Formalization of a normalization theorem in simplicial topology

Abstract

In this paper we present a complete formalization of the Normalization Theorem, a result in Algebraic Simplicial Topology stating that there exists a homotopy equivalence between the chain complex of a simplicial set, and a smaller chain complex for the same simplicial set, called the normalized chain complex. Even if the Normalization Theorem is usually stated as a higher-order result (with a Category Theory flavor) we manage to give a first-order proof of it. To this aim it is instrumental the introduction of an algebraic data structure called simplicial polynomial. As a demonstration of the validity of our techniques we developed a formal proof in the ACL2 theorem prover.