A central challenge in topological data analysis is the interpretation of barcodes. The classical algebraic-topological approach to interpreting homology classes is to build maps to spaces whose homology carries semantics we understand and then to appeal to functoriality. However, we often lack such maps in real data; instead, we must rely on a cross-dissimilarity measure between our observations of a system and a reference. In this paper, we develop a pair of computational homological algebra approaches for relating persistent homology classes and barcodes: persistent extension, which enumerates potential relations between cycles from two complexes built on the same vertex set, and the method of analogous bars, which utilizes persistent extension and the witness complex built from a cross-dissimilarity measure to provide relations across systems. We provide an implementation of these methods and demonstrate their use in comparing cycles between two samples from the same metric space and determining whether topology is maintained or destroyed under clustering and dimensionality reduction.
Computing persistence over changing filtrations give rise to a stack of 2D persistence diagrams where the birth-death points are connected by the so-called `vines'. We consider computing these vines over changing filtrations for zigzag persistence. We observe that eight atomic operations are sufficient for changing one zigzag filtration to another and provide update algorithms for each of them. Six of these operations that have some analogues to one or multiple transpositions in the non-zigzag case can be executed as efficiently as their non-zigzag counterparts. This approach takes advantage o…
In this note we recall the relations between the barcodes in level and sub-level persistence and make precise their relation with the Morse-Novikov complex of a Morse real- or angle-valued map. The results in this papers are implicit in my previous work(w.collaborators), but apparently not well known even to experts.
We define a simple, explicit map sending a morphism $f:M \rightarrow N$ of pointwise finite dimensional persistence modules to a matching between the barcodes of $M$ and $N$. Our main result is that, in a precise sense, the quality of this matching is tightly controlled by the lengths of the longest intervals in the barcodes of $\ker f$ and $\mathop{\mathrm{coker}} f$. As an immediate corollary, we obtain a new proof of the algebraic stability of persistence, a fundamental result in the theory of persistent homology. In contrast to previous proofs, ours shows explicitly how a $δ$-interleaving …
We present an algorithm for the computation of Vietoris-Rips persistence barcodes and describe its implementation in the software Ripser. The method relies on implicit representations of the coboundary operator and the filtration order of the simplices, avoiding the explicit construction and storage of the filtration coboundary matrix. Moreover, it makes use of apparent pairs, a simple but powerful method for constructing a discrete gradient field from a total order on the simplices of a simplicial complex, which is also of independent interest. Our implementation shows substantial improvement…
The barcode of a persistence module serves as a complete combinatorial invariant of its isomorphism class. Barcodes are typically extracted by performing changes of basis on a persistence module until the constituent matrices have a special form. Here we describe a new algorithm for computing barcodes which also keeps track of, and outputs, such a change of basis. Our main result is an explicit characterisation of the group of transformations that sends one barcode basis to another. Armed with knowledge of the entire space of barcode bases, we are able to show that any map of persistence modul…
We define notions of differentiability for maps from and to the space of persistence barcodes. Inspired by the theory of diffeological spaces, the proposed framework uses lifts to the space of ordered barcodes, from which derivatives can be computed. The two derived notions of differentiability (respectively from and to the space of barcodes) combine together naturally to produce a chain rule that enables the use of gradient descent for objective functions factoring through the space of barcodes. We illustrate the versatility of this framework by showing how it can be used to analyze the smoot…
We obtain restrictions on the persistence barcodes of Laplace-Beltrami eigenfunctions and their linear combinations on compact surfaces with Riemannian metrics. Some applications to uniform approximation by linear combinations of Laplace eigenfunctions are also discussed.
