On the support of Betti tables of multiparameter persistent homology modules

Abstract

Persistent homology encodes the evolution of homological features of a multifiltered cell complex in the form of a multigraded module over a polynomial ring, called a multiparameter persistence module, and quantifies it through invariants suitable for topological data analysis.In this paper, we establish a relation between Betti tables, a standard invariant for multigraded modules commonly used in multiparameter persistence, and the critical cells determined by discrete Morse theory on the filtered cell complex originating the module. In particular, we show that for a discrete gradient vector field consistent with a given multiparameter sublevel set filtration, the grades at which its critical cells appear in the filtration reveal all positions in which the Betti tables are possibly nonzero. This result is refined in the case of bifiltrations by considering homological critical grades of a filtered chain complex instead of entrance grades of critical cells.