Determining homology of an unknown space from a sample (Q6055051)

For subspaces \(X,Y\) of a metric space, a finite subset \(\sigma\subseteq X\) is a simplex in the generalized Čech complex \({\mathcal C}_Y(X,\alpha)\) if there exists a point \(y\in Y\) such that the intersection of open balls of radius \(\alpha\), centered at the points of \(\sigma\), contains \(y\). Now let \(A\) be a subset of \(X\), and \(X\) is assumed to have positive reach in the sense of \textit{H. Federer} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 93, 418--491 (1959; Zbl 0089.38402)]. The authors of the article show that if the directed Hausdorff distance between \(A\) and \(X\) is sufficiently small, then for certain values of \(\alpha\) and \(\epsilon\), the \(k\)-th homology group \(H_k(X)\) is isomorphic to the image of the map \(H_k({\mathcal C}_A(A,\alpha))\rightarrow H_k({\mathcal C}_A(A,\alpha+\epsilon))\) induced by inclusion. In particular, the homology of \(X\) can be computed solely using a collection of sample points from \(X\).