Related papers: Discrete-to-Continuous Extensions: Lov\'asz extens…
In 20th century mathematics, the field of topology, which concerns the properties of geometric objects under continuous transformation, has proved surprisingly useful in application to the study of discrete mathematics, such as…
Both Morse theory and Lusternik-Schnirelmann theory link algebra, topology and analysis in a geometric setting. The two theories can be formulated in finite geometries like graph theory or within finite abstract simplicial complexes. We…
Robin Forman's highly influential 2002 paper A User's Guide to Discrete Morse Theory presents an overview of the subject in a very readable manner. As a proof of concept, the author determines the topology (homotopy type) of the abstract…
In the first half of the paper we construct a Morse-type theory on certain spaces of braid diagrams. We define a topological invariant of closed positive braids which is correlated with the existence of invariant sets of parabolic flows…
We prove an infinite analogue of the main theorem of discrete Morse theory formulated in terms of discrete Morse matchings. Our theorem holds under the assumption that the given Morse matching induces finitely many equivalence classes of…
We generalize Forman's discrete Morse theory to the context of symmetric $\Delta$-complexes. As an application, we prove that the coloop subcomplex of the link of the origin $LA^{\mathrm{trop},\mathrm{P}}_g$ in the moduli space of…
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…
We introduce a theoretical and computational framework to use discrete Morse theory as an efficient preprocessing in order to compute zigzag persistent homology. From a zigzag filtration of complexes $(K_i)$, we introduce a zigzag Morse…
Let $X$ be a normal variety. Assume that for some reduced divisor $D \subset X$, logarithmic 1-forms defined on the snc locus of $(X, D)$ extend to a log resolution $\tilde X \to X$ as logarithmic differential forms. We prove that then the…
The aim of this paper is to develop a refinement of Forman's discrete Morse theory. To an acyclic partial matching $\mu$ on a finite regular CW complex $X$, Forman introduced a discrete analogue of gradient flows. Although Forman's gradient…
We study extensions of direct sums of symmetric operators $S=\oplus_{n\in\mathbb{N}} S_n$. In general there is no natural boundary triplet for $S^*$ even if there is one for every $S_n^*$, $n\in\mathbb{N}$. We consider a subclass of…
Discrete Morse theory, a cell complex-analog to smooth Morse theory, has been developed over the past few decades since its original formulation by Robin Forman in 1998. In particular, discrete gradient vector fields on simplicial complexes…
Given two discrete Morse functions on a simplicial complex, we introduce the {\em connectedness homomorphism} between the corresponding discrete Morse complexes. This concept leads to a novel framework for studying the connectedness in…
We introduce a perfect discrete Morse function on the moduli space of a polygonal linkage. The ingredients of the construction are: (1) the cell structure on the moduli space, and (2) the discrete Morse theory approach, which allows to…
Vector fields and line fields, their counterparts without orientations on tangent lines, are familiar objects in the theory of dynamical systems. Among the techniques used in their study, the Morse--Smale decomposition of a (generic) field…
Chessboard complexes and their generalizations, as objects, and Discrete Morse theory, as a tool, are presented as a unifying theme linking different areas of geometry, topology, algebra and combinatorics. Edmonds and Fulkerson bottleneck…
We introduce a Morse theory for posets of Bestvina-Brady type combining matchings and height functions. This theory generalizes Forman's discrete Morse theory for regular CW-complexes and extends previous results on Morse theory for…
Forman introduced discrete Morse theory as a tool for studying CW complexes by essentially collapsing them onto smaller, simpler-to-understand complexes of critical cells in [Fo]. Chari reformulated discrete Morse theory for regular cell…
We prove a version of the fundamental theorems of Morse Theory in the setting of finite spaces or partially ordered sets. By using these results we extend Forman's discrete Morse theory to more general cell complexes and derive the…
We introduce a refinement of persistent homology that detects simple-homotopy-theoretic phenomena invisible to homology. Given a filtered simplicial complex, we define the Morse complexity profile as the minimal number of critical simplices…