Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 4 21G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Use integral homology groups. The sphere is ; each disk meets in its boundary circle, while . In particular, the two disks also meet away from the sphere. These spaces have compatible triangulations, so the Mayer–Vietoris sequence applies to their unions as subcomplexes; equivalently use small regular open neighborhoods with the same homotopy types.
First let . Its intersection is , and is contractible. The Mayer–Vietoris sequence givesFor example, the degree-two portion is , and the map from into is injective.
Now . It has and . Exactness gives andThis sequence splits: lift a generator of the quotient and extend its lift by integer multiples. Hence . In degree one the sequence becomesThe middle map has kernel generated by and cokernel . There are no higher groups, either by the same sequence or by the three-dimensional triangulation. Thus the homology of two disks meeting inside a sphere givesThe first-homology generator records a path from the sphere to the common interior point through one disk and back through the other; omitting that interior intersection would incorrectly remove this generator.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 17 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Label the six vertices clockwise, starting at the upper-left vertex. The arrows identify with , with , and with , preserving the indicated directions. Consequently the quotient space has exactly two vertices,Orient its three topological cells by , , and . The clockwise boundary of the hexagonal topological cell traversesEvery topological cell of dimension one therefore occurs once with each sign. The cellular chain complex, with integral coefficients, isHere the rows correspond to . The image of is the primitive subgroup generated by , and its kernel is freely generated by and . Thus the homology groups areThe two vertex classes are important: identifying all six vertices would give an incorrect cellular chain complex. The result agrees with the homology of a torus.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 17 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The torus map acts on byIts determinant is one, so it is an orientation-preserving homeomorphism and acts as the identity on both and .
To calculate the homology of its mapping torus, cover the time circle by two arcs. Each inverse image has the homotopy type of , while their intersection has two components of that homotopy type. The map in the Mayer–Vietoris sequence can be writtenAdding the output coordinates and using the input coordinate separates an identity map from . Canceling the identity summands gives the Wang sequence, and henceIn degree one,Its image and kernel are both generated by ; its cokernel is since this image is primitive. Its Smith normal form is , so its torsion subgroup is zero. On the other two nonzero homology groups of the torus, . The displayed short exact sequences split because their right-hand groups are free. ThereforeIn particular, the mapping torus contributes an additional degree-one class from the time circle, as well as the invariant degree-one class in the fiber.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 17 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Work with coefficients . For , the mod-two cohomology ring of real projective space and the Künneth theorem givewhere all three generators have degree one. Any induced map on cohomology has , with . By naturality of the cup product, the only possible term in top degree isAll other terms vanish because their exponent of or exceeds . Butis even for every . Thus the displayed top-degree induced map on cohomology is zero for every .
Both top-degree homology groups are one-dimensional over , and their dual cohomology groups pair with them nondegenerately. Naturality of this evaluation makes dual to , so is also zero and cannot be an isomorphism. This is the mod-two degree obstruction for equal projective factors. ConsequentlyIf zero is included among the allowed values, is a point and the unique map is an isomorphism on . In that convention, the only value is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 4 21H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For an open cover , the Mayer–Vietoris theorem gives the long exact sequenceThe same sequence holds for a union of simplicial subcomplexes. All homology groups here have integer coefficients.
An explicit triangulation of is as follows. Take vertices forming a target circle, a circle of vertices , and a cone vertex . With subscripts on interpreted modulo and on modulo three, include trianglesfor every , together with all their faces. The first two types triangulate the mapping cylinder of the degree- covering ; the last type fills the inner circle by a disc. A filled disc with an attached annular collar is still a disc, and identifying the outer collar boundary by this covering gives exactly the source quotient. Distinct inner vertices ensure this is a genuine simplicial complex, not just a one-cell presentation.
Let be the mapping cylinder and the coned disc. Then retracts to the target circle, is contractible and is the inner circle. Its inclusion into induces multiplication by on . The exact sequence therefore reduces toConnectedness and the absence of higher-dimensional simplices giveThis is a two-dimensional Moore space with torsion in degree one.
