{
  "id": "1212.5398",
  "version": "v2",
  "published": "2012-12-21T11:15:39.000Z",
  "updated": "2013-11-10T17:13:14.000Z",
  "title": "Sketches of a platypus: persistent homology and its algebraic foundations",
  "authors": [
    "Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson"
  ],
  "comment": "22 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in an upcoming volume of AMS Contemporary Mathematics",
  "categories": [
    "math.AT",
    "cs.CG"
  ],
  "abstract": "The subject of persistent homology has vitalized applications of algebraic topology to point cloud data and to application fields far outside the realm of pure mathematics. The area has seen several fundamentally important results that are rooted in choosing a particular algebraic foundational theory to describe persistent homology, and applying results from that theory to prove useful and important results. In this survey paper, we shall examine the various choices in use, and what they allow us to prove. We shall also discuss the inherent differences between the choices people use, and speculate on potential directions of research to resolve these differences.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v2",
      "updated": "2013-11-10T17:13:14.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "subjects": [
      "55N35",
      "13C60"
    ],
    "keywords": [
      "persistent homology",
      "algebraic foundations",
      "application fields far outside",
      "algebraic foundational theory",
      "point cloud data"
    ],
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 22,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2012arXiv1212.5398V"
    }
  }
}