The observable structure of persistence modules (Q505361)

Two related problems with q-tame persistence modules [\textit{F. Chazal} et al., The structure and stability of persistence modules. Cham: Springer (2016; Zbl 1362.55002)] indexed over the reals, are that persistence diagrams (or barcodes) do not characterize them and that not every q-tame persistence module is decomposable into interval modules. Roughly said, the trouble resides in the existence of \textit{ephemeral} features, represented by persistence diagram points sitting on the diagonal. The authors perform the trick of quotienting troubles away in a very elegant way (a Serre localization), by defining an \textit{observable} category \textbf{Obs}, in which a morphism between persistence modules is the collection of usual persistence morphisms, which commute with the structure maps of the objects. Using results of \textit{W. Crawley-Boevey} [J. Algebra Appl. 14, No. 5, Article ID 1550066, 8 p. (2015; Zbl 1345.16015)], an important part of the paper is dedicated to the decomposition of q-tame persistence modules in the very general setting of modules indexed over a total order. Quoting the authors, since in \textbf{Obs} there are more morphisms than in \textbf{Pers}, there are fewer isomorphisms invariants. A list of which survive and which not is given. A keystone of the paper is that the interleaving distance [\textit{M. Lesnick}, Found. Comput. Math. 15, No. 3, 613--650 (2015; Zbl 1335.55006)] and the undecorated persistence diagrams are observable, i.e. invariant under obs-isomorphisms. Moreover (Thm. 4.5) two q-tame persistence modules over the real line are obs-isomorphic if and only if their interleaving distance vanishes if and only if their undecorated persistence diagrams are equal.