The suspension of a connected complex is the union of two cones whose intersection retracts to the original complex. Reduced Mayer-Vietoris givesIn particular its vanishes. For the wedge of two connected polyhedra, choose neighborhoods retracting onto the two summands with contractible intersection at the wedge point. ThenDecompose each prescribed into cyclic summands. Realize each infinite cyclic summand in degree by , and each finite nontrivial summand by , meaning successive suspensions. Take their finite wedge, or a point if there are no summands. The suspension formula shifts the torsion to degree and creates no other positive-degree homology, while the wedge formula adds summands. Thus the resulting connected polyhedron satisfies . The finite triangulations above, their simplicial suspensions and wedges provide an actual polyhedron.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 19 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose a generator of . The mapping degree of a continuous map is the integer determined byFor this is ordinary top-dimensional homology; using reduced homology also gives a convention for . Domain and target use the same orientation, so reversing the chosen generator in both leaves the integer unchanged. Homotopy invariance of homology makes the mapping degree invariant under homotopy.
We interpret the manifold criterion for a suspension in the category of nonempty topological manifolds without boundary, and “sphere” as homeomorphic to the standard sphere. Let have dimension . If , an explicit homeomorphism from its suspension to isIt is a continuous map that is a bijection: the two collapsed ends become the poles, and every other point determines and uniquely. The compact-to-Hausdorff continuous bijection theorem makes it a homeomorphism.
Conversely suppose is a topological manifold. Its open part shows its dimension is . At a suspension vertex there is an open cone neighbourhood on . It is contractible, while admits a deformation retraction onto . The long exact sequence in relative homology and excision give the local homology from a link calculationA point of a -dimensional topological manifold without boundary has local homology in degree and zero in all other degrees. ConsequentlyThus is an integral homology sphere. This conclusion alone does not identify its homeomorphism type.
If , it is also simply connected. Choose a cone neighbourhood of the vertex and an open coordinate ball around the vertex inside . By compactness of , sufficiently short entire cone neighbourhoods fit inside any neighbourhood of : the inverse image of that neighbourhood contains , and a finite subcover supplies one uniform collar length. Choose such a shorter cone . The inclusions of punctured neighbourhoods factor asThe composite induces an isomorphism of fundamental groups, since both cone punctures are products of with intervals and their inclusion is a homotopy equivalence. The middle punctured ball has the homotopy type of and is simply connected for . Hence the composite is also zero on the fundamental group, forcing . This uses the nested neighbourhoods, not an unsupported claim that an arbitrary punctured neighbourhood is a sphere.
The Hurewicz theorem, applied successively to the vanishing lower homology groups, now gives for and . A representative of its generator is a continuous map inducing an isomorphism in every integral homology degree. Topological manifolds have the homotopy type of CW complexes, so the homological Whitehead theorem makes it a homotopy equivalence. We have proved that is a homotopy sphere.
At this point the topological classification theorem is essential: the topological generalized Poincare theorem says that a closed homotopy sphere is homeomorphic to the standard sphere. Applying it completes the converse for . For , the local calculation makes a connected compact one-dimensional manifold without boundary, hence a circle. For , a compact zero-dimensional manifold is a finite set, and forces exactly two points. Thus it is . Altogether,The last classification step is not a consequence of homology alone, and we make no assertion of diffeomorphism with a prescribed smooth structure. If the word manifold allows boundary on both sides, the printed assertion needs this correction: the suspension of the interval is a closed disk. For instance identifies it with the filled diamond , although the interval is not a sphere.
To construct sphere maps of arbitrary integer degree, first use , for any integer , including the constant map when . Lifting its argument to the real line gives , so the fundamental one-cycle is sent to times itself. Therefore .
Two cone neighbourhoods cover a suspension; their intersection admits a deformation retraction onto the original space. The reduced Mayer–Vietoris theorem gives a natural suspension isomorphismNaturality means that the suspension of a continuous map induces the same integer multiplier. This proves degree under suspension. Using the standard identification , setThus every integer occurs in every positive sphere dimension, with negative degrees handled just as well as positive ones.
