Commutative algebra-enhanced topological data analysis (2504.09174v1)

Abstract: Topological Data Analysis (TDA) combines computational topology and data science to extract and analyze intrinsic topological and geometric structures in data set in a metric space. While the persistent homology (PH), a widely used tool in TDA, which tracks the lifespan information of topological features through a filtration process, has shown its effectiveness in applications,it is inherently limited in homotopy invariants and overlooks finer geometric and combinatorial details. To bridge this gap, we introduce two novel commutative algebra-based frameworks which extend beyond homology by incorporating tools from computational commutative algebra : (1) \emph{the persistent ideals} derived from the decomposition of algebraic objects associated to simplicial complexes, like those in theory of edge ideals and Stanley--Reisner ideals, which will provide new commutative algebra-based barcodes and offer a richer characterization of topological and geometric structures in filtrations.(2)\emph{persistent chain complex of free modules} associated with traditional persistent simplicial complex by labelling each chain in the chain complex of the persistent simplicial complex with elements in a commutative ring, which will enable us to detect local information of the topology via some pure algebraic operations. \emph{Crucially, both of the two newly-established framework can recover topological information got from conventional PH and will give us more information.} Therefore, they provide new insights in computational topology, computational algebra and data science.