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On a closed connected Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature, harmonic one-forms are parallel under nonnegative Ricci curvature. Evaluation at one point injects their space into the cotangent space. The Hodge decomposition theorem identifies its dimension with the first Betti number, giving $b_1(M)\le \dim M$. For example, a genus-two closed orientable surface times a circle has dimension three and first Betti number five, so no Riemannian metric on that product has nonnegative Ricci curvature.

Let $X$ be a finite CW complex, with $c_i$ topological cells of dimension $i$ and none above $d$. Its Euler characteristic is the displayed alternating sum. For a finite simplicial complex, $c_i$ counts its $i$-dimensional simplexes, each counted once rather than once for each containing simplex. In dimension two this becomes $V-E+F$. A topological cell's interior is counted; identified parts of its boundary are counted in their own lower-dimensional topological cells.^[ref]

The cellular homology theorem identifies cellular homology with singular homology, so the count equals the alternating rational Betti numbers. These are the free ranks of integral homology; torsion subgroups do not contribute to them. Over any field, the alternating homology dimensions still give the same Euler characteristic, although individual Betti numbers can depend on the field.

Computational topology develops algorithms for topological questions about finite representations of spaces, such as simplicial complexes. It connects discrete data structures to invariants that ignore irrelevant geometric distortion. connected components and homology groups are examples of computable structural information.^[ref]

For a small simplicial homology calculation over a field, take three vertices joined by three edges in a cycle, without a filled face. The matrix of the first boundary operator has matrix rank two, so this linear map has a kernel of a linear map of dimension one; with no two-dimensional face, that cycle is not a boundary. Thus the first Betti number is one. Adding the filled triangular face makes the same cycle a boundary and reduces the first Betti number to zero. The vertex coordinates need not change: the encoded incidence structure determines whether the hole is present.

For a map $f:M\to N$ of connected closed oriented four-manifolds, naturality of the cup product givesWhen $\mathrm{deg}f\ne 0$, nondegeneracy makes $f^{\ast }:H^2(N;\mathbb{Q})\to H^2(M;\mathbb{Q})$ injective. Consequently the target intersection form, multiplied by the mapping degree, must embed into the source form. For equal second Betti numbers, a matrix $P$ for pullback satisfies $P^{\mathsf{T}}{Q}_{M}P=(\mathrm{deg}f)Q_N$; taking determinants often rules out nonzero degrees. In particular, a two-dimensional indefinite source form cannot realize a nonzero multiple of a two-dimensional definite target form.

The Euler characteristic compresses a finite CW complex's homology into one integer: count its topological cells with alternating signs, or count its Betti numbers with the same signs. A filled triangle has Euler characteristic one; its cycle graph boundary has Euler characteristic zero. The missing face changes the answer even though the vertices and edges are identical.

For a finite CW complex $X$, including the geometric realization of a finite simplicial complex,Here $b_i={\dim }_{\mathbb{Q}}{H}_i(X;\mathbb{Q})$ is the rational Betti number. More generally this ordinary homology definition makes sense whenever every rational homology group is finite-dimensional and only finitely many are nonzero. An arbitrary infinite CW complex need not satisfy these assumptions; its formal infinite alternating cell count is not a definition of this invariant.

The usefulness is that a finite description can reveal something about a space without computing every homology group. By the cell-count formula for Euler characteristic, count pieces rather than solve all the boundary operators. If two spaces give different answers, topological invariance of Euler characteristic rules out a homeomorphism, and even a homotopy equivalence. Equal answers are less decisive: the Euler characteristic of an annulus and the Euler characteristic of a torus are both zero, while their homology groups differ. This is a compact diagnostic, with a clearly defined limit on what it can tell us.

Identify opposite sides of a square by translations to obtain a torus. All four corners become one vertex; the horizontal sides give one topological cell $a$ and the vertical sides one topological cell $b$. The open square supplies one two-dimensional topological cell. Thus $(c_0,c_1,c_2)=(1,2,1)$ and $\chi =0$. The cellular boundary of each one-dimensional topological cell is zero because its endpoints agree. Traversing the face boundary gives the group commutator $ab{a}^{-1}{b}^{-1}$, whose signed counts of both $a$ and $b$ vanish. Hence its cellular boundary is also zero, and $(b_0,b_1,b_2)=(1,2,1)$.^[ref]

The boundary of a tetrahedron is a two-sphere, with four vertices, six edges and four triangular topological cells: $\chi =4-6+4=2$. Its rational Betti numbers are $(1,0,1)$ by homology of a sphere. The torus's two independent one-dimensional homology classes cancel its degree-zero and degree-two contributions. The torus and annulus both have Euler characteristic zero, yet different homology groups; one integer cannot recover all of homology.

For a closed oriented manifold of dimension $4r+2$, Poincare duality pairs all rational Betti numbers except the middle one, making their total contribution to the Euler characteristic even. The middle cohomology degree is odd, so its nondegenerate Poincare duality pairing is an alternating bilinear form and has even dimension. Hence the Euler characteristic is even. Nonorientable manifolds can have odd Euler characteristic, as Real projective space of even dimension demonstrates.

