Limit theorems for Betti numbers of random simplicial complexes

Matthew Kahle, Elizabeth Meckes

Published 2010-09-21, updated 2011-01-18Version 3

There have been several recent articles studying homology of various types of random simplicial complexes. Several theorems have concerned thresholds for vanishing of homology, and in some cases expectations of the Betti numbers. However little seems known so far about limiting distributions of random Betti numbers. In this article we establish Poisson and normal approximation theorems for Betti numbers of different kinds of random simplicial complex: Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random clique complexes, random Vietoris-Rips complexes, and random \v{C}ech complexes. These results may be of practical interest in topological data analysis.