Discrete homology theory for metric spaces

We define and study a notion of discrete homology theory for metric spaces. Instead of working with simplicial homology, our chain complexes are given by Lipschitz maps from an n n -dimensional cube to a fixed metric space. We prove that the resulting homology theory satisfies a discrete analogue of the Eilenberg–Steenrod axioms, and prove a discrete analogue of the Mayer–Vietoris exact sequence. Moreover, this discrete homology theory is related to the discrete homotopy theory of a metric space through a discrete analogue of the Hurewicz theorem. We study the class of groups that can arise as discrete homology groups and, in this setting, we prove that the fundamental group of a smooth, connected, metrizable, compact manifold is isomorphic to the discrete fundamental group of a ‘fine enough’ rectangulation of the manifold. Finally, we show that this discrete homology theory can be coarsened, leading to a new non-trivial coarse invariant of a metric space.