C OMPUTATIONAL A LGEBRAIC T OPOLOGY

L ECTURE N OTES

V IDIT N ANDA
with title illustrations by R OBERT G HRIST
 C ONTENTS

Chapter 1. Complexes 3
1 Combinatorics 5
2 Subcomplexes, Closures and Filtrations 6
3 Geometric Realization 7
4 Simplicial Maps 8
5 Barycentric Subdivision 9
6 Filtrations from Data 10
7 Bonus: Local Geometry 13
Chapter 2. Homotopy 16
1 Basic Definitions 18
2 Contractible Spaces 19
3 Carriers 21
4 Fibers 23
5 Nerves 24
6 Elementary Collapses 25
7 Bonus: Simplicial Approximation 27
Chapter 3. Homology 29
1 Euler Characteristic 31
2 Orientations and Boundaries 32
3 Chain Complexes 34
4 Homology 36
5 The Smith Decomposition 38
Chapter 4. Sequences 42
1 Categories 44
2 Chain Maps 45
3 Functoriality 47
4 Chain Homotopy 49
5 The Snake Lemma 50
6 Pairs and Relative Homology 52
7 The Mayer-Vietoris Sequence 54
8 Bonus: Homotopy Invariance 55
Chapter 5. Cohomology 57
1 Cochain Complexes 59
2 Cohomology 60
3 The Cup Product 62
4 The Cap Product 64
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 CONTENTS 2

5 Poincaré Duality 65
6 Bonus: the Künneth Formula 66
Chapter 6. Persistence 69
1 Persistent Homology 71
2 Barcodes 72
3 Algorithm (for Filtrations) 75
4 Interleaving Distance 77
5 The Stability Theorem 79
Chapter 7. Sheaves 83
1 Fibers and Persistence 85
2 Sheaves 86
3 Sheaf Cohomology 87
4 The Étale Space and Sections 89
5 Pushforwards and Pullbacks 91
6 Bonus: Cosheaves 92
Chapter 8. Gradients 95
1 Acyclic Partial Matchings 97
2 The Morse Chain Complex 98
3 The Equivalence 101
4 For Persistence 103
5 For Sheaves 104
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 1. COMPLEXES 4

1. C OMPLEXES