For a concrete example of cellular homology of real projective space, the real projective plane ${\mathbb{RP}}^2$ has one topological cell in each of dimensions zero, one and two. Its one-dimensional topological cell is a loop, and the face attaches around that loop twice. Choose orientations so that the cellular chain complex over the integers iswith nonzero chain groups in degrees two, one and zero. The twice-around attachment is why the first boundary operator shown is multiplication by two.^[ref]

Over the rational numbers, multiplication by two is invertible, so $H_2$ and $H_1$ vanish, while $H_0\cong \mathbb{Q}$. Over the finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_2$, two equals zero. Both boundary operators then vanish, giving one-dimensional homology groups in all three degrees. Their respective Betti numbers areNevertheless,The direct cell count is also $1-1+1=1$.

This calculation makes the strength and loss of information visible. The Euler characteristic survives a change of the field used for coefficients, while individual homology groups can change. Over the integers, the same chain complex has $H_1\cong \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ and $H_2=0$: a torsion subgroup that rational Betti numbers do not record. The rank cancellation in the Euler-Poincare formula explains why the alternating total still agrees with the cell count.

For a finite simplicial complex $K$, let $f_i$ count its $i$-dimensional simplexes. Its Euler characteristic iswhere $b_i={\dim }_{\mathbb{Q}}{H}_i(|K|;\mathbb{Q})$ is its rational Betti number.

Work over $\mathbb{Q}$, so the chain groups, cycle modules and boundary modules are finite-dimensional vector spaces. Choosing vector-space complements gives $C_i\cong B_i\oplus H_i\oplus B_{i-1}$. The boundary dimensions occur twice in the alternating sum, with opposite signs, and cancel. This proves the formula; it does not require splitting off possibly torsion integral homology as a direct summand of an integral cycle module. The rank cancellation in the Euler-Poincare formula gives the same argument without choosing complements.

For a continuous map of nonzero mapping degree between closed connected oriented surfaces, rational cohomology injectivity of a nonzero-degree map gives an injection on $H^1$. Since the first Betti number of an oriented surface of genus $g$ is $2g$, the source genus is at least the target genus.

For a compact three-manifold $W$, let $L=\ker (H_1(\partial W;{\mathbb{F}}_2)\to H_1(W;{\mathbb{F}}_2))$. The boundary intersection pairing satisfies $L^{\perp }=L$: the long exact sequence in relative homology identifies $L$ with boundaries of relative surfaces, and the boundary-interior adjoint identity identifies its orthogonal complement with the same kernel. Hence $2\dim L=\dim H_1(\partial W;{\mathbb{F}}_2)$. This also implies that a closed surface with odd first mod-two Betti number, such as ${\mathbb{RP}}^2$, cannot be the entire boundary of a compact three-manifold.

This closed flat Riemannian manifold is the mapping torus of $-I$ on a two-dimensional flat torus. Equivalently, take planar lattice translations and the screw $(v,z)\mapsto (-v,z+1/2)$ in Euclidean three-space. Its square is a unit axial translation, its holonomy is $C_2$, and its first Betti number is one.

The closed orientable flat Riemannian manifold with holonomy $C_2\times C_2$ can be presented by Euclidean screws $\alpha (x,y,z)=(x+1/2,-y,-z)$ and $\beta (x,y,z)=(-x,y+1/2,-z+1/2)$. Their squares and the square of their product generate the unit translation lattice. Each nonidentity holonomy coset has a half-integer displacement along its fixed axis, so acts freely. The holonomy has no common fixed vector, giving first Betti number zero and a finite isometry group for every flat metric.

Fix a complex line bundle with a Hermitian metric over a closed oriented Riemannian manifold $X$. For a unitary connection $A$, the real curvature form $i{F}_A$ represents a fixed de Rham cohomology class. The Hodge theorem gives its unique harmonic representative $\eta$. Write $\eta -i{F}_A=d\beta$ with $\beta$ a real one-form. Then $A-i\beta$ is a unitary connection with real curvature form equal to $\eta$.

Two such unitary connections differ by a closed imaginary-valued one-form. A gauge transformation removes exactly those differences whose real periods lie in $2\pi \mathbb{Z}$. Their classes under gauge equivalence of principal connections carry a free transitive action ofwhere the integral cohomology is understood through its image in real cohomology. If the first Betti number is zero, there is just one such equivalence class. The compactness assumption supplies the Hodge theorem used here.^[ref]

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For a closed connected orientable surface of genus $g$, the Künneth theorem gives the Betti numbers of $S^1\times {\Sigma }_g$ as $(1,2g+1,2g+1,1)$. The weak Morse inequalities give the displayed lower bound. A surface Morse function with one minimum, $2g$ saddles and one maximum exists from its standard handle decomposition. Adding a positive multiple of the cosine Morse function on the circle makes a product of Morse functions, whose critical counts are precisely these four Betti numbers. The lower bound is attained.

