MerLean-example

10 Def 7: Cell Complex

Definition 81 Cell Complex
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A regular cell complex \(X\) consists of:

  • A family of types \(X_n\) (for each \(n \in \mathbb {Z}\)), whose elements are called \(n\)-cells, each equipped with a Fintype instance and a DecidableEq instance.

  • A boundary map \(\partial \): for each \(n\)-cell \(\sigma \in X_n\), a finite set \(\partial \sigma \subseteq X_{n-1}\) of \((n-1)\)-cells in the boundary of \(\sigma \).

  • The chain complex condition: for every \(n \in \mathbb {Z}\), every \(n\)-cell \(\sigma \in X_n\), and every \((n-2)\)-cell \(\rho \in X_{n-2}\), the cardinality

    \[ \left|\{ \, \tau \in \partial \sigma \mid \rho \in \partial \tau \, \} \right| \]

    is even (i.e., \(\equiv 0 \pmod{2}\)).

Definition 82 Differential Map
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Let \(X\) be a cell complex and let \(C_i(X) = (X_i \to \mathbb {F}_2)\) denote the free \(\mathbb {F}_2\)-vector space on the \(i\)-cells (i.e., functions from \(X_i\) to \(\mathbb {F}_2\)). The differential

\[ \partial _n : C_n(X) \longrightarrow C_{n-1}(X) \]

is the \(\mathbb {F}_2\)-linear map defined for \(f \in C_n(X)\) and \(\tau \in X_{n-1}\) by

\[ \partial _n(f)(\tau ) \; =\; \sum _{\substack {\sigma \in X_n \\ \tau \, \in \, \partial \sigma }} f(\sigma ). \]

Equivalently, on a basis element \(e_\sigma \) (the indicator function of \(\sigma \)), we have \(\partial _n(e_\sigma ) = \sum _{\tau \in \partial \sigma } e_\tau \), extended linearly.

Theorem 83 Chain Complex Condition: \(\partial _{n-1} \circ \partial _n = 0\)

Let \(X\) be a cell complex. For every \(n \in \mathbb {Z}\),

\[ \partial _{n-1} \circ \partial _n = 0 : C_n(X) \longrightarrow C_{n-2}(X). \]
Proof

Let \(f \in C_n(X)\) and \(\rho \in X_{n-2}\) be arbitrary. By extensionality, it suffices to show

\[ (\partial _{n-1} \circ \partial _n)(f)(\rho ) = 0. \]

Simplifying using the definition of \(\partial _{n-1}\), \(\partial _n\), and the zero map, the left-hand side becomes

\[ \sum _{\tau \; \in \; X_{n-1},\; \rho \, \in \, \partial \tau } \left(\sum _{\sigma \; \in \; X_n,\; \tau \, \in \, \partial \sigma } f(\sigma )\right). \]

We rewrite the inner filtered sum using the identity \(\sum _{\sigma \in S,\, P(\sigma )} f(\sigma ) = \sum _{\sigma \in S} \mathbf{1}_{P(\sigma )}\, f(\sigma )\), converting to a sum over all of \(X_n\) with an indicator. Then we swap the order of summation (both index sets are finite), obtaining

\[ \sum _{\sigma \in X_n} \left(\sum _{\tau \; \in \; X_{n-1},\; \rho \, \in \, \partial \tau } \mathbf{1}_{\tau \, \in \, \partial \sigma }\, f(\sigma )\right). \]

It suffices to show each inner summand (over \(\sigma \)) is zero. For fixed \(\sigma \in X_n\), we apply the identity for sums of if-then-else expressions: the sum over \(\tau \) splits as

\[ \sum _{\substack {\tau \in X_{n-1} \\ \rho \, \in \, \partial \tau }} \mathbf{1}_{\tau \, \in \, \partial \sigma }\, f(\sigma ) \; =\; f(\sigma ) \cdot \left|\bigl\{ \, \tau \in X_{n-1} \; \big|\; \rho \in \partial \tau \; \text{ and }\; \tau \in \partial \sigma \, \bigr\} \right|_{\mathbb {F}_2}. \]

Combining the two filter conditions with filter_filter, we identify the counting set as

\[ \bigl\{ \, \tau \in \partial \sigma \; \big|\; \rho \in \partial \tau \, \bigr\} , \]

whose cardinality equals \(\left|\{ \tau \in \partial \sigma \mid \rho \in \partial \tau \} \right|\). By the chain complex condition (bdry_bdry) applied to \(\sigma \) and \(\rho \), this cardinality is even. Since the cardinality of an even set, cast to \(\mathbb {F}_2\), equals \(0\) (by Even.natCast_zmod_two), we have \(f(\sigma ) \cdot 0 = 0\). Hence the entire sum is zero.

Definition 84 Associated Chain Complex \(C(X)\)

Let \(X\) be a cell complex. The associated chain complex \(C(X) = (C_\bullet (X), \partial )\) is the \(\mathbb {F}_2\)-chain complex defined as follows:

  • In degree \(i \in \mathbb {Z}\), the chain module is \(C_i(X) = (X_i \to \mathbb {F}_2)\), the free \(\mathbb {F}_2\)-vector space on the \(i\)-cells.

  • The differential \(d_{i,j} : C_i(X) \to C_j(X)\) is the linear map \(\partial _{j+1}\) when \(j + 1 = i\), and zero otherwise.

The chain complex condition \(d_{j} \circ d_{j+1} = 0\) is verified by composing the differentials and applying differentialMap_comp, after cancelling the coherence isomorphisms (eqToHom) that arise from the ModuleCat packaging.

Definition 85 Cell Homology

Let \(X\) be a cell complex. The homology of \(X\) in degree \(i \in \mathbb {Z}\) is

\[ H_i(X) \; :=\; H_i(C(X)), \]

where \(H_i(C(X))\) is the \(i\)-th homology of the associated chain complex \(C(X)\) (as defined in the chain complex homology construction of Definition 1).