Multipath cohomology of directed graphs

Abstract

This work is part of a series of papers focusing on multipath cohomology of directed graphs. Multipath cohomology is defined as the (poset) homology of the path poset -- i.e., the poset of disjoint simple paths in a graph -- with respect to a certain functor. This construction is essentially equivalent, albeit more computable, to taking the higher limits of said functor on (a certain modification of) the path poset. We investigate the functorial properties of multipath cohomology. We provide a number of sample computations, show that the multipath cohomology does not vanish on trees, and that, when evaluated at the coherently oriented polygon, it recovers Hochschild homology. Finally, we use the same techniques employed to study the functoriality to investigate the connection with the chromatic homology of (undirected) graphs introduced by L. Helme-Guizon and Y. Rong.