A combinatorial description of topological complexity for finite spaces (Q1743504)

Let \(P\) be a finite \(T_0\) space. The main goal of the paper under review is to develop and study a version of topological complexity introduced by \textit{M. Farber} for finite spaces \(P\). The author calls this the \textbf{combinatorial complexity}, denoted \(\mathrm{CC}(P)\). This is defined as follows: Let \(J_m\) denote the finite space consisting of \(m+1\) points with ordering given by a ``zigzag'' that is, \[ 0<1>2<\dots>(<)m. \] A \textbf{combinatorial path of \(P\) with length \(m\)} is a continuous map \(\gamma : J_m\to P\). For any \(m\geq 0\), define \(\mathrm{CC}_m(P)\) to be the smallest nonnegative integer \(n\) such that there is an open cover \(\{Q_i\}_{i=1}^n\) of \(P\times P\) with a continuous section \(s_i: Q_i\to P^{J_m}\) of \(q_m: P^{J_m}\to P\times P\) given by \(q_m(\gamma):=(\gamma(0),\gamma(m))\). The \textbf{combinatorial complexity} of \(P\) is then the minimum of \(\mathrm{CC}_m(P)\) over all \(m\). The author is able to show that this value corresponds with the usual notion of topological complexity in the finite space case. Theorem 3.2. For a finite space \(P\), \(\mathrm{TC}(P)=\mathrm{CC}(P)\). There are then several examples given illustrating methods of computing this value for certain finite spaces. The last section is devoted to studying how the combinatorial complexity behaves under barycentric subdivision. Inspired by the recent work of \textit{J. González} [New York J. Math. 24, 279--292 (2018; Zbl 1394.55004)] on simplicial complexity \(\mathrm{SC}(K)\), the author defines \(\mathrm{CC}^k(P)\) to be a certain notion of the combinatorial complexity of \(P\) involving the \(k^{th}\) barycentric subdivision. He is then able to relate his computational complexity to González's simplicial complexity in a very pleasing result. Theorem 4.9. For finite space \(P\), \(\mathrm{SC}(\mathrm{K}(P))=\mathrm{CC}^{\infty}(P)\) where \(\mathcal{K}(P)\) is the order complex of \(P\). Applying a result of González, an immediate corollary is that Corollary 4.10. \(\mathrm{TC}(|\mathrm{K}(P)|)=\mathrm{CC}^{\infty}(P)\) It seems, then, that with the work of both Tanaka and González, there are new avenues which we can explore that might allow us to more easily compute or at least estimate topological complexity.