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Algebraic Wasserstein distances and stable homological invariants of data

Algebraic Wasserstein distances and stable homological invariants of data
Algebraic Wasserstein distances and stable homological invariants of data

Distances have a ubiquitous role in persistent homology, from the direct comparison of homological representations of data to the definition and optimization of invariants. In this article we introduce a family of parametrized pseudometrics between persistence modules based on the algebraic Wasserstein distance defined by Skraba and Turner, and phrase them in the formalism of noise systems. This is achieved by comparing p-norms of cokernels (resp. kernels) of monomorphisms (resp. epimorphisms) between persistence modules and corresponding bar-to-bar morphisms, a novel notion that allows us to bridge between algebraic and combinatorial aspects of persistence modules. We use algebraic Wasserstein distances to define invariants, called Wasserstein stable ranks, which are 1-Lipschitz stable with respect to such pseudometrics. We prove a low-rank approximation result for persistence modules which allows us to efficiently compute Wasserstein stable ranks, and we propose an efficient algorithm to compute the interleaving distance between them. Importantly, Wasserstein stable ranks depend on interpretable parameters which can be learnt in a machine learning context. Experimental results illustrate the use of Wasserstein stable ranks on real and artificial data and highlight how such pseudometrics could be useful in data analysis tasks.

Persistence modules, Persistent homology, Stable topological invariants of data, Wasserstein metrics
2367-1726
Agerberg, Jens
3ffcf467-14c2-4f93-bba7-fb268479ffb7
Guidolin, Andrea
40011dc4-77ce-4d11-90bd-02e76c0b375a
Ren, Isaac
120e6485-066a-4724-b506-aec32c327b20
Scolamiero, Martina
5dd7215a-a66a-4208-a662-cf6fbf1071ff
Agerberg, Jens
3ffcf467-14c2-4f93-bba7-fb268479ffb7
Guidolin, Andrea
40011dc4-77ce-4d11-90bd-02e76c0b375a
Ren, Isaac
120e6485-066a-4724-b506-aec32c327b20
Scolamiero, Martina
5dd7215a-a66a-4208-a662-cf6fbf1071ff

Agerberg, Jens, Guidolin, Andrea, Ren, Isaac and Scolamiero, Martina (2025) Algebraic Wasserstein distances and stable homological invariants of data. Journal of Applied and Computational Topology, 9 (1), [4]. (doi:10.1007/s41468-024-00200-w).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Distances have a ubiquitous role in persistent homology, from the direct comparison of homological representations of data to the definition and optimization of invariants. In this article we introduce a family of parametrized pseudometrics between persistence modules based on the algebraic Wasserstein distance defined by Skraba and Turner, and phrase them in the formalism of noise systems. This is achieved by comparing p-norms of cokernels (resp. kernels) of monomorphisms (resp. epimorphisms) between persistence modules and corresponding bar-to-bar morphisms, a novel notion that allows us to bridge between algebraic and combinatorial aspects of persistence modules. We use algebraic Wasserstein distances to define invariants, called Wasserstein stable ranks, which are 1-Lipschitz stable with respect to such pseudometrics. We prove a low-rank approximation result for persistence modules which allows us to efficiently compute Wasserstein stable ranks, and we propose an efficient algorithm to compute the interleaving distance between them. Importantly, Wasserstein stable ranks depend on interpretable parameters which can be learnt in a machine learning context. Experimental results illustrate the use of Wasserstein stable ranks on real and artificial data and highlight how such pseudometrics could be useful in data analysis tasks.

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Accepted/In Press date: 10 December 2024
Published date: 20 January 2025
Keywords: Persistence modules, Persistent homology, Stable topological invariants of data, Wasserstein metrics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 500928
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500928
ISSN: 2367-1726
PURE UUID: 834aeba6-2700-4273-b849-d921e5c7e1a7
ORCID for Andrea Guidolin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7397-475X

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Date deposited: 19 May 2025 16:32
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:47

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Contributors

Author: Jens Agerberg
Author: Andrea Guidolin ORCID iD
Author: Isaac Ren
Author: Martina Scolamiero

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