Stratified simple homotopy type: Theory and computation

Abstract

Generalizing the idea of elementary simplicial collapses and expansions in classical simple homotopy theory to a stratified setting, we find local combinatorial transformations on stratified simplicial complexes that leave the global stratified homotopy type invariant. In particular, we obtain the notions of stratified formal deformations generalizing J. H. C. Whitehead's formal deformations. We implement the algorithmic execution of such transformations and the computation of intersection homology to illustrate the behavior of stratified simple homotopy equivalences on Vietoris-Rips type complexes associated to point sets sampled near given, possibly singular, spaces.