Limit theorems for process-level Betti numbers for sparse, critical, and Poisson regimes

Abstract: The objective of this study is to examine the asymptotic behavior of Betti numbers of \v{C}ech complexes treated as stochastic processes and formed from random points in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$. We consider the case where the points of the \v{C}ech complex are generated by a Poisson process with intensity $nf$ for a probability density $f$. We look at the cases where the behavior of the connectivity radius of \v{C}ech complex causes simplices of dimension greater than $k+1$ to vanish in probability, the so-called sparse and Poisson regimes, as well when the connectivity radius is on the order of $n^{-1/d}$, the critical regime. We establish limit theorems in all of the aforementioned regimes, a central limit theorem for the sparse and critical regimes, and a Poisson limit theorem for the Poisson regime. When the connectivity radius of the \v{C}ech complex is $o(n^{-1/d})$, i.e., the sparse and Poisson regimes, we can decompose the limiting processes into a time-changed Brownian motion and a time-changed homogeneous Poisson process respectively. In the critical regime, the limiting process is a centered Gaussian process but has much more complicated representation, because the \v{C}ech complex becomes highly connected with many topological holes of any dimension.