Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-topology-and-groups-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/1/a/i/solution

Two continuous maps are homotopic if there is a continuous map
Here the Cartesian product has the product topology. Such an is a homotopy, written .
The topological spaces are homotopy equivalent if there are continuous maps and such that
Each is then a homotopy inverse of the other.
For with its subspace topology with inclusion map , a homotopy retract, in the course's convention, is a continuous map with
Thus is an actual retraction, and give a homotopy equivalence. Requiring the latter homotopy to fix pointwise at all times gives the stronger condition of a deformation retraction as used in this wiki. The course's definition of homotopy retract requires no such restriction on that homotopy.

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