Generalized persistence diagrams (Q1616396)

Persistence diagrams were introduced by \textit{D. Cohen-Steiner} et al. [Discrete Comput. Geom. 37, No. 1, 103--120 (2007; Zbl 1117.54027)]. In the paper under review, they are generalized to persistence modules with values in a suitable symmetric monoidal category. For example, a Morse function on a compact manifold \(M\) gives a filtering of \(M\), so that \(k\)-linear homology leads to a functor \(F:\mathbb R\rightarrow\mathrm{mod}(k)\) from the poset of reals to the category of finite dimensional \(k\)-vector spaces. For other types of homology, the category \(\mathrm{mod}(k)\) has to be replaced by another symmetric monoidal category. Such a functor \(F\) is called a persistence module. It is ``constructible'' in the sense that \(\mathbb R\) splits into finitely many intervals where \(F\) is constant. The local behaviour of the Morse function induces a metric among the persistence modules, the interleaving distance. Following Cohen-Steiner et al. [loc. cit.], persistence diagrams are associated to a persistence module. The author considers two types of them, depending on the chosen type of homology. Stability issues of these diagrams are discussed in the paper.