Persistent magnitude (Q2200939)

The magnitude \(|X|\) of a metric space \(X\) is a numerical invariant which carries geometric information about the space [\textit{T. Leinster}, Doc. Math. 18, 857--905 (2013; Zbl 1284.51011)]. In the case of finite metric spaces the associated magnitude function \(t \mapsto |tX|\), where \(tX\) denotes \(X\) rescaled by \(t\) such that \(d_{tX}(x,y)=td_X(x,y)\), can be understood to give the ``effective'' number of points at scaling values \(t\), although a full understanding of magnitude is still missing. Magnitude has been extended to a homology theory of a metric space and in particular to persistent homology in the form of blurred magnitude homology. The latter is defined in terms of the blurred magnitude chain complex, a chain complex of persistence modules, whose chain groups at \(k\) and \(l\) are generated by \(k+1\)-tuples of distinct points in the metric space, with the restriction that the length of the tuples does not exceed \(l\). The result of Govc-Hepworth gives the magnitude of \(X\) in terms of the blurred magnitude homology: if the blurred magnitude homology of \(X\) at degree \(k\) has bars \([a_{k,0},b_{k,0}),[a_{k,1},b_{k,1}),\dots\), then the magnitude of \(X\) is given by \[|tX| = \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} \sum_{i=0}^{m_k}(-1)^k (e^{-a_{k,i}t}-e^{-b_{k,i}t})\] for \(t\) sufficiently large. Govc-Hepworth take the previous result as a definition and then define the magnitude of a finitely presented persistence module \(M\), the persistent magnitude, as \[|M| = \sum_{i=i}^{n}(e^{-a_i}-e^{-b_i}),\] and the corresponding magnitude function as \[|tM| = \sum_{i=i}^{n}(e^{-a_i t}-e^{-b_i t}),\] where \(\{[a_i,b_i)\}_{i=1}^n\) is the set of bars of \(M\). The paper establishes properties of persistent magnitude: it is additive with respect to short exact sequences and it respects tensor products of persistence modules. Particularly interesting is that persistent magnitude is established to be the Laplace transform of the derivative of the rank function of the persistence module. This raises interesting questions about further connections in analytical theory of invariants of persistence modules. Govc-Hepworth give a good gallery of example computations of persistent magnitudes, including Rips complexes and different types of graphs considered as metric spaces with the path metric.