Singular chain intersection homology for traditional and super-perversities

Abstract. We introduce a singular chain intersection homology theory which generalizes that of King and which agrees with the Deligne sheaf intersection homology of Goresky and MacPherson on any topological stratified pseudomanifold, compact or not, with constant or local coefficients, and with traditional perversities or superperversities (those satisfying ¯p(2)> 0). For the case ¯p(2) = 1, these latter perversities were introduced by Cappell and Shaneson and play a key role in their superduality theorem for embeddings. We further describe the sheafification of this singular chain complex and its adaptability to broader classes of stratified spaces. 1