Intersection homology of regular and cylindrical neighborhoods (Q1779231)

A filtered space is a space \(X\) together with a collection of closed subspaces \[ \emptyset = X^{-1} \subset X^0 \subset \cdots \subset X^{n-1} \subset X^n = X. \] The associated subsets \(X_i = X^i - X^{i-1}\) are called the strata of \(X\). The number \(n\) is called the (stratified) dimension of \(X\) and \(X^k\), the \(k\) skeleton or codimension \(n-k\) skeleton. For a simplicial complex, or a cellular complex, dimension and codimension are geometric and classical, but this framework allows other stratifications. As defined by \textit{M. Goresky} and \textit{R. MacPherson} [Topology 19, 135--165 (1980; Zbl 0448.55004)], a perversity is a sequence of integers \([\bar{p}(0), \bar{p}(1), \bar{p}(2), \ldots]\) such that \(\bar{p}(i) \leq \bar{p}(i+1) \leq \bar{p}(i) + 1\) and such that \(\bar{p}(0) = \bar{p}(1) = \bar{p}(2) = 0\). The (singular) intersection homology of \(X\) with perversity \(\bar{p}\) is the homology of the chain complex \(IC^{\bar{p}}_i(X)\), which is the submodule of singular \(i\)-chains \(\sigma\colon \Delta^i\to X\) on \(X\) with the property that \(\sigma^{-1}(X_{n-k} - X_{n-k-1})\) is contained in the \(i - k + \bar{p}(k)\) skeleton of \(\Delta^i\), and that the boundary of \(\sigma\) is a linear combination of \(i\)-simplices and \(i-1\)-simplices that satisfy this property. The homology of this complex is denoted \(IH^{\bar{p}}_\ast(X)\) and it may not be a topological invariant of \(X\), depending on the filtration. The calculation of intersection homology is limited by the need for good homological machinery for computation. In particular, by carefully defining a stratum-preserving mapping and stratum-preserving homotopy, one can define a stratified fibration to be a mapping satisfying the stratified version of the homotopy lifting property. For such fibrations, the author constructs a Leray-Serre spectral sequence. For this, the right notion of a system of local coefficients is needed, and it is developed in \S2. In the case of \(X\) a weakly stratified space and there is a cylindrical nearly-stratum preserving deformation retract of a pure subset \(K\), the author has a Leray-Serre spectral sequence with \(E^2\)-term given by the homology of \(K\) in a PL stratified system of coefficients determined by the filtration. This generalizes the author's work on the computation of intersection Alexander polynomials for non-locally-flat knots.