Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 114 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The real tautological line bundle has total space and projection . On the open chart , the vector is a continuous nowhere-zero section of a vector bundle, independent of the representative of . The explicit local trivialization iswith inverse . Both maps are continuous and linear on each fiber. The charts cover the base, proving the existence of the required local trivializations.
Let be a rank- vector bundle oriented over a commutative ring , with . An -orientation is a coherent choice of generator of each fiber's top relative cohomology, or equivalently a Thom class . The Thom isomorphism theorem identifies with by . The disk bundle retracts to , and the relative-to-absolute map becomes multiplication by the Euler class . The pair's long exact sequence therefore becomes the Gysin sequence of a sphere bundle:With real coefficients, the bundle must be oriented in the usual sense. For the computation here use , over which every real vector bundle is oriented, including the nonorientable real tautological line bundle when .
The unit sphere bundle of is : a unit vector determines its line. Put . For , the pullback is an isomorphism, so the next connecting homomorphism is zero and multiplication by is injective on . Since the sphere's cohomology vanishes strictly between degrees zero and , exactness makes multiplication by an isomorphism for , and injective for . For these assertions also use the just-noted vanishing of the connecting homomorphism from .
The standard -dimensional CW complex structure of Real projective space gives for . Consequently the segment makes at most one-dimensional. The preceding injectivity makes it exactly one-dimensional, generated by . This includes ; is a point separately. We have derived the multiplication, not just the dimensions:
An odd map between spheres descends to . The odd maps pull back the real tautological line bundle argument gives : with a unit vector the fiber map is , unchanged when is replaced by . Naturality of the first Stiefel–Whitney class gives . If , the relation would imply in a ring where this power is nonzero. Hence . The case is immediate, and the same argument rules out .
For the map with separate oddness, pass to . Let be the degree-one classes from its two domain factors and the target class. There is an isomorphismgiven on fibers by ; flipping either unit representative leaves this map well defined. The First Stiefel–Whitney class of a tensor product of real line bundles gives . By the Künneth theorem,Pulling back shows that . The two end monomials already vanish, while every interior monomial , , is a distinct nonzero basis element. Therefore all interior binomial coefficients in row are even. To identify such rows, write . In repeated squaring gives . If has at least two elements, the coefficient of is one and its exponent is strictly between zero and , a contradiction. Thus is a power of two, as in binomial coefficients with even interior terms, andThis is the necessary cohomological obstruction to separately odd sphere multiplication; it does not assert existence in every dimension of this form.
Real tautological line bundle 2026-10-05
Over Real projective space , the real tautological line bundle isOn the standard chart , let . A local trivialization sends to , with inverse . These maps prove that this is a real line bundle. Its unit sphere bundle is the antipodal map quotient . Its mod-two Euler class of a real line bundle is the degree-one generator of the mod-two cohomology ring of real projective space.