Cellular approximation theorem Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A continuous map between CW complexes is homotopic to a cellular map. If the map is already cellular on a subcomplex, the homotopy can be taken relative to that subcomplex. In particular, a map from a -dimensional CW complex can be deformed into the -skeleton of the target. This permits finite cellular chain complexes to compute induced homology maps, and turns maps to Complex projective space into maps to an appropriate finite-dimensional projective skeleton.
The standard CW complex structure on Complex projective space has one cell in every even dimension from zero through , and no odd-dimensional cells. Its cellular chain complex therefore has zero differential. The fundamental classes of the inclusions generate its even-degree integral homology; all other groups vanish.
For , put . Its cohomology ring is
Here is the restricted hyperplane class. The cohomological Gysin map of an embedding sends to and every odd-degree class to zero, by Poincare duality and mod-two restriction from complex to real projective space. Its exact sequence gives one-dimensional groups in even degrees , and zero otherwise. Choose with . The connecting-map module identity gives for , so these are the upper-half generators. The lower-half generators are . The relations and follow respectively from and . The result is a ring isomorphism with Complex projective space times ; it does not by itself assert a homotopy equivalence of the spaces.
Complex K-theory of odd-dimensional real projective space Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
If is the complexification of a real vector bundle of the tautological bundle and , then
Realizing Real projective space as the circle bundle of the square of the tautological bundle on Complex projective space gives this through the K-theory Gysin sequence of a sphere bundle.
Complex projective plane Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
The complex projective plane is the two-dimensional Complex projective space. Its second homology is generated by the class of a projective line, with .
Cup length 2026-10-14
The largest number of positive-degree cohomology classes whose cup product is nonzero, with a specified coefficient ring ; it can be infinite. It is zero if there is no nonzero positive-degree class. The vanishing cup product from an open cover argument implies that Lusternik–Schnirelmann category is at least cup length plus one. For Complex projective space , its integral cup length is .
Give Complex projective space its complex orientation. In the homology cross product basis of , the diagonal has the displayed class. If are the two normalized degree-two hyperplane classes, its Poincare dual is . Indeed every degree- monomial restricts on the diagonal to the top power of the hyperplane class, whose evaluation on the fundamental class is one. These evaluations determine all coefficients.
In the chart of Complex projective space, differentiate the quotient coordinates to obtain this formula for . The kernel is the radial line . A degree-one homogeneous vector field on the punctured cone descends to a holomorphic vector field, since its scaling cancels the inverse scaling of . This gives the fiberwise construction of the Euler sequence on complex projective space.
Take a connected sum of copies of Complex projective space and copies of , with the empty sum interpreted as . Their Euler characteristics are four, zero and two, respectively. Removing a six-ball subtracts one from the Euler characteristic and gluing along its boundary subtracts zero, so each connected sum subtracts two. The result is . For any even integer , choose and .
First Chern class of a tensor product of complex line bundles Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
The First Chern class turns the tensor product of vector bundles of complex line bundles into addition in integral cohomology. This follows by computing the universal complex line bundle on the product of two Complex projective spaces and restricting to each factor. The proof retains torsion elements, which differential forms alone cannot detect.
Fubini-Study form from circle reduction Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
The scalar circle group action on with the standard symplectic form has moment map in the convention . Reduction of the radius- sphere gives Complex projective space and the form . Its area on a complex projective line is . Thus yields the Fubini-Study form normalized to projective-line area , while yields half that form. The Hopf fibration identifies the quotient.
Fubini-Study metric 2026-10-14
The Fubini-Study metric is the standard unitary-invariant Kähler metric on Complex projective space, induced from the unit sphere by the Hopf fibration. Its associated Kähler form is the Fubini-Study form; scaling conventions determine the area of a projective line.
The complex tautological line bundle is a holomorphic subbundle of the trivial bundle with fibre . A global holomorphic section therefore gives global holomorphic functions on compact connected Complex projective space. The maximum modulus principle makes them constant. The constant vector must lie in every projective line through the origin, whose intersection is zero for . For , the base is one point and the section space is instead .
A smooth compact Riemann surface embedded in Complex projective space determines an integral homology class . Since a projective line has self-intersection one, is the intersection number with a transverse projective line. Every transverse intersection of complex curves has positive sign, because a complex-linear change of tangent basis has positive real determinant. For the Fermat curve , the line meets it transversely in the points , , directly verifying its homological degree.
