Delta set

Definition and related data

Formally, a Δ-set is a sequence of sets { S n } n = 0 ∞ together with maps

with i = 0,1,...,n + 1 for n ≥ 1 that satisfy

whenever i < j.

This definition generalizes the notion of a simplicial complex, where the S n are the sets of n-simplices, and the d_i are the face maps. It is not as general as a simplicial set, since it lacks "degeneracies."

Given Δ-sets S and T, a map of Δ-sets is a collection

such that

whenever both sides of the equation are defined. With this notion, we can define the category of Δ-sets, whose objects are Δ-sets and whose morphisms are maps of Δ-sets.

Each Δ-set has a corresponding geometric realization, defined as

where we declare that

Here, Δ n denotes the standard n-simplex, and

is the inclusion of the i-th face. The geometric realization is a topological space with the quotient topology.

The geometric realization of a Δ-set S has a natural filtration

where

is a "restricted" geometric realization.

Related functors

The geometric realization of a Δ-set described above defines a covariant functor from the category of Δ-sets to the category of topological spaces. Geometric realization takes a Δ-set to a topological space, and carries maps of Δ-sets to induced continuous maps between geometric realizations (which are topological spaces).

If S is a Δ-set, there is an associated free abelian chain complex, denoted ( Z S , ∂ ) , whose n-th group is the free abelian group

generated by the set S n , and whose n-th differential is defined by

This defines a covariant functor from the category of Δ-sets to the category of chain complexes of abelian groups. A Δ-set is carried to the chain complex just described, and a map of Δ-sets is carried to a map of chain complexes, which is defined by extending the map of Δ-sets in the standard way using the universal property of free abelian groups.

Given any topological space X, one can construct a Δ-set s i n g ( X ) as follows. A singular n-simplex in X is a continuous map

Define

to be the collection of all singular n-simplicies in X, and define

by

where again dⁱ is the i-th face map. One can check that this is in fact a Δ-set. This defines a covariant functor from the category of topological spaces to the category of Δ-sets. A topological space is carried to the Δ-set just described, and a continuous map of spaces is carried to a map of Δ-sets, which is given by composing the map with the singular n-simplices.

An example

This example illustrates the constructions described above. We can create a Δ-set S whose geometric realization is the unit circle S 1 , and use it to compute the homology of this space. Thinking of S 1 as an interval with the endpoints identified, define

with S n = ∅ for all n ≥ 2. The only possible maps d 0 , d 1 : S 1 → S 0 , are

It is simple to check that this is a Δ-set, and that | S | ≅ S 1 . Now, the associated chain complex ( Z S , ∂ ) is

where

In fact, ∂ n = 0 for all n. The homology of this chain complex is also simple to compute:

All other homology groups are clearly trivial.

One advantage of using Δ-sets in this way is that the resulting chain complex is generally much simpler than the singular chain complex. For reasonably simple spaces, all of the groups will be finitely generated, whereas the singular chain groups are, in general, not even countably generated.

One drawback of this method is that one must prove that the geometric realization of the Δ-set is actually homeomorphic to the topological space in question. This can become a computational challenge as the Δ-set increases in complexity.