Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 16 5 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For an -dimensional singular simplex and a degree- singular cochain , use the front-face/back-face conventionand set it to zero for . Extend linearly over . Passing to homology classes of cycles and cohomology classes of cocycles defines the cap product .
For a continuous map , the cochain pullback satisfies , and the induced chain map sends to . Since composition commutes with restrictions to faces,The identity holds on chains, so it descends directly to classes and proves the naturality of the cap product: . No additional well-definedness verification is required here.