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Let $k$ be a field and let $C$ be a small category. A $k$-linear representation of $C$, or a $kC$-module, is a functor from $C$ to the category of finite dimensional vector spaces over $k$. Unsurprisingly, it turns out that when the category $C$ is more general than a linear order, then its representation type is generally infinite and in most cases wild. Hence the task of understanding such representations in terms of their indecomposable factors becomes difficult at best, and impossible in general. This paper offers a new set of ideas designed to enable studying modules locally. Specifically, inspired by work in discrete calculus on graphs, we set the foundations for a calculus type analysis of $kC$-modules, under some restrictions on the category $C$. As a starting point, for a $kC$-module $M$ we define its gradient \emph{gradient} $\nabla[M]$ as a virtual module in the appropriate Grothendieck group. Pushing the analogy with ordinary differential calculus and discrete calculus on graphs, we define left and right divergence via the appropriate left and right Kan extensions and two bilinear pairings on modules and study their properties, specifically with respect to adjointness relations between the gradient and the left and right divergence. The left and right divergence are shown to be rather easily computable in favourable cases. Having set the scene, we concentrate specifically on the case where the category $C$ is a finite poset. Our main result is a necessary and sufficient condition for the gradient of a module $M$ to vanish under certain hypotheses on the poset. We next investigate implications for two modules whose gradients are equal. Finally we consider the resulting left and right Laplacians, namely the compositions of the divergence with the gradient, and study an example of the relationship between the vanishing of the Laplacians and the gradient., Comment: 48 pages, 3 figures

Structural disorder can improve the optical properties of metasurfaces, whether it is emerging from some large-scale fabrication methods, or explicitly designed and built lithographically. Correlated disorder, induced by a minimum inter-nanostructure distance or by hyperuniformity properties, is particularly beneficial in some applications such as light extraction. We introduce numerical descriptors inspired from topology to provide quantitative measures of disorder whose universal properties make them suitable for both uncorrelated and correlated disorder, where statistical descriptors are less accurate. We prove theoretically and experimentally the accuracy of these topological descriptors of disorder by using them to design plasmonic metasurfaces of controlled disorder, that we correlate to the strength of their surface lattice resonances. These tools can be used for the fast and accurate design of disordered metasurfaces, or to help tuning large-scale fabrication methods., Comment: 6 figures

We introduce structural heterogeneity, a new topological characteristic for semi-ordered materials that captures their degree of organisation at a mesoscopic level and tracks their time-evolution, ultimately detecting the order-disorder transition at the microscopic scale. Such quantitative characterisation of a complex, soft matter system has not yet been achieved with any other method. We show that structural heterogeneity can track structural changes in a liquid crystal nanocomposite, reveal the effect of confined geometry on the nematic-isotropic and isotropic-nematic phase transitions, and uncover physical differences between these two processes. The system used in this work is representative of a class of composite nanomaterials, partially ordered and with complex structural and physical behaviour, where their precise characterisation poses significant challenges. Our newly developed analytic framework can provide both a qualitative and a quantitative characterisations of the dynamical behaviour of a wide range of semi-ordered soft matter systems., Comment: 9 figures

Multiparameter persistence is a natural extension of the well-known persistent homology, which has attracted a lot of interest. However, there are major theoretical obstacles preventing the full development of this promising theory. In this paper we consider the interesting special case of multiparameter persistence in zero dimensions which can be regarded as a form of multiparameter clustering. In particular, we consider the multiparameter persistence modules of the zero-dimensional homology of filtered topological spaces when they are finitely generated. Under certain assumptions, we characterize such modules and study their decompositions. In particular we identify a natural class of representations that decompose and can be extended back to form zero-dimensional multiparameter persistence modules. Our study of this set of representations concludes that despite the restrictions, there are still infinitely many classes of indecomposables in this set.