If “every ” includes zero, that final printed assertion is false. The generator of is the difference of its two points. A map of a two-point set is the identity, the transposition, or one of two constant maps, giving preciselyThese degrees of maps of the zero-sphere are the explicit exception to the arbitrary-degree construction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 19 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a CW complex , let be its -skeleton. The cellular chain complex isThe isomorphism uses excision and , after choosing an orientation for each cell. In degree zero, take and the free group on the vertices. The differential is the compositeThe long exact sequences of skeleton pairs imply . The cellular boundary formula describes its coefficient at a -cell as the mapping degree of the attaching sphere after all other -cells are collapsed. In degree one this is the signed difference of the two endpoints. The cellular homology theorem identifies the homology of this complex with singular homology: relative homology of successive skeletons is concentrated in their cell dimension, and the exact skeleton sequences leave precisely these kernels modulo images. This is the construction, rather than merely a count of cells.
The filtration gives one cell in each of dimensions zero, two and four, since . There are no odd-dimensional cells, so every cellular differential vanishes. ThusThe complex projective line has one zero-cell and one two-cell. Its product with itself has one zero-cell, two two-cells and one four-cell. Its cellular chain complex again has zero differentials, givingA homeomorphism induces isomorphisms on homology groups. The second groups have different ranks, and therefore
Now orient the Complex projective plane by its complex coordinates. The inclusion of its two-skeleton identifies the fundamental class of a projective line with a generator of : the cellular generator has no incoming three-cell boundary and no outgoing boundary.
Take the projective lines and . A path of unitary coordinate transformations takes one to the other, so their oriented homology classes are both . They meet in the single point . In its affine chart, let and . Their tangent spaces are the complex -axis and complex -axis, so the intersection is a transverse intersection. The ordered real basesconcatenate to the complex orientation of the ambient four-manifold. Thus the local sign is , andThis computes the intersection form using distinct representatives of the same class, avoiding an ill-defined attempt to count a line intersecting itself as a set. Bilinearity now givesEquivalently, the map sending to is an isomorphism. This is exactly a unimodular intersection pairing, and proves projective lines generate a unimodular intersection form. Reversing the ambient orientation would change the matrix to and would still be unimodular.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 14 1 2 Solution 2026-10-07
Write and let be its inclusion after the attachment. The cohomology ring of a product of two spheres iswhere come from the first and second factors and is the chosen orientation class. The diagonal pulls both and back to the same generator of .
There is one new three-cell. In the cellular chain complex, its boundary has coordinates in the two-dimensional cells. Thus the relevant differential isand the original four-cell still has zero boundary. This gives , , , and no other positive homology groups. Equivalently, the relative cohomology sequence of gives an injective restriction in degree two with image , and an isomorphism in degree four.
Choose and by , . Naturality of the cup product givesSince restriction is injective in degree four, . All further positive-degree cup products vanish by dimension. ThereforeChanging the sign of would instead give ; the displayed sign uses the product orientation . The factor is the characteristic feature of a cup square after a diagonal sphere attachment.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 14 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For , let denote concatenation in the first cube coordinate and let denote pointwise multiplication of maps into the topological group. Both operations descend to the homotopy group, and the constant map is their common identity. They satisfy the interchange rulewhich follows by considering the two halves of the first coordinate. Using the identity class givesTherefore . The equality is on based homotopy classes; the usual reparametrization homotopies justify the unit identities for concatenation. This is the Eckmann-Hilton argument, and proves homotopy-group addition in a topological group even for .
For the unit quaternions, the explicit inverse isBoth compositions cancel in the displayed order, without commuting the quaternions. Multiplication, inversion and all integer powers are continuous, so this proves that is a homeomorphism for all integers .
Put . Let be the standard generators of , represented by the first and second factors. The previous pointwise-multiplication result and the Hurewicz theorem imply that the mapping degree of on is , including negative integers. Restricting to the two factors therefore givesThe map on is the identity. For the top homology group, take the dual degree-three cohomology classes . We have , . Since these classes have odd degree, graded commutativity of the cup product givesThus is multiplication by on , and all other homology groups of the product are zero.
