Tri-partitions and bases of an ordered complex

Generalizing the decomposition of a connected planar graph into a tree and a dual tree, we prove a combinatorial analog of the classic Helmholtz–Hodge decomposition of a smooth vector field. Specifically, we show that for every polyhedral complex, K, and every dimension, p, there is a partition of the set of p-cells into a maximal p-tree, a maximal p-cotree, and a collection of p-cells whose cardinality is the p-th reduced Betti number of K. Given an ordering of the p-cells, this tri-partition is unique, and it can be computed by a matrix reduction algorithm that also constructs canonical bases of cycle and boundary groups.