Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/iii/paper-26/1/a/solution

The standard CW complex structure on Complex projective space has one cell in each dimension and no other cells. Its cellular chain complex therefore has zero differentials: each boundary has an odd-dimensional target group, which is zero. The product of the usual two-cell structures on and likewise has exactly one cell in dimensions . Thus cellular homology gives, for both spaces,
The cohomology rings detect more than these additive groups. Let be the hyperplane class. The cohomology ring of complex projective space is
For the normalization, a hyperplane is Poincare dual to ; intersecting three generic hyperplanes gives one point with positive complex orientation, so . Together with the computed additive groups this makes generators in their respective degrees.
Let and be the pullbacks of the orientation classes of and . The Künneth theorem and naturality of the cup product give
where generates degree six. In particular, every degree-two class on the product has square zero, whereas . Any graded ring isomorphism would send to , contradicting this product relation. A homotopy equivalence induces an isomorphism of cohomology rings, so the spaces have isomorphic integral homology but are not homotopy equivalent.

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