Bifiltrations and persistence paths for 2-Morse functions (Q6188355)

The topic of this article is 2-parameter persistence of bilfiltrations of manifolds \(M\) induced by 2-Morse functions \(f: M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^2\). The authors make use of the good behavior of bifiltrations induced by 2-Morse functions to describe changes of the homotopy type at different filtration levels by cellular attachments. This allows for a computation of combinatorial multiparameter descriptors associated to persistence paths of such bifiltrations. In Section 2, the authors give a detailed description with instructive examples of critical and singular points and values of 2-Morse functions and their relationship. The authors provide a distinction into different types of singular points and values, and relate them to cell attachments that describe changes in homotopy type along the bifiltration. In Section 3, the authors use the cell attachments obtained in the previous section to present combinatorial descriptors of the persistent homotopy type associated with the bifiltrations under investigation. To do so, they establish Morse-Conley equations, a notion of Euler characteristics, strong Morse inequalities, and a notion of barcodes associated to persistence paths. In the last section, the authors elaborate on possible further directions for this theory.