We give a new proof of the Baum--Connes conjecture with coefficients for any second countable, locally compact topological group that acts properly and cocompactly on a finite-dimensional CAT(0)-cubical space with bounded geometry. The proof uses the Julg-Valette complex of a CAT(0)-cubical space introduced by the first three authors, and the direct splitting method in Kasparov theory developed by the last author., Comment: 25 pages

Understanding the geometry and topology of configuration or conformational spaces of molecules has relevant applications in chemistry and biology such as the proteins folding problem, drug design and the structure activity relationship problem. Despite their relevance, configuration spaces of molecules are only partially understood. In this paper we discuss both theoretical and computational approaches to the configuration spaces of molecules and their associated energy landscapes. Our mathematical approach shows that when symmetries of the molecules are taken into account, configuration spaces of molecules give rise to certain principal bundles and orbifolds. We also make use of a variety of geometric and topological tools for data analysis to study the topology and geometry of these spaces., Comment: 32 pages

Mapper is an unsupervised machine learning algorithm generalising the notion of clustering to obtain a geometric description of a dataset. The procedure splits the data into possibly overlapping bins which are then clustered. The output of the algorithm is a graph where nodes represent clusters and edges represent the sharing of data points between two clusters. However, several parameters must be selected before applying Mapper and the resulting graph may vary dramatically with the choice of parameters. We define an intrinsic notion of Mapper instability that measures the variability of the output as a function of the choice of parameters required to construct a Mapper output. Our results and discussion are general and apply to all Mapper-type algorithms. We derive theoretical results that provide estimates for the instability and suggest practical ways to control it. We provide also experiments to illustrate our results and in particular we demonstrate that a reliable candidate Mapper output can be identified as a local minimum of instability regarded as a function of Mapper input parameters.

This paper presents a novel time series clustering method, the self-organising eigenspace map (SOEM), based on a generalisation of the well-known self-organising feature map (SOFM). The SOEM operates on the eigenspaces of the embedded covariance structures of time series which are related directly to modes in those time series. Approximate joint diagonalisation acts as a pseudo-metric across these spaces allowing us to generalise the SOFM to a neural network with matrix input. The technique is empirically validated against three sets of experiments; univariate and multivariate time series clustering, and application to (clustered) multi-variate time series forecasting. Results indicate that the technique performs a valid topologically ordered clustering of the time series. The clustering is superior in comparison to standard benchmarks when the data is non-aligned, gives the best clustering stage for when used in forecasting, and can be used with partial/non-overlapping time series, multivariate clustering and produces a topological representation of the time series objects., Comment: 16 pages-27 figures

We develop a geometric framework that characterizes the synchronization problem --- the problem of consistently registering or aligning a collection of objects. The theory we formulate characterizes the cohomological nature of synchronization based on the classical theory of fibre bundles. We first establish the correspondence between synchronization problems in a topological group $G$ over a connected graph $\Gamma$ and the moduli space of flat principal $G$-bundles over $\Gamma$, and develop a discrete analogy of the renowned theorem of classifying flat principal bundles with fix base and structural group using the representation variety. In particular, we show that prescribing an edge potential on a graph is equivalent to specifying an equivalence class of flat principal bundles, of which the triviality of holonomy dictates the synchronizability of the edge potential. We then develop a twisted cohomology theory for associated vector bundles of the flat principal bundle arising from an edge potential, which is a discrete version of the twisted cohomology in differential geometry. This theory realizes the obstruction to synchronizability as a cohomology group of the twisted de Rham cochain complex. We then build a discrete twisted Hodge theory --- a fibre bundle analog of the discrete Hodge theory on graphs --- which geometrically realizes the graph connection Laplacian as a Hodge Laplacian of degree zero. Motivated by our geometric framework, we study the problem of learning group actions --- partitioning a collection of objects based on the local synchronizability of pairwise correspondence relations. A dual interpretation is to learn finitely generated subgroups of an ambient transformation group from noisy observed group elements. A synchronization-based algorithm is also provided, and we demonstrate its efficacy using simulations and real data., Comment: 43 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Discrete \& Computational Geometry

In the 1980's Pierre Julg and Alain Valette, and also Tadeusz Pytlik and Ryszard Szwarc, constructed and studied a certain Fredholm operator associated to a simplicial tree. The operator can be defined in at least two ways: from a combinatorial flow on the tree, similar to the flows in Forman's discrete Morse theory, or from the theory of unitary operator-valued coccyges. There are applications of the theory surrounding the operator to C*-algebra K-theory, to the theory of completely bounded representations of groups that act on trees, and to the Selberg principle in the representation theory of p-adic groups. The main aim of this paper is to extend the constructions of Julg and Valette, and Pytlik and Szwarc, to CAT(0) cubical spaces. A secondary aim is to illustrate the utility of the extended construction by developing an application to operator K-theory and giving a new proof of K-amenability for groups that act properly on bounded-geometry CAT(0)-cubical spaces.