Hyperplane class 2026-10-14
The First Chern class of the hyperplane line bundle. On Complex projective space it generates degree-two integral cohomology, and on its top power evaluates as one on the complex-oriented fundamental class.
The form patches on Complex projective space. The dual tautological metric on identifies it with normalized Chern curvature, so . With the unnormalized convention , divide by to obtain this integral class.
Kodaira embedding theorem Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Kodaira embedding theorem says that a compact complex manifold carrying a positive holomorphic line bundle is projective: sufficiently large tensor powers of the bundle have global holomorphic sections defining a holomorphic embedding into Complex projective space. Conversely, the restriction of gives a positive line bundle on every projective complex manifold.
Let be a nonempty positive-dimensional compact complex submanifold of Complex projective space. On a positive-dimensional connected component choose a hyperplane meeting, but not containing, that component. Its linear equation gives a holomorphic section of with a zero and with a nonzero value. For , its th power cannot be a section of a trivial holomorphic line bundle, since such sections are constant on the compact connected component. Negative powers are also nontrivial by duality. Every positive-dimensional compact projective component meets every hyperplane: otherwise its affine coordinate functions would all be constant.
The standard CW complex structure on Complex projective space has one cell in each dimension and no other cells. Its cellular chain complex therefore has zero differentials: each boundary has an odd-dimensional target group, which is zero. The product of the usual two-cell structures on and likewise has exactly one cell in dimensions . Thus cellular homology gives, for both spaces,
The cohomology rings detect more than these additive groups. Let be the hyperplane class. The cohomology ring of complex projective space is
For the normalization, a hyperplane is Poincare dual to ; intersecting three generic hyperplanes gives one point with positive complex orientation, so . Together with the computed additive groups this makes generators in their respective degrees.
Let and be the pullbacks of the orientation classes of and . The Künneth theorem and naturality of the cup product give
where generates degree six. In particular, every degree-two class on the product has square zero, whereas . Any graded ring isomorphism would send to , contradicting this product relation. A homotopy equivalence induces an isomorphism of cohomology rings, so the spaces have isomorphic integral homology but are not homotopy equivalent.
A CW complex is built by attaching q-dimensional discs to the -skeleton along maps of their boundary spheres, with the closure-finite and weak-topology conditions. Write for its q-skeleton and . The cellular chain group is
The cellular boundary is the composite of the connecting map and the relative quotient map:
Consecutive maps in the relevant exact sequences compose to zero, so these maps make a cellular chain complex. Equivalently, a boundary coefficient is the degree of the attaching sphere followed by collapse onto the sphere of a selected lower cell. Its cellular homology is . The relative groups of successive skeleta vanish off their cell dimension; their exact sequences identify this homology with singular homology, the cellular homology theorem.
For , the sphere has a zero-cell and a k-cell with zero boundary. The Complex projective space has one cell in each dimension and no odd cells, so all cellular boundaries vanish. Consequently
At , the sphere consists of two points and ; at , projective space is a point.
Put and . Its product CW complex has cells in dimensions . For , these positive dimensions are distinct and never consecutive, so all cellular boundaries vanish. Thus
Its -skeleton is . Collapsing it gives the quotient
It induces an isomorphism on top homology, with degree after choosing the quotient orientation. Let be the Hopf fibration and set , the Hopf projection of a product smash quotient.
On reduced homology, the collapse kills the two lower-dimensional classes, and the remaining top class maps to zero because projective space has no odd-dimensional homology. Therefore in every reduced degree. On homotopy groups, for , with summands induced by the two factor inclusions. Both inclusions are collapsed by , so and hence vanish on both summands. The domain is simply connected and connected, which also handles the lower groups.
It remains to prove that is not null-homotopic. The Hopf fibration has fibre and has the homotopy lifting property for the CW domain : a homotopy downstairs and a lift of its initial map have a lift with that specified initial value. If were homotopic to a constant, lift this homotopy starting at . The ending map would land in the single fibre . Every map is null-homotopic, since the simply connected domain permits its lift to the contractible universal cover . Thus would be null-homotopic in , contradicting its nonzero top homology map. Hence