The aim of applied topology is to use and develop topological methods for applied mathematics, science and engineering. One of the main tools is persistent homology, an adaptation of classical homology, which assigns a barcode, i.e. a collection of intervals, to a finite metric space. Because of the nature of the invariant, barcodes are not well-adapted for use by practitioners in machine learning tasks. We can circumvent this problem by assigning numerical quantities to barcodes and these outputs can then be used as input to standard algorithms. It is the purpose of this paper to identify tro…
Multi-parameter persistent homology naturally arises in applications of persistent topology to data that come with extra information depending on additional parameters, like for example time series data. We introduce the concept of a Vietoris-Rips transformation, a method that reduces the computation of the one-parameter persistent homology of pathwise subcomplexes in multi-filtered flag complexes to the computation of the Vietoris-Rips persistent homology of certain semimetric spaces. The corresponding pathwise persistence barcodes track persistence features of the ambient multi-filtered comp…
Persistent homology, a central tool of topological data analysis, provides invariants of data called barcodes (also known as persistence diagrams). A barcode is simply a multiset of real intervals. Recent work of Edelsbrunner, Jablonski, and Mrozek suggests an equivalent description of barcodes as functors R -> Mch, where R is the poset category of real numbers and Mch is the category whose objects are sets and whose morphisms are matchings (i.e., partial injective functions). Such functors form a category Mch^R whose morphisms are the natural transformations. Thus, this interpretation of barc…
A stability theorem for bigraded persistence barcodes
Department of Mathematics, Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, USA;Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences;Department of Mathematics;Mechanics, Moscow State University, Russia;Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia;Department of Mathematics Education, Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea;Statistics, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
This paper is a survey of persistent homology, primarily as it is used in topological data analysis. It includes the theory of persistence modules, as well as stability theorems for persistence barcodes, generalized persistence, vectorization of persistence barcodes, as well as some applications.
We present a row reduction algorithm to compute the barcode decomposition of persistence modules. This algorithm dualises the standard persistence one and clarifies the symmetry between clear and compress optimisations.
It has long been envisioned that the strength of the barcode invariant of filtered cellular complexes could be increased using cohomology operations. Leveraging recent advances in the computation of Steenrod squares, we introduce a new family of computable invariants on mod 2 persistent cohomology termed $Sq^k$-barcodes. We present a complete algorithmic pipeline for their computation and illustrate their real-world applicability using the space of conformations of the cyclo-octane molecule.
In this paper we introduce the problem of counting embedded spheres in R^3 whose projection to the z-axis yields a level set barcode of a particular type. Two embedded spheres are considered height equivalent if they are related by a z-level set preserving isotopy. A formula previously used to count functions on the interval with the same sub-level set persistence barcode provides a lower bound on height equivalence classes with the same level set persistence. A conjectured upper bound is provided as well.
Topological Data Analysis (TDA), a relatively new field of data analysis, has proved very useful in a variety of applications. The main persistence tool from TDA is persistent homology in which data structure is examined at many scales. Representations of persistent homology include persistence barcodes and persistence diagrams, both of which are not straightforward to reconcile with traditional machine learning algorithms as they are sets of intervals or multisets. The problem of faithfully representing barcodes and persistent diagrams has been pursued along two main avenues: kernel methods a…
We present an algorithm for computing the barcode of the image of a morphisms in persistent homology induced by an inclusion of filtered finite-dimensional chain complexes. These algorithms make use of the clearing optimization and can be applied to inclusion-induced maps in persistent absolute homology and persistent relative cohomology for filtrations of pairs of simplicial complexes. They form the basis for our implementation for Vietoris-Rips complexes in the framework of the software Ripser.
