This book is a publication in Swiss Seminars, a subseries of Progress in Mathematics. It is an expanded version of the notes from a seminar on intersection cohomology theory, which met at the University of Bern, Switzerland, in the spring of 1983. This volume supplies an introduction to the piecewise linear and sheaf-theoretic versions of that theory as developed by M. Goresky and R. MacPherson in Topology 19 (1980), and in Inventiones Mathematicae 72 (1983). Some familiarity with algebraic topology and sheaf theory is assumed.

Now more that a quarter of a century old, intersection homology theory has proven to be a powerful tool in the study of the topology of singular spaces, with deep links to many other areas of mathematics, including combinatorics, differential equations, group representations, and number theory. Like its predecessor, An Introduction to Intersection Homology Theory, Second Edition introduces the power and beauty of intersection homology, explaining the main ideas and omitting, or merely sketching, the difficult proofs. It treats both the basics of the subject and a wide range of applications, providing lucid overviews of highly technical areas that make the subject accessible and prepare readers for more advanced work in the area. This second edition contains entirely new chapters introducing the theory of Witt spaces, perverse sheaves, and the combinatorial intersection cohomology of fans. Intersection homology is a large and growing subject that touches on many aspects of topology, geometry, and algebra. With its clear explanations of the main ideas, this book builds the confidence needed to tackle more specialist, technical texts and provides a framework within which to place them.

This textbook provides a gentle introduction to intersection homology and perverse sheaves, where concrete examples and geometric applications motivate concepts throughout. By giving a taste of the main ideas in the field, the author welcomes new readers to this exciting area at the crossroads of topology, algebraic geometry, analysis, and differential equations. Those looking to delve further into the abstract theory will find ample references to facilitate navigation of both classic and recent literature. Beginning with an introduction to intersection homology from a geometric and topological viewpoint, the text goes on to develop the sheaf-theoretical perspective. Then algebraic geometry comes to the fore: a brief discussion of constructibility opens onto an in-depth exploration of perverse sheaves. Highlights from the following chapters include a detailed account of the proof of the Beilinson–Bernstein–Deligne–Gabber (BBDG) decomposition theorem, applications of perverse sheaves to hypersurface singularities, and a discussion of Hodge-theoretic aspects of intersection homology via Saito’s deep theory of mixed Hodge modules. An epilogue offers a succinct summary of the literature surrounding some recent applications. Intersection Homology & Perverse Sheaves is suitable for graduate students with a basic background in topology and algebraic geometry. By building context and familiarity with examples, the text offers an ideal starting point for those entering the field. This classroom-tested approach opens the door to further study and to current research.

Let X be a pseudomanifold. In this text, the authors use a simplicial blow-up to define a cochain complex whose cohomology with coefficients in a field, is isomorphic to the intersection cohomology of X, introduced by M. Goresky and R. MacPherson. The authors do it simplicially in the setting of a filtered version of face sets, also called simplicial sets without degeneracies, in the sense of C. P. Rourke and B. J. Sanderson. They define perverse local systems over filtered face sets and intersection cohomology with coefficients in a perverse local system. In particular, as announced above when X is a pseudomanifold, the authors get a perverse local system of cochains quasi-isomorphic to the intersection cochains of Goresky and MacPherson, over a field. We show also that these two complexes of cochains are quasi-isomorphic to a filtered version of Sullivan's differential forms over the field Q. In a second step, they use these forms to extend Sullivan's presentation of rational homotopy type to intersection cohomology.

The first expository book-length introduction to intersection homology from the viewpoint of singular and piecewise linear chains.

Intersection homology is a version of homology theory that extends Poincaré duality and its applications to stratified spaces, such as singular varieties. This is the first comprehensive expository book-length introduction to intersection homology from the viewpoint of singular and piecewise-linear chains. Recent breakthroughs have made this approach viable by providing intersection homology and cohomology versions of all the standard tools in the homology tool box, making the subject readily accessible to graduate students and researchers in topology as well as researchers from other fields. This text includes both new research material and new proofs of previously-known results in intersection homology, as well as treatments of many classical topics in algebraic and manifold topology. Written in a detailed but expository style, this book is suitable as an introduction to intersection homology or as a thorough reference.