Biggs Theorem for Directed Cycles and Topological Invariants of Digraphs

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Michael Hecht - , TUD Dresden University of Technology, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD) (Author)
  • Ivo F. Sbalzarini - , Chair of Scientific Computing for Systems Biology, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD) (Author)

Abstract

We generalize Biggs Theorem to the case of directed cycles of multi-digraphs allowing to compute the dimension of the directed cycle space independently of the graph representation with linear runtime complexity. By considering two-dimensional CW complex of elementary cycles and deriving formulas for the Betti numbers of the associated cellular homology groups, we extend the list of representation independent topological inavariants measuring the graph structure. We prove the computation of the 2nd Betti number to be sharp #P hard in general and present specific representation invariant sub-fillings yielding efficiently computable homology groups. Finally, we suggest how to use the provided structural measures to shed new light on graph theoretical problems as graph embeddings, discrete Morse theory and graph clustering.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)573-594
Number of pages22
Journal Advances in Pure Mathematics : APM
Volume11
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-4414-4340/work/142252177

Keywords

Keywords

  • Biggs Theorem, Elementary and Simple Cycles, CW Complexes of Graphs, Cellular and Singular Homology, Betti Numbers

Library keywords