For the gluing, regard as the attaching identification from to . In these coordinates its first input is the boundary coordinate of , its second input the fibre coordinate; its second output is the boundary coordinate of the other . This makes the two pieces the usual two trivializations of a three-sphere bundle over the four-sphere.
Let and , and parametrize their common boundary using the coordinates. Collar neighbourhoods give an open cover with the same homotopy types, so the Mayer–Vietoris sequence applies. Both pieces retract onto . In degree three, the map into the homology of the pieces isIndeed, inclusion into retains the first output coordinate, while inclusion into retains the second input coordinate. Exactness now givesThe second relation eliminates the second generator of the cokernel, leaving a single generator with relation times that generator equal to zero. Thus . The kernel is zero if and is generated by if .
The degree-six boundary class gives . All remaining positive-degree groups outside degrees vanish by the same Mayer–Vietoris sequence; connectedness gives . Consequently the complete integral answer isHere means , and a negative gives the same cyclic group as . In particular, gives the integral homology of a seven-sphere, while gives the integral homology of .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 114 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The ordinary Poincare duality statement here is for a compact manifold without boundary, of dimension , oriented over the field . Its fundamental class induces isomorphismsfor every . For a manifold with boundary the appropriate statement is Poincare-Lefschetz duality with relative groups; the ordinary pairing need not be nondegenerate. Over a field, the universal coefficient theorem for cohomology identifies with the full dual of . The cap-cup evaluation identity and duality therefore makea perfect pairing. Explicitly, a nonzero has a nonzero cap product, and a linear functional on its homology group takes a nonzero value on that product. The same argument in the other variable proves nonsingularity. On the whole graded cohomology, define by taking the degree- part of before evaluation. For a nonzero component choose homogeneous of degree to pair nontrivially with it. All other components contribute zero in degree . This proves that the Poincare duality pairing is a nondegenerate bilinear form on ; it need not be symmetric on all degrees.
Put , so is positive and odd, and orient each by its product orientation. The Künneth theorem gives integral cohomology in degrees zero and , in degree , and zero elsewhere. Its two degree- generators have , equal to its top orientation class, and .
For a connected sum of oriented manifolds, excision and the long exact sequence for deleting a ball show that deleting a ball removes the top homology class and leaves all lower positive homology groups unchanged. The boundary sphere represents zero in the punctured manifold: it is the boundary of its relative fundamental chain. In the Mayer–Vietoris sequence for the two punctured pieces joined along the separating sphere, the orientation class of the connected sum maps onto that sphere's class. The intermediate positive groups are consequently the direct sums of the groups of the two original manifolds. This also covers , where the sphere is a circle and the boundary-class observation is necessary in the middle degree. Iterating and applying the universal coefficient theorem for cohomology givesHere ; under the conventional extension the same formula holds with a zero middle group.
Let be the top cohomological orientation class. The connected-sum pinch map to the wedge of the sphere products gives degree-one projections to each summand. Pull back the two factor classes from summand to obtain . Their product is , since the projection has degree one. Classes from different wedge summands have zero positive-degree cup products, and graded commutativity of the cup product supplies the reversed sign. Thus the full cohomology ring of a connected sum of odd-dimensional sphere products is the graded free abelian group just displayed with multiplicationThe unit is , and times any positive-degree class is zero by dimension. This describes all products, including .
The smooth involution is a diffeomorphism, since it is its own inverse. Its fixed set is closed; discreteness and compactness therefore make it finite. The supplied positivity of makes every fixed point nondegenerate with local index . The Lefschetz-Hopf fixed-point theorem then givesIndeed the degree-zero and top-degree traces are both one, because the manifold is connected and preserves its orientation; the middle degree is odd.
