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Geometric Structures on the Cochains of a Manifold

Geometric Topology 2022-02-01 v5 Mathematical Physics Algebraic Topology math.MP

Abstract

In this paper we develop several algebraic structures on the simplicial cochains of a triangulated manifold that are analogues of objects in differential geometry. We study a cochain product and prove several statements about its convergence to the wedge product on differential forms. Also, for cochains with an inner product, we define a combinatorial Hodge star operator, and describe some applications, including a combinatorial period matrix for surfaces. We show that for a particularly nice cochain inner product, these combinatorial structures converge to their continuum analogues as the mesh of a triangulation tends to zero.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0505227,
  title  = {Geometric Structures on the Cochains of a Manifold},
  author = {Scott O. Wilson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0505227},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

37 pages. Corrected typos. Labeled figures. Additional references and acknowledgements

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:19:16.121Z