Topology of angle valued maps, bar codes and Jordan blocks (Q1659340)

In a preceding paper [\textit{D. Burghelea} and \textit{T. Dey}, Discrete Comput. Geom. 50, No. 1, 69--98 (2013; Zbl 1275.55009)] the notion of persistence was extended, from the usual situation of real valued filtering functions, to functions with the circle as a range. Given a map \(f:X \to \mathbb{S}^1\), a space and map \(\tilde{f}: \tilde{X}\to \mathbb{R}\) are built as pullback from the usual projection from \(\mathbb{R}\) to \(\mathbb{S}^1\). Persistent homology is then worked out on \(\tilde{f}\). Translations on \(\mathbb{R}\) of integer multiples of \(2\pi\) then produce automorphisms of the homology vector spaces of \(f\)-counterimages. This phenomenon is referred to as \textit{monodromy}. The present paper studies in great detail the interplay between the Jordan blocks of the monodromy, the intervals (``bars'') of the barcodes [\textit{H. Edelsbruner} et al., Discrete Comput. Geom. 28, No. 4, 511--533 (2002; Zbl 1011.68152)] and the homotopy type of \((X, \xi_f)\), where \(\xi_f\) is the cohomology class in \(H^1(X;\mathbb{Z})\) determined by \(f\) via pullback of a generator of \(H^1(\mathbb{S}^1; \mathbb{Z})\). The barcodes relative to pairs of consecutive dimensions \(r-1\) and \(r\) are represented as a configuration \(C_r(f)\) of points in \(\mathbb{C}-\{0\}\) and then by polynomials having those points as roots (a trick used previously in [\textit{M. Ferri} and \textit{C. Landi}, Proc. Math. Meth. in Pattern Recognition 9, Moskow, November 16--19 (1999)] and later in applications [\textit{B. Di Fabio} and \textit{M. Ferri}, Image Analysis and Processing - ICIAP 2015 Part I; LNCS 9279, Springer, 294--305 (2015)]). Several interesting theorems are proved. Particularly nice are the homotopy invariance and topological meaning of some sums of cardinalities (Thm. 1.1). Really striking are the ``Poincaré dualities'' for configurations (Thms. 1.3 and 1.6) and the Morse-like equalities (Thm. 1.7), when dealing with manifolds. Technically, several interesting constructions are introduced. Appendices A and B offer some welcome, well-chosen examples.