We give some new characterizations of exactness for locally compact second countable groups. In particular, we prove that a locally compact second countable group is exact if and only if it admits a topologically amenable action on a compact Hausdorff space. This answers an open question by Anantharaman-Delaroche., Comment: 18 pages, to appear in Adv. Math

We study the periodic cyclic homology groups of the cross-product of a finite type algebra $A$ by a discrete group $\Gamma$. In case $A$ is commutative and $\Gamma$ is finite, our results are complete and given in terms of the singular cohomology of the strata of fixed points. These groups identify our cyclic homology groups with the \dlp orbifold cohomology\drp\ of the underlying (algebraic) orbifold. The proof is based on a careful study of localization at fixed points and of the resulting Koszul complexes. We provide examples of Azumaya algebras for which this identification is, however, no longer valid. As an example, we discuss some affine Weyl groups., Comment: Funding information added

Many common diseases have a complex genetic basis in which large numbers of genetic variations combine with environmental and lifestyle factors to determine risk. However, quantifying such polygenic effects and their relationship to disease risk has been challenging. In order to address these difficulties we developed a global measure of the information content of an individual's genome relative to a reference population, which may be used to assess differences in global genome structure between cases and appropriate controls. Informally this measure, which we call relative genome information (RGI), quantifies the relative "disorder" of an individual's genome. In order to test its ability to predict disease risk we used RGI to compare single nucleotide polymorphism genotypes from two independent samples of women with early-onset breast cancer with three independent sets of controls. We found that RGI was significantly elevated in both sets of breast cancer cases in comparison with all three sets of controls, with disease risk rising sharply with RGI (odds ratio greater than 12 for the highest percentile RGI). Furthermore, we found that these differences are not due to associations with common variants at a small number of disease-associated loci, but rather are due to the combined associations of thousands of markers distributed throughout the genome. Our results indicate that the information content of an individual's genome may be used to measure the risk of a complex disease, and suggest that early-onset breast cancer has a strongly polygenic basis.

Using representation theory, we compute the spectrum of the Dirac operator on the universal covering group of $SL_2(\mathbb R)$, exhibiting it as the generator of $KK^1(\mathbb C, \mathfrak A)$, where $\mathfrak A$ is the reduced $C^*$-algebra of the group. This yields a new and direct computation of the $K$-theory of $\mathfrak A$. A fundamental role is played by the limit-of-discrete-series representation, which is the frontier between the discrete and the principal series of the group. We provide a detailed analysis of the localised spectra of the Dirac operator and compute the Dirac cohomology., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures

In an earlier paper, the authors introduced partial translation algebras as a generalisation of group C*-algebras. Here we establish an extension of partial translation algebras, which may be viewed as an excision theorem in this context. We apply this general framework to compute the K-theory of partial translation algebras and group C*-algebras in the context of almost invariant subspaces of discrete groups. This generalises the work of Cuntz, Lance, Pimsner and Voiculescu. In particular we provide a new perspective on Pimsner's calculation of the K-theory for a graph product of groups.

The main results of this paper show that various coarse (`large scale') geometric properties are closely related. In particular, we show that property A implies the operator norm localisation property, and thus that norms of operators associated to a very large class of metric spaces can be effectively estimated. The main tool is a new property called uniform local amenability. This property is easy to negate, which we use to study some `bad' spaces. We also generalise and reprove a theorem of Nowak relating amenability and asymptotic dimension in the quantitative setting.

