Related papers: Combinatorial realization of the Thom-Smale comple…

In bounding the homology of a manifold, Forman's Discrete Morse theory recovers the full precision of classical Morse theory: Given a PL triangulation of a manifold that admits a Morse function with c_i critical points of index i, we show…

We investigate properties of the set of discrete Morse functions on a simplicial complex as defined by Forman. It is not difficult to see that the pairings of discrete Morse functions of a finite simplicial complex again form a simplicial…

Inspired by the works of Forman on discrete Morse theory, which is a combinatorial adaptation to cell complexes of classical Morse theory on manifolds, we introduce a discrete analogue of the stratified Morse theory of Goresky and…

We introduce a version of discrete Morse theory for posets. This theory studies the topology of the order complexes K(X) of h-regular posets X from the critical points of admissible matchings on X. Our approach is related to R. Forman's…

With the smooth action of a connected compact Lie group G, we realize the G-invariant Thom-Smale complex in an analytic way using the G-invariant Witten instanton complex. Both complexes are associated to a specific Morse-Bott function on a…

We develop functoriality for Morse theory, namely, to a pair of Morse-Smale systems and a generic smooth map between the underlying manifolds we associate a chain map between the corresponding Morse complexes, which descends to the correct…

We introduce a notion of Morse shellings (and tilings) on finite simplicial complexes which extends the classical one and its relation to discrete Morse theory.Skeletons and barycentric subdivisions of Morse shellable (or tileable)…

The Discrete Morse Theory of Forman appeared to be useful for providing filtration-preserving reductions of complexes in the study of persistent homology. So far, the algorithms computing discrete Morse matchings have only been used for…

We recently introduced a notion of tilings of geometric realizations of finite relative simplicial complexes and related those tilings to the discrete Morse theory of R. Forman, especially when they have the property of being shellable, a…

The purpose of this work is to develop a version of Forman's discrete Morse theory for simplicial complexes, based on internal strong collapses. Classical discrete Morse theory can be viewed as a generalization of Whitehead's collapses,…

Given a compact smooth manifold $M$ with non-empty boundary and a Morse function, a pseudo-gradient Morse-Smale vector field adapted to the boundary allows one to build a Morse complex whose homology is isomorphic to the (absolute or…

After surveying classical notions of PL topology of the Seventies, we clarify the relation between Morse theory and its discretization by Forman. We show that PL handles theory and discrete Morse theory are equivalent, in the sense that…

We denote the matching complex of the complete graph with $n$ vertices by $M_n$. Bouc first studied the topological properties of $M_n$ in connection with the Quillen complex. Later Bj\"{o}rner, Lov\'{a}sz, Vre\'{c}ica, and…

Discrete Morse theory emerged as an essential tool for computational geometry and topology. Its core structures are discrete gradient fields, defined as acyclic matchings on a complex $C$, from which topological and geometrical informations…

We develop a discrete Morse theory for open simplicial complexes $K=X\setminus T$ where $X$ is a simplicial complex and $T$ a subcomplex of $X$. A discrete Morse function $f$ on $K$ gives rise to a discrete Morse function on the order…

There are two rather distinct approaches to Morse theory nowadays: smooth and discrete. We propose to study a real valued function by assembling all associated sections in a topological category. From this point of view, Reeb functions on…

We construct an equivariant version of discrete Morse theory for simplicial complexes endowed with group actions. The key ingredient is a 2-categorical criterion for making acyclic partial matchings on the quotient space compatible with an…

In 1967, Chillingworth proved that all convex simplicial 3-balls are collapsible. Using the classical notion of tightness, we generalize this to arbitrary manifolds: We show that all tight simplicial 3-manifolds admit some perfect discrete…

We prove that a group $\Gamma$ admits a discrete topological (equivalently, smooth) action on some simply-connected 3-manifold if and only if $\Gamma$ has a Cayley complex embeddable -- with certain natural restrictions -- in one of the…

From the topological viewpoint, Morse shellings of finite simplicial complexes are {\it pinched} handle decompositions and extend the classical shellings. We prove that every discrete Morse function on a finite simplicial complex induces…