Discrete stratified Morse theory. Algorithms and a user's guide (Q2136834)

The paper under review develops a stratified version of discrete Morse theory as an analogue of the stratified Morse theory of Goresky and MacPherson. A \textit{stratification} of a simplicial complex \(K\) is a finite collection of disjoint subsets \(\mathcal{S}=\{S_i\}\) called \textit{strata} where each \(|S_i|\) is a locally closed (intersection of an open and closed set) subset of \(|K|\) such that \(K=\bigcup S_i\) and which satisfies the frontier condition: \(|S_i|\cap |\overline{S_j}|\neq \emptyset\) if and only if \(|S_i|\subseteq |\overline{S_j}|\). A \textit{discrete stratified Morse function} is a pair \((f,\mathcal{S})\) where \(f\colon K \to \mathbb{R}\) is a discrete Morse function (in the Forman sense) when restricted to each stratum \(S_i\in \mathcal{S}\). The authors are able to prove a homotopy structure theorem under this setting: \textbf{Theorem} Let \((f,\mathcal{S})\colon K \to \mathbb{R}\) be a discrete stratified Morse function with \(V\) the discrete gradient vector field obtained as the union of the \(V_i\) associated to \(f|_{S_i}\). Then \(K\) has the homotopy type of a CW-complex with one cell for each critical cell of \(V\). One of the main considerations of discrete stratified Morse theory in the paper is to transform any real-valued function on a simplicial complex into a discrete stratified Morse function. This is given in an algorithm and illustrated in several examples. Given any real-valued function on a simplicial complex, one can identify values that are ``violators'' in the sense that the removal of both the values and simplices associated to the values yields a (Forman) discrete Morse function on the remaining object (not necessarily a simplicial complex). In this way, one decomposes the complex into strata where the violators act as critical simplices. Applications and relations to both Whitney stratification and classical stratified Morse theory are given. The authors also show how to generate a discrete stratified Morse function from point data. This algorithm builds off of the algorithm to generate a discrete Morse function from point data due to King, Knudson, and Mramor [\textit{H. King} et al., Exp. Math. 14, No. 4, 435--444 (2005; Zbl 1097.57020)].