Generalizing Block and Weinberger's characterization of amenability we introduce the notion of uniformly finite homology for a group action on a compact space and use it to give a homological characterization of topological amenability for actions. By considering the case of the natural action of $G$ on its Stone-\vCech compactification we obtain a homological characterization of exactness of the group, answering a question of Nigel Higson., Comment: Updated to include a discussion of functoriality

We show that topological amenability of an action of a countable discrete group on a compact space is equivalent to the existence of an invariant mean for the action. We prove also that this is equivalent to vanishing of bounded cohomology for a class of Banach G-modules associated to the action, as well as to vanishing of a specific cohomology class. In the case when the compact space is a point our result reduces to a classic theorem of B.E. Johnson characterising amenability of groups. In the case when the compact space is the Stone-\v{C}ech compactification of the group we obtain a cohomological characterisation of exactness for the group, answering a question of Higson.

We give a new perspective on the homological characterisations of amenability given by Johnson in the context of bounded cohomology and by Block and Weinberger in the context of uniformly finite homology. We examine the interaction between their theories and explain the relationship between these characterisations. We apply these ideas to give a new proof of non- vanishing for the bounded cohomology of a free group.

Property A was introduced by Yu as a non-equivariant analogue of amenability. Nigel Higson posed the question of whether there is a homological characterisation of property A. In this paper we answer Higson's question affirmatively by constructing analogues of group cohomology and bounded cohomology for a metric space X, and show that property A is equivalent to vanishing cohomology. Using these cohomology theories we also give a characterisation of property A in terms of the existence of an asymptotically invariant mean on the space.

In arXiv:math/0603621 we introduced the notion of a partial translation $C^*$-algebra for a discrete metric space. Here we demonstrate that several important classical $C^*$-algebras and extensions arise naturally by considering partial translation algebras associated with subspaces of trees., Comment: 13 pages

We present a new categorical classification framework for D-brane charges on noncommutative manifolds using methods of bivariant K-theory. We describe several applications including an explicit formula for D-brane charge in cyclic homology, a refinement of open string T-duality, and a general criterion for cancellation of global worldsheet anomalies., Comment: 13 pages; v2: typos corrected; Based on invited talks given by R.J.S. at the International Conferences ``Noncommutative Spacetime Geometries'', March 26-31, 2007, Alessandria, Italy, and ``Noncommutative Geometry and Physics'', April 23-27, 2007, Orsay, France. To be published in Journal of Physics Conference Series

We describe a categorical framework for the classification of D-branes on noncommutative spaces using techniques from bivariant K-theory of C*-algebras. We present a new description of bivariant K-theory in terms of noncommutative correspondences which is nicely adapted to the study of T-duality in open string theory. We systematically use the diagram calculus for bivariant K-theory as detailed in our previous paper. We explicitly work out our theory for a number of examples of noncommutative manifolds., Comment: 36 pages

We develop some of the ingredients needed for string theory on noncommutative spacetimes, proposing an axiomatic formulation of T-duality as well as establishing a very general formula for D-brane charges. This formula is closely related to a noncommutative Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theorem that is proved here. Our approach relies on a very general form of Poincare duality, which is studied here in detail. Among the technical tools employed are calculations with iterated products in bivariant K-theory and cyclic theory, which are simplified using a novel diagram calculus reminiscent of Feynman diagrams., Comment: 56 pages; v3: final version, to appear in CMP

We define the concept of a partial translation structure T on a metric space X and we show that there is a natural C*-algebra C*(T) associated with it which is a subalgebra of the uniform Roe algebra C*_u(X). We introduce a coarse invariant of the metric which provides an obstruction to embedding the space in a group. When the space is sufficiently group-like, as determined by our invariant, properties of the Roe algebra can be deduced from those of C*(T). We also give a proof of the fact that the uniform Roe algebra of a metric space is a coarse invariant up to Morita equivalence.

