Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Simplicial map

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In the mathematical discipline of simplicial homology theory, a simplicial map is a map between simplicial complexes with the property that the images of the vertices of a simplex always span a simplex. Note that this implies that vertices have vertices for images.

Simplicial maps are thus determined by their effects on vertices. In particular, there are a finite number of simplicial maps between two given finite simplicial complexes.

Simplicial maps induce continuous maps between the underlying polyhedra of the simplicial complexes: one simply extends linearly using barycentric coordinates.

Simplicial maps which are bijective are called simplicial isomorphisms.

Simplicial approximation

Let f : | K | | L | be a continuous map between the underlying polyhedra of simplicial complexes and let us write st ( v ) for the star of a vertex. A simplicial map f : K L such that f ( st ( v ) ) st ( f ( v ) ) , is called a simplicial approximation to f .

A simplicial approximation is homotopic to the map it approximates.

References

Simplicial map Wikipedia