Persistent homotopy groups of metric spaces

DOI10.1142/S1793525324500018MaRDI QIDQ6949635zbMATH OpenFDO

Publication date 1 August 2025

Published in Journal of Topology and Analysis (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1142/S1793525324500018

discrete homotopy fundamental groups Gromov-Hausdorff distance homotopy groups persistence quantitative homotopy theory

Global geometric and topological methods (à la Gromov); differential geometric analysis on metric spaces (53C23) Metric spaces, metrizability (54E35) Homotopy groups, general; sets of homotopy classes (55Q05) Homotopy groups of special spaces (55Q52) Fundamental group, presentations, free differential calculus (57M05) Algebraic topology of manifolds (57N65)

Review text

This paper defines notions of persistent homotopy groups for compact metric spaces, that is, for every compact metric space \(X\) and every \(\epsilon>0\) it defines groups \(\Pi_n^\epsilon(X,x_0)\) with morphisms \(\Pi_n^\epsilon(X,x_0)\to \Pi_n^{\epsilon^\prime}(X,x_0)\) for \(\epsilon\le \epsilon^\prime\). (The first section of the paper contains an extensive overview of existing work on persistence for homotopy groups.)\N\NRecall that discrete fundamental groups \(\pi_1^\epsilon(X,x_0)\) have been defined by \textit{C. Plaut} and \textit{J. Wilkins} [Adv. Math. 232, No. 1, 271--294 (2013; Zbl 1260.57039)] using notions of \(\epsilon\)-loops (sequences \(x_0,x_1,\ldots,x_n=x_0\) with \(d(x_i,x_{i+1})\le\epsilon\) for all \(i\)) and \(\epsilon\)-homotopies (sequences of \(\epsilon\)-chains that differ by removal or addition of a point that is not an endpoint) and defining \(\pi_1^\epsilon(X,x_0)\) as the group of \(\epsilon\)-chains modulo \(\epsilon\)-homotopy. For example, the discrete fundamental group \(\pi_1^\epsilon(S^1)\) of the unit circle is \(\mathbb{Z}\) for \(\epsilon < \frac{2\pi}{3}\) and \(0\) for \(\epsilon\ge \frac{2\pi}{3}\). Thinking of the group elements drawn over the interval \((0,\infty)\), one has \(\mathbb{Z}\)-many intervals which meet at \(\epsilon=\frac{2\pi}{3}\) and continue for larger \(\epsilon\) as one interval. This defines a tree-like structure (a dendrogram) on the persistence set \(P\Pi_1(X,x_0)\) formed by all \(\pi_1^\epsilon(X,x_0)\). The authors show that such a tree-like structure always exists if \(X\) is a uniformly locally path connected, semi-locally simply connected, compact geodesic space.\N\NDendrograms over a set correspond to ultra-metrics, which allows to consider the map from \(X\) to its persistent fundamental group as a map from the Gromov-Hausdorff space of metric spaces to itself. The authors show that (under the above conditions for existence of a dendrogram on \(X\) and \(Y\)) the Gromov-Hausdorff distance of the persistent fundamental groups with these ultra-metrics is at most \(2d_{GH}(X,Y)\).\N\NThe authors define another notion of persistent fundamental groups by considering for each \(\epsilon>0\) the geometric realization of the Vietoris-Rips complex for \(\epsilon\) and taking its fundamental group. These persistent fundamental groups turn out to be isomorphic to the ones defined by Plaut and Wilkins.\N\NThe authors define a third notion of persistent fundamental groups via the Kuratowski embedding \(X\to L^\infty(X)\) and taking the fundamental groups of thickenings \(X^\epsilon\) of \(X\) in \(L^\infty(X)\).\N\NBoth, the definition via the Kuratowski embedding and the definition via the Vietoris-Rips complex have an obvious generalization by replacing the fundamental group with higher homotopy groups. This allows the authors to define families of persistent homotopy groups \(P\Pi^K_n\) and \(P\Pi^{VR}_n\). In the case of \(P\Pi^K_n\), the authors obtain that the map \(X\to P\Pi^K_n(X,x_0)\) is \(1\)-Lipschitz for the interleaving distance and they prove a persistent Hurewicz theorem for \(P\Pi_1^K(X,x_0)\to PH_1^K(X)\).\N\NThere are many other results, which we can not all mention in this review.

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