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Abstract

The Morse-Smale complex can be either explicitly or implicitly represented. Depending on the type of representation, the simplification of the Morse-Smale complex works differently. In the explicit representation, the Morse-Smale complex is directly simplified by explicitly reconnecting the critical points during the simplification. In the implicit representation, on the other hand, the Morse-Smale complex is given by a combinatorial gradient field. In this setting, the simplification changes the combinatorial flow, which yields an indirect simplification of the Morse-Smale complex. The topological complexity of the Morse-Smale complex is reduced in both representations. However, the simplifications generally yield different results. In this paper, we emphasize the differences between these two representations, and provide a high-level discussion about their advantages and limitations.