We first introduce the notion of meta-rank for a 2-parameter persistence module, an invariant that captures the information behind images of morphisms between 1D slices of the module. We then define the meta-diagram of a 2-parameter persistence module to be the Möbius inversion of the meta-rank, resulting in a function that takes values from signed 1-parameter persistence modules. We show that the meta-rank and meta-diagram contain information equivalent to the rank invariant and the signed barcode. This equivalence leads to computational benefits, as we introduce an algorithm for computing th…
Methods of topological data analysis have been successfully applied in a wide range of fields to provide useful summaries of the structure of complex data sets in terms of topological descriptors, such as persistence diagrams. While there are many powerful techniques for computing topological descriptors, the inverse problem, i.e., recovering the input data from topological descriptors, has proved to be challenging. In this article we study in detail the Topological Morphology Descriptor (TMD), which assigns a persistence diagram to any tree embedded in Euclidean space, and a sort of stochasti…
The geometry of neurons is known to be important for their functions. Hence, neurons are often classified by their morphology. Two recent methods, persistent homology and the topological morphology descriptor, assign a morphology descriptor called a barcode to a neuron equipped with a given function, such as the Euclidean distance from the root of the neuron. These barcodes can be converted into matrices called persistence images, which can then be averaged across groups. We show that when the defining function is the path length from the root, both the topological morphology descriptor and pe…
In this paper we consider measures of similarity between two sets of strings built up using the Hamming distance and tools of persistence homology as a basis. First we describe the construction of the \v Cech filtration adjoined to the set of strings, the persistence module corresponding to this filtration and its barcode structure. Using these means, we introduce a novel similarity measure for two sets of strings, based on a comparison of bars within their barcodes of the same dimension. Our idea is to look for a comparison that will take under consideration not only the overlap of bars, but …
In this paper we provide an explicit connection between level-sets persistence and derived sheaf theory over the real line. In particular we construct a functor from 2-parameter persistence modules to sheaves over $\mathbb{R}$, as well as a functor in the other direction. We also observe that the 2-parameter persistence modules arising from the level sets of Morse functions carry extra structure that we call a Mayer-Vietoris system. We prove classification, barcode decomposition, and stability theorems for these Mayer-Vietoris systems, and we show that the aforementioned functors establish a p…
We consider different notions of equivalence for Morse functions on the sphere in the context of persistent homology, and introduce new invariants to study these equivalence classes. These new invariants are as simple, but more discerning than existing topological invariants, such as persistence barcodes and Reeb graphs. We give a method to relate any two Morse--Smale vector fields on the sphere by a sequence of fundamental moves by considering graph-equivalent Morse functions. We also explore the combinatorially rich world of height-equivalent Morse functions, considered as height functions o…
This paper develops the idea of homology for 1-parameter families of topological spaces. We express parametrized homology as a collection of real intervals with each corresponding to a homological feature supported over that interval or, equivalently, as a persistence diagram. By defining persistence in terms of finite rectangle measures, we classify barcode intervals into four classes. Each of these conveys how the homological features perish at both ends of the interval over which they are defined.
Identifying and representing clusters in time-varying network data is of particular importance when studying collective behaviors emerging in nature, in mobile device networks or in social networks. Based on combinatorial, categorical, and persistence theoretic viewpoints, we establish a stable functorial pipeline for the summarization of the evolution of clusters in a time-varying network. We first construct a complete summary of the evolution of clusters in a given time-varying network over a set of entities $X$ of which takes the form of a formigram. This formigram can be understood as a ce…
This paper investigates the propreties of the persistence diagrams stemming from almost surely continuous random processes on $[0,t]$. We focus our study on two variables which together characterize the barcode : the number of points of the persistence diagram inside a rectangle $]\!-\!\infty,x]\times [x+\varepsilon,\infty[$, $N^{x,x+\varepsilon}$ and the number of bars of length $\geq \varepsilon$, $N^\varepsilon$. For processes with the strong Markov property, we show both of these variables admit a moment generating function and in particular moments of every order. Switching our attention …
The stability theorem for persistent homology is a central result in topological data analysis. While the original formulation of the result concerns the persistence barcodes of $\mathbb{R}$-valued functions, the result was later cast in a more general algebraic form, in the language of \emph{persistence modules} and \emph{interleavings}. In this paper, we establish an analogue of this algebraic stability theorem for zigzag persistence modules. To do so, we functorially extend each zigzag persistence module to a two-dimensional persistence module, and establish an algebraic stability theorem f…
We define persistent homology groups over any set of spaces which have inclusions defined so that the corresponding directed graph between the spaces is acyclic, as well as along any subgraph of this directed graph. This method simultaneously generalizes standard persistent homology, zigzag persistence and multidimensional persistence to arbitrary directed acyclic graphs, and it also allows the study of more general families of topological spaces or point-cloud data. We give an algorithm to compute the persistent homology groups simultaneously for all subgraphs which contain a single source an…
Let $K$ be a finite simplicial, cubical, delta or CW complex. The persistence map $\mathrm{PH}$ takes a filter $f:K \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ as input and returns the barcodes $\mathrm{PH}(f)$ of the associated sublevel set persistent homology modules. We address the inverse problem: given a target barcode $D$, computing the fiber $\mathrm{PH}^{-1}(D)$. For this, we use the fact that $\mathrm{PH}^{-1}(D)$ decomposes as complex of polyhedra when $K$ is a simplicial complex, and we generalise this result to arbitrary based chain complexes. We then design and implement a depth first search algorith…