The Representation Theorem of Persistent Homology Revisited and Generalized

Abstract: The Representation Theorem by Zomorodian and Carlsson has been the starting point of the study of persistent homology under the lens of algebraic representation theory. In this work, we give a more accurate statement of the original theorem and provide a complete and self-contained proof. Furthermore, we generalize the statement from the case of linear sequences of $R$-modules to $R$-modules indexed over more general monoids. This generalization subsumes the Representation Theorem of multidimensional persistence as a special case.