Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2005/ii/paper-4/21h/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 ii Paper 4 21H Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Use relative homology. Every simplex of lies in or , and those lying in both are exactly the simplices of . Consequently inclusion induces a chain-complex isomorphismIt is bijective on the respective bases of simplices and commutes with boundary because it comes from inclusion. Thus
For any pair , the long exact sequence in homology shows that inclusion induces isomorphisms in every degree exactly when for every . To verify both directions, if all relative groups vanish, exactness makes each injective and surjective. Conversely, if the inclusion maps are isomorphisms, the map from into the relative group is zero, while the relative connecting map is injective and has zero image because the next inclusion is injective; hence the relative group itself is zero. This includes degree zero, with the negative-degree ordinary group zero.
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