Some remarks on Betti numbers of random polygon spaces

Polygon spaces such as , or the three‐dimensional analogs N_? play an important rle in geometry and topology, and are also of interest in robotics where the l_i model the lengths of robot arms. When n is large, one can assume that each l_i is a positive real valued random variable, leading to a random manifold. The complexity of such manifolds can be approached by computing Betti numbers, the Euler characteristics, or the related Poincaré polynomial. We study the average values of Betti numbers of dimension p_n when p_n → ∞ as n → ∞. We also focus on the limiting mean Poincaré polynomial, in two and three dimensions. We show that in two dimensions, the mean total Betti number behaves as the total Betti number associated with the equilateral manifold where . In three dimensions, these two quantities are not any more asymptotically equivalent. We also provide asymptotics for the Poincaré polynomials. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2010