Geometric Objects and Cohomology Operations
R. González--Díaz and P. Real
Abstract.
Cohomology operations (including the cohomology ring) of a geometric
object are finer algebraic invariants than the homology of it.
In the literature, there exist various algorithms for computing the homology groups of simplicial complexes
(\cite{Mun84}, \cite{DE95,ELZ00}, \cite{DG98}), but concerning the algorithmic treatment of
cohomology operations, very little is known. In this paper, we
establish a version of the incremental algorithm for computing
homology given in \cite{ELZ00}, which saves algebraic
information, allowing us the computation of the cup
product and the effective evaluation of the primary and
secondary cohomology operations on the cohomology of a
finite simplicial complex.
The efficient combinatorial descriptions at cochain level of
cohomology operations developed
in \cite{GR99,GR99a} are essential ingredients in our method.
We study the computational complexity
of these processes and a program in Mathematica for cohomology
computations is presented.