English

Combinatorial Stokes formulas via minimal resolutions

Combinatorics 2012-12-27 v1 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

We describe an explicit chain map from the standard resolution to the minimal resolution for the finite cyclic group Z_k of order k. We then demonstrate how such a chain map induces a "Z_k-combinatorial Stokes theorem", which in turn implies "Dold's theorem" that there is no equivariant map from an n-connected to an n-dimensional free Z_k-complex. Thus we build a combinatorial access road to problems in combinatorics and discrete geometry that have previously been treated with methods from equivariant topology. The special case k=2 for this is classical; it involves Tucker's (1949) combinatorial lemma which implies the Borsuk-Ulam theorem, its proof via chain complexes by Lefschetz (1949), the combinatorial Stokes formula of Fan (1967), and Meunier's work (2006).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.0050,
  title  = {Combinatorial Stokes formulas via minimal resolutions},
  author = {Bernhard Hanke and Raman Sanyal and Carsten Schultz and Günter M. Ziegler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.0050},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

18 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T09:23:54.464Z