones where I used to begin with the fundamental group, I would like to start with ideas of ...
user51223's user avatar
  • 3,131
2 votes
1 answer
182 views

On the entries of a matrix representation for a boundary operator of a persistence module

In equation 6 of Computing Persistent Homology (page 8), the authors put forward the following identity: $$\deg \hat{e_i}+\deg M_k (i,j)=\deg e_j$$ Where $\hat{e_i}$ and $e_j$ are elements of ...
Eben Kadile's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
654 views

Vietoris-Rips complex homology of a higher degree than the ambient dimension

Assuming we have a set of points $X=\{x_1,..,x_n\}$, all in $\mathbb{R}^d$, and construct the Vietoris-Rips-Complex $V_\epsilon (X)$ for some distance parameter $\epsilon > 0$. Is it possible to ...
Arkadi's user avatar
  • 375
3 votes
1 answer
149 views

An algorithm to tell if two cut systems are handle slide equivalent?

Let $\Sigma$ be a genus $g$ closed orientable surface and let $\alpha = \{ \alpha_1,...,\alpha_g\}$ and $\beta = \{ \beta_1 ,..., \beta_g \}$ be two cut systems (i.e. nonintersecting homologically ...
user101010's user avatar
  • 5,349
35 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why is persistent cohomology so much faster than persistent homology

I refer to this paper: de Silva, Vin; Morozov, Dmitriy; Vejdemo-Johansson, Mikael. Dualities in persistent (co)homology. Inverse Problems 27 (2011), no. 12, 124003, 17 pp. (Journal link, arXiv link). ...
yoyostein's user avatar
  • 1,219
4 votes
1 answer
690 views

Complexity of computing the Vietoris-Rips complex

For me it looks like computing the Vietoris-Rips complex from a data cloud is very similar to the clique problem in graph theory, which it NP-hard. How do the two differ and what is the computational ...
Jake B.'s user avatar
  • 1,445
10 votes
0 answers
264 views

Computing the equivariant cohomology class of a Białynicki-Birula cell

One of my current research interests is Hessenberg varieties. Briefly, if $m_1\le m_2\le \cdots \le m_{n-1}$ is a weakly increasing sequence of positive integers such that $i\le m_i\le n$ for all $i$, ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
  • 81.3k
0 votes
1 answer
335 views

QUBO formulation of a discrete-variable Genetic Algorithm optimization problem

I am facing a non-linear, discrete optimization problem, which I can formulate in this abstract manner: I have a certain non-analytic real-valued function $f$ depending on a set of parameters $ \theta\...
user116768's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
389 views

Clarification of "death event" in persistent homology

Before I ask my question let me clarify some notation: $f^{i,j}_r$, where $i < j$, refers to the inclusion map $f: H_r(X_i) \hookrightarrow H_r(X_j)$. $X_i$ and $X_j$ are subcomplexes of a filtered ...
gf.c's user avatar
  • 35
7 votes
1 answer
224 views

Computing homology of subvarieties of Euclidean spaces by persistent homology

Let $M$ be a submanifold of the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^n$. Let $G$ be a finite group acting on $M$ freely. I want to compute the homology (or even the cohomology ring) of $M/G$. Suppose the ...
Shi Q.'s user avatar
  • 543
29 votes
3 answers
4k views

What part is left unsolved in the Unknotting problem? (after results of Bar-Natan, Khovanov, Kronheimer and Mrowka)

Kronheimer and Mrowka showed that the Khovanov homology detects the unknot. Bar-Natan showed a program to compute the Khovanov homology fast: there was no rigorous complexity analysis of the algorithm,...
Omri's user avatar
  • 393
8 votes
0 answers
371 views

Translation of Haken's paper "Theorie der Normalflächen"

Haken's paper "Theorie der Normalflächen" is one of the formative papers in the development of normal surface theory and provides an algorithm for detecting the unknot. While there are now a variety ...
Neil Hoffman's user avatar
  • 5,259
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Algorithm for computing the Arf invariant of a knot

According to "The knot book", by Colin Adams, two knots are pass equivalent if they are related by a finite sequence of pass-moves. Moreover every knot is pass-equivalent to either the unknot or the ...
Hooman's user avatar
  • 415
11 votes
2 answers
685 views

Software for computing Thurston's unit ball

Is there any software which can be used for computing Thurston's unit ball (for second homology of 3-manifolds) of link complements? In particular can I do that with SnapPy? PS: even a table for ...
Mehdi Yazdi's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the state of the art for algorithmic knot simplification?

Question: Given a `hard' diagram of a knot, with over a hundred crossings, what is the best algorithm and software tool to simplify it? Will it also simplify virtual knot diagrams, tangle diagrams, ...
Daniel Moskovich's user avatar