Title: Discrete Morse Theory and Persistent Homology
Speaker: Kevin Knudson (University of Florida)
Abstract: Forman introduced a combinatorial version of Morse theory that works on regular cell complexes and proved the analogous theorems in this context. Persistent homology is a technique used to identify geometric features in large data sets. This talk will be a reasonably self-contained introduction to both of these theories, and connections between them will be explored.