Topological, geometric, and combinatorial aspects of metric thickenings
Date
2021
Authors
Bush, Johnathan E., author
Adams, Henry, advisor
Patel, Amit, committee member
Peterson, Chris, committee member
Luong, Gloria, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
The geometric realization of a simplicial complex equipped with the 1-Wasserstein metric of optimal transport is called a simplicial metric thickening. We describe relationships between these metric thickenings and topics in applied topology, convex geometry, and combinatorial topology. We give a geometric proof of the homotopy types of certain metric thickenings of the circle by constructing deformation retractions to the boundaries of orbitopes. We use combinatorial arguments to establish a sharp lower bound on the diameter of Carathéodory subsets of the centrally-symmetric version of the trigonometric moment curve. Topological information about metric thickenings allows us to give new generalizations of the Borsuk–Ulam theorem and a selection of its corollaries. Finally, we prove a centrally-symmetric analog of a result of Gilbert and Smyth about gaps between zeros of homogeneous trigonometric polynomials.