KOR

e-Article

Cycles in graphs and in hypergraphs: towards homology theory
Document Type
Working Paper
Source
Subject
Mathematics - History and Overview
Computer Science - Discrete Mathematics
Mathematics - Algebraic Topology
Mathematics - Combinatorics
05-01, 55-01, 05C38, 05C65, 55R80, 55S15
Language
Russian
Abstract
In this expository paper we present some ideas of algebraic topology (more precisely, of homology theory) in a language accessible to non-specialists in the area. A $1$-cycle in a graph is a set $C$ of edges such that every vertex is contained in an even number of edges from $C$. It is easy to check that the sum (modulo $2$) of $1$-cycles is a $1$-cycle. We start from the following problems: to find $\bullet$ the number of all $1$-cycles in a given graph; $\bullet$ a small number of $1$-cycles in a given graph such that any $1$-cycle is the sum of some of them. We consider generalizations (of these problems) to graphs with symmetry, to $2$-cycles in $2$-dimensional hypergraphs, and to certain configuration spaces of graphs (namely, to the square and the deleted square).
Comment: 34 pages, in Russian language, 13 figures