Combinatorial cell complexes and Poincaré duality (Q5961903)

The author introduces a class of finite topological spaces (finite posets) called \textit{combinatorial cell complexes} (c.c.c). This class contains the face posets of finite simplicial complexes. An analogue of manifolds and a notion of orientability are presented in this setting. Two graded abelian groups \(H_*(X)\) and \(H^*(X)\) are defined for some c.c.c and it is proved that under certain conditions a version of Poincaré duality holds in this context. The proof uses the invariance of \(H_*\) and \(H^*\) under barycentric subdivision. This is proved, in turn, by studying a notion of stellar subdivision for posets. When \(K\) is a simplicial complex and \(\mathcal{X}(K)\) is its face poset, the groups \(H_i(\mathcal{X}(K))\) and \(H^i(\mathcal{X}(K))\) coincide with the homology and cohomology groups of \(K\). Moreover, from the invariance of \(H_*\) and \(H^*\) under barycentric subdivision, and the fact that a finite space and its barycentric subdivision are weakly homotopy equivalent (see \textit{M. C. McCord}, [Duke Math. J. 33, 465--474 (1966; Zbl 0142.21503)]), it can be deduced that these groups coincide with singular homology and cohomology also in the case of c.c.c in the hypothesis of Proposition 8.5. Therefore the Poincaré duality Theorem 9.2 deals in fact with usual homology and cohomology.