On merge trees and discrete Morse functions on paths and trees

DOI10.1007/S41468-022-00101-WMaRDI QIDQ6102906zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Julian Brüggemann

Publication date 23 June 2023

Published in Journal of Applied and Computational Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.01311

zbMATH Keywords

combinatorial algebraic topologydiscrete Morse theorymerge trees

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Trees (05C05) Applications of graph theory (05C90) Discrete Morse theory and related ideas in manifold topology (57Q70)

Abstract: In this work we answer an open question asked by Johnson--Scoville. We show that each merge tree is represented by a discrete Morse function on a path. Furthermore, we present explicit constructions for two different but related kinds of discrete Morse functions on paths that induce any given merge tree. A refinement of the used methods allows us to define notions of equivalence of discrete Morse functions on trees which give rise to a bijection between equivalence classes of discrete Morse functions and isomorphism classes of certain labeled merge trees. We also compare our results to similar ones from the literature, in particular to work by Curry.

Review text

The paper provides an extensive and detailed analysis of the properties of merge trees. It predominantly focuses on cases where the analyzed space is a topological tree. The author explores different equivalence relations between discrete Morse functions (dMf) and merge trees, presenting their properties. The paper shows that every merge tree finds its realization in a certain dMf on a space that is a topological interval. While the work can be technical and tedious in places (due to the nature of the topic, not the writing), it serves as an great reference for further studies on merge trees.

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Cites work

• Computing contour trees in all dimensions
• Discrete Morse theory and classifying spaces
• Merge trees in discrete Morse theory
• Morse theory for cell complexes
• The fiber of the persistence map for functions on the interval

Cited in

(2)

• Merge trees in discrete Morse theory
• Complete, compact and topological trees of shapes

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