A novel technique for cohomology computations in engineering practice

The problem of computing cohomology generators of a cell complex is gaining more and more interest in various branches of science ranging from computational physics to biology. Focusing on engineering applications, cohomology generators are currently used in computer aided design (CAD) and in potential definition for computational electromagnetics and fluid dynamics. The aim of this paper is to introduce a novel technique to effectively compute cohomology generators focusing on the application involving the potential definition for h-oriented eddy-current formulations. This technique, which has been called Thinned Current Technique (TCT), is completely automatic, computationally efficient and general. The TCT runs in most cases in linear time and exhibits a speed up of orders of magnitude with respect to the best alternative documented implementation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.