Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/iii/paper-114/2/a/solution

Write . A double covering has a deck transformation that exchanges the two points in every fibre. Every singular simplex has exactly two lifts and . Define the mod-two transfer chain map of a double covering by
and let send a simplex of to its composite with . Uniqueness of lifted faces shows that commutes with the boundary operator, so both maps are chain maps.
For each base simplex, its two lifts span a copy of . On this summand, is and is . Hence the sequence is exact in every degree:

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