Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-topology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/3/b/iii/solution
Past exam of the topology course of the University of Oxford 2015 3 b iii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
There are exactly four homeomorphism types: the two-sphere, real projective plane, torus, and Klein bottle.
For completeness, enumerate all pairings. Four sides have three pairings; each pair can be matched in either direction, giving twelve signed pairings before symmetries. Up to cyclic relabelling, the repeated labels are either adjacent, of form , or alternating, of form , where . The second adjacent pattern rotates to the first. Endpoint identification gives the following table:Here the quotient always has two edge classes and one face, so its Euler characteristic is . To reproduce the vertex count, label consecutive square vertices . For paired sides , a same-direction pairing identifies with and with ; a reversed-direction pairing identifies with and with , with indices modulo four. Taking the generated equivalence classes gives exactly the displayed values of .
The quotient is orientable precisely when each label is traversed once positively and once negatively around the boundary: then the face orientation extends across every paired edge. A same-direction pair obstructs such an orientation. Thus the two possibilities are distinguished as the orientable torus and nonorientable Klein bottle; the other rows are fixed by Euler characteristic and the classification theorem for surfaces.
Explicit square representatives areAll edge interior points have disk neighbourhoods by joining two half-disks, and each identified vertex has a cyclic sequence of corner sectors, again a disk neighbourhood. There are no leftover boundary edges. The enumeration therefore describes closed surfaces, and the twelve signed pairings leave no additional cases.
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