In this paper we show that if a discrete group $G$ acts properly isometrically on a discrete space $X$ for which the uniform Roe algebra $C_u^*(X)$ is exact then $G$ is an exact group. As a corollary, we note that if the action is cocompact then the following are equivalent: The space $X$ has Yu's property A; $C^*_u(X)$ is exact; $C_u^*(X)$ is nuclear., Comment: 5 pages

Certain cocycles constructed by Connes are characters of $p$-summable Fredholm modules. In this article, we establish some consequences of the universal properties which these characters enjoy. Our main technical result is that the entire cyclic cohomology of the p-th Schatten ideal L^p (respectively, homology) is independent of p and isomorphic to the entire cyclic cohomology (respectively, homology) of the ideal of trace class operators L^1., Comment: 17 pages, revised introduction and last section

Let Gamma be a discrete group satisfying the rapid decay property with respect to a length function which is conditionally negative. Then the reduced C*-algebra of Gamma has the metric approximation property. The central point of our proof is an observation that the proof of the same property for free groups due to Haagerup transfers directly to this more general situation. Examples of groups satisfying the hypotheses include free groups, surface groups, finitely generated Coxeter groups, right angled Artin groups and many small cancellation groups., Comment: A minor revision with a definition added

We describe a geometric counterpart of the Baum-Connes map for the p-adic group GL(n)., Comment: 18 pages

Let A(n) be the smooth dual of the p-adic group G=GL(n). We create on A(n) the structure of a complex algebraic variety. There is a morphism of A(n) onto the Bernstein variety Omega G which is injective on each component of A(n). The tempered dual of G is a deformation retract of A(n). The periodic cyclic homology of the Hecke algebra of G is isomorphic to the periodised de Rham cohomology supported on finitely many components of A(n)., Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX

We construct a Chern character map from the K-theory of the reduced C^* algebra of the p-adic GL(n) with values in the periodic cyclic homology of the Schwartz algebra of this group. We prove that this map is an isomorphism after tensoring with C by comparing an explicit formula, stated in the algebraic case by Cuntz and Quillen, with the classical Chern character. This Chern character is a crucial ingredient in the proof of the Baum-Connes conjecture for the p-adic GL(n) due to Baum, Higson and Plymen.

Relying of properties of the inductive tensor product, we construct cyclic type homology theories for certain nuclear algebras. In this context we establish continuity theorems. We compute the periodic cyclic homology of the Schwartz algebra of p-adic GL(n) in terms of compactly supported de Rham cohomology of the tempered dual of GL(n)., Comment: 7 pages

We study the projective linear group PGL_2(A), associated with an arbitrary algebra A, and its subgroups from the point of view of their action on the space of involutions in A. This action formally resembles Moebius transformations known from complex geometry. By specifying A to be an algebra of bounded operators in a Hilbert space H, we rediscover the Moebius group defined by Connes and study its action on the space of Fredholm modules over the algebra A. There is an induced action on the K-homology of A, which turns out to be trivial. Moreover, this action leads naturally to a simpler object, the polarized module underlying a given Fredholm module, and we discuss this relation in detail. Any polarized module can be lifted to a Fredholm module, and the set of different lifts forms a category, whose morphisms are given by generalized Moebius tranformations. We present an example of a polarized module canonically associated with the differentiable structure of a smooth manifold V. Using our lifting procedure we obtain a class of Fredholm modules characterizing the conformal structures on V. Fredholm modules obtained in this way are a special case of those constructed by Connes, Sullivan and Teleman., Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX

These lecture notes contain an exposition of basic ideas of K-theory and cyclic cohomology. I begin with a list of examples of various situations in which the K-functor of Grothendieck appears naturally, including the rudiments of the topological and algebraic K-theory, K-theory of C^*-algebras, and K-homology. I then discuss elementary properties of cyclic cohomology using the Cuntz-Quillen version of the calculus of noncommutative differential forms on an algebra. As an example of the relation between the two theories we describe the Chern homomorphism and various index-theorem type statements. The remainder of the notes contains some more detailed calculations in cyclic and reduced cyclic cohomology. A key tool in this part is Goodwillie's theorem on the cyclic complex of a semi-direct product algebra. The final chapter gives an exposition of the entire cyclic cohomology of Banach algebras from the point of view of supertraces on the Cuntz algebra. The results discussed here include the simplicial normalization of the entire cyclic cohomology, homotopy invariance and the action of derivations., Comment: 113 pages, LaTeX