Complexes of tournaments, directionality filtrations and persistent homology

Complete digraphs are referred to in the combinatorics literature as tournaments. We consider a family of semi-simplicial complexes, that we refer to as “tournaplexes”, whose simplices are tournaments. In particular, given a digraph $${\mathcal {G}}$$ G , we associate with it a “flag tournaplex” which is a tournaplex containing the directed flag complex of $${\mathcal {G}}$$ G , but also the geometric realisation of cliques that are not directed. We define several types of filtrations on tournaplexes, and exploiting persistent homology, we observe that flag tournaplexes provide finer means of distinguishing graph dynamics than the directed flag complex. We then demonstrate the power of these ideas by applying them to graph data arising from the Blue Brain Project’s digital reconstruction of a rat’s neocortex.

Complexes of Tournaments, Directionality Filtrations and Persistent Homology

Complete digraphs are referred to in the combinatorics literature as tournaments. We consider a family of semi-simplicial complexes, that we refer to as ``tournaplexes'', whose simplices are tournaments. In particular, given a digraph G, we associate with it a ``flag tournaplex'' which is a tournaplex containing the directed flag complex of G, but also the geometric realisation of cliques that are not directed. We define several types of filtrations on tournaplexes, and exploiting persistent homology, we observe that flag tournaplexes provide finer means of distinguishing graph dynamics than the directed flag complex. We then demonstrate the power of these ideas by applying them to graph data arising from the Blue Brain Project's digital reconstruction of a rat's neocortex.

Computing Persistent Homology of Directed Flag Complexes

We present a new computing package Flagser, designed to construct the directed flag complex of a finite directed graph, and compute persistent homology for flexibly defined filtrations on the graph and the resulting complex. The persistent homology computation part of Flagser is based on the program Ripser by U. Bauer, but is optimised specifically for large computations. The construction of the directed flag complex is done in a way that allows easy parallelisation by arbitrarily many cores. Flagser also has the option of working with undirected graphs. For homology computations Flagser has an approximate option, which shortens compute time with remarkable accuracy. We demonstrate the power of Flagser by applying it to the construction of the directed flag complex of digital reconstructions of brain microcircuitry by the Blue Brain Project and several other examples. In some instances we perform computation of homology. For a more complete performance analysis, we also apply Flagser to some other data collections. In all cases the hardware used in the computation, the use of memory and the compute time are recorded.

Computing Persistent Homology of Directed Flag Complexes

We present a new computing package Flagser, designed to construct the directed flag complex of a finite directed graph, and compute persistent homology for flexibly defined filtrations on the graph and the resulting complex. The persistent homology computation part of Flagser is based on the program Ripser [2], but is optimised specifically for large computations. The construction of the directed flag complex is done in a way that allows easy parallelisation by arbitrarily many cores. Flagser also has the option of working with undirected graphs. For homology computations Flagser has an Approximate option, which shortens compute time with remarkable accuracy. We demonstrate the power of Flagser by applying it to the construction of the directed flag complex of digital reconstructions of brain microcircuitry by the Blue Brain Project and several other examples. In some instances we perform computation of homology. For a more complete performance analysis, we also apply Flagser to some other data collections. In all cases the hardware used in the computation, the use of memory and the compute time are recorded.

Simplicial Complexes are Game Complexes

Strong placement games (SP-games) are a class of combinatorial games whose structure allows one to describe the game via simplicial complexes. A natural question is whether well-known parameters of combinatorial games, such as "game value", appear as invariants of the simplicial complexes. This paper is the first step in that direction. We show that every simplicial complex encodes a certain type of SP-game (called an "invariant SP-game") whose ruleset is independent of the board it is played on. We also show that in the class of SP-games isomorphic simplicial complexes correspond to isomorphic game trees, and hence equal game values. We also study a subclass of SP-games corresponding to flag complexes, showing that there is always a game whose corresponding complex is a flag complex no matter which board it is played on.

The homotopy theory of polyhedral products associated with flag complexes

If $K$ is a simplicial complex on $m$ vertices, the flagification of $K$ is the minimal flag complex $K^{f}$ on the same vertex set that contains $K$. Letting $L$ be the set of vertices, there is a sequence of simplicial inclusions $L\stackrel{}{\longrightarrow }K\stackrel{}{\longrightarrow }K^{f}$. This induces a sequence of maps of polyhedral products $(\text{}\underline{X},\text{}\underline{A})^{L}\stackrel{g}{\longrightarrow }(\text{}\underline{X},\text{}\underline{A})^{K}\stackrel{f}{\longrightarrow }(\text{}\underline{X},\text{}\underline{A})^{K^{f}}$. We show that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}f$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}f\circ \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}g$ have right homotopy inverses and draw consequences. For a flag complex $K$ the polyhedral product of the form $(\text{}\underline{CY},\text{}\underline{Y})^{K}$ is a co-$H$-space if and only if the 1-skeleton of $K$ is a chordal graph, and we deduce that the maps $f$ and $f\circ g$ have right homotopy inverses in this case.

Undesired Parking Spaces and Contractible Pieces of the Noncrossing Partition Link

There are two natural simplicial complexes associated to the noncrossing partition lattice: the order complex of the full lattice and the order complex of the lattice with its bounding elements removed. The latter is a complex that we call the noncrossing partition link because it is the link of an edge in the former. The first author and his coauthors conjectured that various collections of simplices of the noncrossing partition link (determined by the undesired parking spaces in the corresponding parking functions) form contractible subcomplexes. In this article we prove their conjecture by combining the fact that the star of a simplex in a flag complex is contractible with the second author's theory of noncrossing hypertrees.

Cohen-Macaulay Lexsegment Complexes in Arbitrary Codimension

We characterize pure lexsegment complexes which are Cohen-Macaulay in arbitrary codimension. More precisely, we prove that any lexsegment complex is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if it is pure and its 1-dimensional links are connected, and that a lexsegment flag complex is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if it is pure and connected. We show that any non-Cohen-Macaulay lexsegment complex is a Buchsbaum complex if and only if it is a pure disconnected flag complex. For [Formula: see text], a lexsegment complex is strictly Cohen-Macaulay in codimension t if and only if it is the join of a lexsegment pure disconnected flag complex with a [Formula: see text]-dimensional simplex. When the Stanley-Reisner ideal of a pure lexsegment complex is not quadratic, the complex is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if it is Cohen-Macaulay in some codimension. Our results are based on a characterization of Cohen-Macaulay and Buchsbaum lexsegment complexes by Bonanzinga, Sorrenti and Terai.