Simplification techniques for maps in simplicial topology

Abstract

This paper offers an algorithmic solution to the problem of obtaining “economical” formulae for some maps in Simplicial Topology, having, in principle, a high computational cost in their evaluation. In particular, maps of this kind are used for defining cohomology operations at the cochain level. As an example, we obtain explicit combinatorial descriptions of Steenrod k th powers exclusively in terms of face operators.