Estimating the discrete geometric Lusternik-Schnirelmann category (Q519439)

The Lusternik-Schnirelmann category (or just category) of a space is the least nonnegative integer \(n\) such that there is a cover constituted by \(n+1\) open subsets that are contractible within the space. The original motivation of this numerical homotopy invariant is that, for any closed smooth manifold \(M\), its category provides a lower bound of the number of critical points of any smooth map \(f:M\rightarrow \mathbb{R}.\) Unfortunately, the category of a space is very hard to compute, in general. Such a drawback may be weakend by considering other numerical invariants, coming from a different setting, that approximate the category. In this direction there have been several works concerning simplicial (discrete) versions of Lusternik-Schnirelmann category. Among these we can mention the paper by \textit{S. Aaronson} and \textit{N. A. Scoville} [Ill. J. Math. 57, No. 3, 743--753 (2013; Zbl 1302.55004)], where a discrete version of category for simplicial complexes, based on collapsibility of complexes, is studied. The paper under review is a continuation of [loc. cit.]. The authors first introduce the notion of discrete geometric category and check its basic properties. Then, taking into account the Euler characteristic for simplicial complexes, they give a combinatorial lower bound for the discrete geometric category. They also establish an algorithm that gives an explicit cover of collapsible subcomplexes of the simplicial complex, giving this way an upper bound for the discrete geometric category. Using this algorithm, they provide, on the one hand, a theoretical study of graphs (1-dimensional connected simplicial complexes) and, on the other hand, concrete estimations (most of the cases are accurate) of the discrete geometric category of several well-known simplicial complexes. In particular they show that the discrete geometric category of the dunce cap is 2, in contrast with Bing's house whose discrete geometric category is 1.