Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 14 5 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Interpret the paired disks as the three one-handles of a genus-three handlebody. Attach two-handles on the two displayed curves. Orient the three disk-crossing generators as . Reading the signed crossings, starting at the upper-left portion of each attaching curve and changing the start point when needed, givesThe first says and the second . Thus the fundamental group presentation isHere . Cyclically changing the starting point, reversing an attaching curve, or changing generator orientations gives equivalent presentations. With , these relations make central; eliminating givesFor the topological identification, thicken the diagram's two nested bands and identify the three paired disk mouths. The complement of those bands is the product region of a pair of pants with a circle; its two compressing curves are exactly and . Equivalently, the standard cell decomposition of this product has three one-handles and the two commuting two-handle attachments shown. Thus this is a generalized Heegaard diagram of .
The Hopf fibration of has three disjoint regular fibers whose removal leaves . Its three fibers are the components of the torus link , as is also apparent from the full three-strand twist in the later link diagram. This identifies with that link exterior, using the diagram and product structure rather than just its fundamental group. In particular it is a link exterior in the three-sphere.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 14 5 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Give the three Hopf fibration components coherent orientations, so their pairwise linking numbers are one. In the link exterior, their longitudes satisfy . Filling along imposes that relation on first homology. For the three rational coefficients the presentation matrix isIts determinant is , and the greatest common divisor of its two-by-two minors is one (for example, and occur). Its Smith normal form is , soA nonzero rational coefficient with numerator one does not by itself make a multi-component surgery an integral homology sphere: the nonzero linking numbers must be included.
For the integer filling, use the Seifert fibered space structure . Its central regular fiber is , and each preferred longitude is . The three filling relations are consequentlySubstituting into gives . The remaining equations say , hence and . Thus its fundamental group is cyclic of order two.
Geometrically, a filling coefficient attaches a Seifert fibered space solid torus with multiplicity , the distance of from the regular fiber . The multiplicities are ; the middle filling creates no exceptional fiber. The result is a Seifert fibered space over the sphere with at most two exceptional fibers, hence a union of two solid tori, or a lens space. A lens space with fundamental group of order two is . ThereforeAs a separate arithmetic check, the integer surgery linking matrix has determinant , in agreement with its first homology of order two.