arXiv subjects

Helene Barcelo

Publications and source records attributed to Helene Barcelo.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

On the vanishing of discrete singular cubical homology for graphs

We prove that if G is a graph without 3-cycles and 4-cycles, then the discrete cubical homology of G is trivial in dimension d, for all d\ge 2. We also construct a sequence { G_d } of graphs such that this homology is non-trivial in dimension d for d\ge 1. Finally, we show that the discrete cubical homology induced by certain coverings of G equals the ordinary singular homology of a 2-dimensional cell complex built from G, although in general it differs from the discrete cubical homology of the graph as a whole.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Homology groups of cubical sets with connections

Toward defining commutative cubes in all dimensions, Brown and Spencer introduced the notion of "connection" as a new kind of degeneracy. In this paper, for a cubical set with connections, we show that the connections generate an acyclic subcomplex of the chain complex of the cubical set. In particular, our results show that the homology groups of a cubical set with connections are independent of whether we normalize by the connections or we do not, that is, connections do not contribute to any nontrivial cycle in the homology groups of the cubical set.

math.AT↗

arXiv2018

Discrete Cubical and Path Homologies of Graphs

In this paper we study and compare two homology theories for (simple and undirected) graphs. The first, which was developed by Barcelo, Caprano, and White, is based on graph maps from hypercubes to the graph. The second theory was developed by Grigor'yan, Lin, Muranov, and Yau, and is based on paths in the graph. Results in both settings imply that the respective homology groups are isomorphic in homological dimension one. We show that, for several infinite classes of graphs, the two theories lead to isomorphic homology groups in all dimensions. However, we provide an example for which the homology groups of the two theories are not isomorphic at least in dimensions two and three. We establish a natural map from the cubical to the path homology groups which is an isomorphism in dimension one and surjective in dimension two. Again our example shows that in general the map is not surjective in dimension three and not injective in dimension two. In the process we develop tools to compute the homology groups for both theories in all dimensions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

Group size effect on cooperation in social dilemmas

Social dilemmas are central to human society. Depletion of natural resources, climate protection, security of energy supply, and workplace collaborations are all examples of social dilemmas. Since cooperative behaviour in a social dilemma is individually costly, Nash equilibrium predicts that humans should not cooperate. Yet experimental studies show that people do cooperate even in anonymous one-shot interactions. In spite of the large number of participants in many modern social dilemmas, little is known about the effect of group size on cooperation. Does larger group size favour or prevent cooperation? We address this problem both experimentally and theoretically. Experimentally, we find that there is no general answer: it depends on the strategic situation. Specifically, we find that larger groups are more cooperative in the Public Goods game, but less cooperative in the N-person Prisoner's dilemma. Theoretically, we show that this behaviour is not consistent with either the Fehr & Schmidt model or (a one-parameter version of) the Charness & Rabin model, but it is consistent with the cooperative equilibrium model introduced by the second author.

cs.GT↗

arXiv2013

Discrete Homology Theory for Metric Spaces

In this paper we define and study a notion of discrete homology theory for metric spaces. Instead of working with simplicial homology, our chain complexes are given by Lipschitz maps from an $n$-dimensional cube to a fixed metric space. We prove that the resulting homology theory verifies a discrete analogue of the Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms, and prove a discrete analogue of the Mayer-Vietoris exact sequence. Moreover, this discrete homology theory is related to the discrete homotopy theory of a metric space through a discrete analogue of the Hurewicz theorem. We study the class of groups that can arise as discrete homology groups and, in this setting, we prove that the fundamental group of a smooth, connected, metrizable, compact manifold is isomorphic to the discrete fundamental group of a `fine enough' rectangulation of the manifold. Finally, we show that this discrete homology theory can be coarsened, leading to a new non-trivial coarse invariant of a metric space.

math.MG↗

arXiv2008

Bimahonian distributions

Motivated by permutation statistics, we define for any complex reflection group W a family of bivariate generating functions. They are defined either in terms of Hilbert series for W-invariant polynomials when W acts diagonally on two sets of variables, or equivalently, as sums involving the fake degrees of irreducible representations for W. It is also shown that they satisfy a ``bicyclic sieving phenomenon'', which combinatorially interprets their values when the two variables are set equal to certain roots of unity.

math.CO↗

arXiv2005

Counting permutations by congruence class of major index

Consider S_n, the symmetric group on n letters, and let maj pi denote the major index of a permutation pi in S_n. Given positive integers k,l and nonnegative integers i,j, define m_n^{k,l}(i,j) := number of pi in S_n such that maj pi = i (mod k) and maj pi^{-1} = j (mod l). We prove bijectively that if k,l are relatively prime and at most n then m_n^{k,l}(i,j) = n!/(kl) which, surprisingly, does not depend on i and j. Equivalently, if m_n^{k,l}(i,j) is interpreted as the (i,j)-entry of a matrix m_n^{k,l}, then this is a constant matrix under the stated conditions. This bijection is extended to show the more general result that for d at least 1 and k,l relatively prime, the matrix m_n^{kd,ld} admits a block decompostion where each block is the matrix m_n^{d,d}/(kl). We also give an explicit formula for m_n^{n,n} and show that if p is prime then m_{np}^{p,p} has a simple block decomposition. To prove these results, we use the representation theory of the symmetric group and certain restricted shuffles.

math.CO↗

arXiv2001

On counting permutations by pairs of congruence classes of major index

For a fixed positive integer n, let S_n denote the symmetric group of n! permutations on n symbols, and let maj(sigma) denote the major index of a permutation sigma. For positive integers k<m not greater than n and non-negative integers i and j, we give enumerative formulas for the cardinality of the set of permutations sigma in S_n with maj(sigma) congruent to i mod k and maj(sigma^(-1)) congruent to j mod m. When m divides n-1 and k divides n, we show that for all i,j, this cardinality equals (n!)/(km).

math.CO↗