This dissertation is a uniïfication of an analysis-based approach and the traditional topological-based approach to Poincaré duality. We examine the role of the discrete Hodge star operator in proving and in realizing the Poincaré duality isomorphism (between cohomology and homology in complementary degrees) in a cellular setting without reference to a dual cell complex. More specifically, we provide a proof of this version of Poincaré duality over R via the simplicial discrete Hodge star defined by Scott Wilson in [19] without referencing a dual cell complex. We also express the Poincaré duality isomorphism over both R and Z in terms of this discrete operator. Much of this work is dedicated to extending these results to a cubical setting, via the introduction of a cubical version of Whitney forms. A cubical setting provides a place for Robin Forman's complex of nontraditional differential forms, defined in [7], in the uniïfication of analytic and topological perspectives discussed in this dissertation. In particular, we establish a ring isomorphism (on the cohomology level) between Forman's complex of differential forms with his exterior derivative and product and a complex of cubical cochains with the discrete coboundary operator and the standard cubical cup product. / Ph. D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/27485 |
| Date | 16 May 2012 |
| Creators | Arnold, Rachel Florence |
| Contributors | Mathematics, Haskell, Peter E., Thomson, James E., Rossi, John F., Floyd, William J. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | Arnold_RF_D_2012.pdf |
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