Perfect discrete Morse functions on 2-complexes

Abstract

This paper is focused on the study of perfect discrete Morse functions on a 2-simplicial complex. These are those discrete Morse functions such that the number of critical i-simplices coincides with the i-th Betti number of the complex. In particular, we establish conditions under which a 2-complex admits a perfect discrete Morse function and conversely, we get topological properties of a 2-complex admitting such kind of functions. This approach is more general than the known results in the literature [7], since our study is not restricted to surfaces. These results can be considered as a first step in the study of perfect discrete Morse functions on 3-manifolds.