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 relations between the Betti tables, a standard invariant for multigraded modules commonly used in multiparameter persistence, and the multifiltered cell complex. In particular, we show that the grades at which cells of specific dimensions first appear in the filtration reveal all positions in which the Betti tables are possibly nonzero. This result can be used in combination with discrete Morse theory on the multifiltered cell complex originating the module to obtain a better approximation of the support of the Betti tables. In the case of bifiltrations, we refine our results by considering homological critical grades of a filtered chain complex instead of entrance grades of cells.