Field choice problem in persistent homology (Q6050218)

The choice of coefficients in homology is an important consideration when analysing data sets using persistent homology. Often, \(\mathbb{Z}_{2}\) coefficients are used as they have algorithmic advantages. It is not clear what effects this choice of coefficients has on the analysis of data sets. In particular, under which circumstances the persistence diagrams are independent of the choice of coefficients. In this paper, the authors pose 5 questions: 1) are there conditions such that the persistence diagrams are independent of the coefficient field? 2) if such conditions exist, can they be checked algorithmically? 3) should the persistence diagrams for a data set be dependent on the choice of coefficients, how can the diagrams be computed for multiple coefficient fields? 4) with what frequency does the diagram change as we change coefficients? 5) when the persistence diagram does change, how does it change? Questions 1 and 2 are answered completely, while Questions 4 and 5 are partially answered by the authors. They provide an algorithm to check the dependence of the persistence diagrams on the choice of coefficient field.