The Kähler Laplacian identity makes the space of complex harmonic differential forms of degree $r$ the direct sum of its $(p,q)$ parts with $p+q=r$. Conjugation identifies the $(p,q)$ and $(q,p)$ harmonic spaces. If $r$ is odd these are distinct and pair off, so the Betti number in degree $r$ is even. This is a topological obstruction to existence of a Kähler metric, exhibited by a Hopf surface with first Betti number one.

The graph of a pants decomposition has one vertex per pair of pants and one edge per glued cuff. It is a connected trivalent multigraph, possibly with loops. A closed surface of genus $g$ gives $2g-2$ vertices and $3g-3$ edges, so its first Betti number is $g$. The graph records a decomposition rather than the homeomorphism class alone, and omits cuff lengths and twists.

Work over $\mathbb{Q}$ and put $b_i=\dim H^i(M;\mathbb{Q})$. For a closed orientable six-dimensional manifold, Poincare duality gives $b_i=b_{6-i}$, soThe remaining Betti number is even. Indeed, the cup product pairingis nondegenerate by duality and skew-symmetric by graded commutativity, since $(-1{)}^{3\cdot 3}=-1$. If its dimension were odd, a matrix $A$ for it would satisfy $\det A=\det (-A^T)=-\det A$, forcing $\det A=0$ in characteristic zero, a contradiction. Thus $b_3$ is even andThis is the Euler characteristic parity in dimensions congruent to two modulo four. If the manifold has several components, apply the argument to each component and add.

The orientability assumption is essential. The Real projective space ${\mathbb{RP}}^6$ has one cell in each dimension from zero to six, givingIt is nonorientable: its double cover $S^6$ has the orientation-reversing antipodal deck transformation, of degree $(-1{)}^7=-1$.

For the construction, ${\mathbb{CP}}^3$ is a closed orientable real six-dimensional manifold with cells in dimensions $0,2,4,6$, hence Euler characteristic four. The product $S^3\times S^3$ is also closed and orientable, with Euler characteristic $\chi (S^3{)}^2=0$. The six-sphere has Euler characteristic two.

In dimension six, removing an open ball subtracts one from the Euler characteristic. To see this, write $M$ as the punctured manifold joined to a closed ball along $S^5$, whose Euler characteristic is zero, and apply the cellular inclusion-exclusion formula. Gluing two punctured manifolds along $S^5$ therefore givesA connected sum of $r$ copies of ${\mathbb{CP}}^3$ and $s$ copies of $S^3\times S^3$ haswith the empty sum interpreted as $S^6$. Given any even integer $n$, takeBoth are nonnegative integers and the displayed Euler characteristic equals $n$. Hence every even integer is the Euler characteristic of a closed oriented six-manifold, including zero and negative integers; the construction is connected.

Let $\Gamma ={\pi }_1(M)$. A compact connected smooth manifold has finite CW complex homotopy type, hence a finitely generated fundamental group. Its universal cover with the lifted Riemannian metric is complete by the lifted-geodesic argument in part 2(b) and has nonnegative Ricci curvature. The deck transformations act freely and properly discontinuously by isometries. Part (a) givesThe degree-one Hurewicz theorem identifies $H_1(M;\mathbb{Z})$ with the abelianization of $\Gamma$. This finitely generated abelian group has free rank $b=b_1(M)$, so there is a surjection $\Gamma \to {\mathbb{Z}}^b$. Choose lifts ${\gamma }_1,\dots ,{\gamma }_b$ of a basis and let $A\ge 1$ bound their word lengths. For every $(z_1,\dots ,z_b)$ with $\sum |z_i|\le m$, the product ${\gamma }_1^{z_1}\cdots {\gamma }_b^{z_b}$ has word length at most $Am$ and maps to that vector. Distinct vectors therefore give distinct group elements. The integer cube $|z_i|\le \lfloor m/b\rfloor$ shows, for $b>0$, thatfor some $c>0$ and all sufficiently large $m$. Comparing with the degree-$n$ upper bound forces $b\le n$; the case $b=0$ is immediate. ThusThis is the first Betti-number bound from polynomial fundamental-group growth.

The standard connectedness convention for a Riemannian manifold is needed here. If disconnected manifolds are allowed, the bound applies to each connected component; a disjoint union of two flat $n$-tori has first Betti number $2n$ and contradicts a global bound by $n$.

True. The Künneth theorem gives the Poincaré polynomialso $b_2=6$ and $b_4=2$. The proposed equality also gives $b_0=b_8=1$. Even if compactness was not stated separately, these two numbers force the putative eight-manifold to be connected and compact: the top ordinary real cohomology of a connected noncompact manifold is zero.

The auxiliary Hard Lefschetz theorem on de Rham cohomology says that, on a compact Kähler manifold of complex dimension $n$, $L^{n-k}:H^k\to H^{2n-k}$ is an isomorphism, where $L\alpha =[\omega ]⌣\alpha$. Here $n=4$, so $L^2:H^2\to H^6$ is injective. If $L\alpha =0$, then $L^2\alpha =0$ and therefore $\alpha =0$. Thus $L:H^2\to H^4$ is injective, forcing $b_2\le b_4$. The inequality $6\le 2$ is impossible. Hence these Betti numbers cannot occur for a Kähler eight-manifold.