On , the form is a nondegenerate alternating bilinear form by Poincare duality and the oddness of . Thus it is a symplectic vector space of dimension . Naturality and orientation preservation show that preserves , and . For the eigenspaces of a symplectic involution, write : the polynomial has distinct roots over . If and , then , so the two vector subspaces are orthogonal. Each restricted form is nondegenerate, since a vector annihilating its own vector subspace also annihilates the other and hence all of . Their dimensions are therefore even, say , , with . ConsequentlyThis proves the fixed-point congruence for an involution on an odd-sphere connected sum:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 3 18I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Use singular homology with integer coefficients. The Künneth theorem for triangulable spaces gives a split short exact sequence with tensor terms and torsion terms . When one factor's homology groups are free abelian, the torsion terms vanish and the tensor map is an isomorphism.
The circle has and all other groups zero. Inductively, the homology groups of a torus are free, andPascal's identity givesGeometrically the generators correspond to choosing of the circle factors and taking their product, consistent with the cellular model having one -cell for each such subset and cancelling opposite boundary faces.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 114 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For chain maps , a chain homotopy from to is a family of group homomorphisms satisfyingIf is a chain cycle, then is a chain boundary. Consequently , so on every homology group.
Order the vertices of the simplex as . Its simplicial chain complex hasand zero groups otherwise. An arbitrary ordering represents the sign of the permutation times the increasing ordering. Its boundary operator isIn each face obtained by deleting the vertices in positions occurs twice. Deleting first gives sign , whereas deleting first gives . These signs are opposite, so all terms cancel. The case follows directly from . Thus .
For the homology calculation, add the augmentation sending every vertex to . Regard as the group in degree of an augmented chain complex. Define the simplicial cone chain contraction byIf the simplex does not contain , expansion of its coned boundary gives . If it contains , the only face on which is nonzero is the face omitting , and . In degree zero this uses the augmentation, and in degree it says . HenceEvery positive-degree chain cycle is therefore a chain boundary. In degree zero, the same identity says , so the augmentation induces an isomorphism , with inverse . Thus, including ,This is a direct chain homotopy calculation and uses no result about cellular homology.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 4 21F a i Solution Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-03
Suppose and that the interiors of and cover . The Mayer–Vietoris theorem gives the long exact sequence in homologywhere all four displayed maps except the connecting homomorphism are induced by the relevant inclusion maps.
To prove it, let be the chain complex generated by those singular simplices whose images lie wholly in or wholly in . The sequenceis a short exact sequence of chain complexes. Repeated barycentric subdivision makes every singular simplex small enough to lie in or , and the subdivision operator is chain homotopic to the identity. The inclusion therefore induces an isomorphism on every homology group. The long exact homology sequence of a short exact sequence of chain complexes now gives the displayed sequence. Explicitly, if an -cycle with and , then lies in and represents the connecting class .
Pinched torus 2026-10-14
Collapsing an essential meridian circle of a torus to one point gives the pinched torus. In the torus's CW structure, the two-cell attaches to two circles by the commutator. Collapsing one circle leaves one one-cell and a two-cell attached by a null-homotopic word. Thus the quotient is homotopy equivalent to . Its cellular chain groups are in degrees zero, one and two, with zero differentials, so its integral homology groups are and vanish in all higher degrees. This illustrates that collapsing a circle can preserve a top-dimensional homology class even while reducing the first homology rank.
Quasi-isomorphism 2026-10-06
A chain map inducing isomorphisms on all homology groups. The same definition applies to a map of cochain complexes using cohomology groups. A quasi-isomorphism need not be an isomorphism in each degree.
For a compact Riemann surface with a symplectic basis of its first homology group, cutting along that basis and integrating a primitive givesfor closed smooth one-forms. For a holomorphic differential form and a differential of the third kind , the corresponding boundary calculation givesThe paths and representatives of the cycles are chosen in the same cut surface. Normalized holomorphic differential forms consequently have a symmetric period matrix with positive definite imaginary part.
A homeomorphism preserves every homology group, hence the Euler characteristic wherever the finite rational Betti number sum is defined. In fact, homotopy invariance of homology makes Euler characteristic invariant under homotopy equivalence. Thus different finite CW complex structures on the same space have equal alternating cell counts.[ref]
Algebraic Topology by Allen Hatcher. Algebraic Topology, §2.2, p. 146, homotopy-type independence immediately before Theorem 2.44