Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / ii / Paper 3 / 17H / Solution

A simplicial approximation to $f:|K|\to |L|$ is a simplicial map $g:K\to L$ satisfying the open-star conditionfor every vertex $v$. Equivalently, whenever $f(x)$ lies in the interior of a simplex of $L$, $|g|(x)$ lies in that simplex. In particular $f$ and $|g|$ are joined by the simplexwise straight-line homotopy.

The Simplicial approximation theorem says that, for finite $K$, every continuous $f$ has such an approximation after sufficiently many barycentric subdivisions of $K$. For general complexes one uses a subdivision adapted to the open-star cover; a single uniform number of barycentric subdivisions is the compact-domain version.

Given triangulations $X\cong |K|$, $Y\cong |L|$, choose a simplicial approximation $g$ on a suitable subdivision $K^{\prime }$. Its chain map sends an oriented simplex $[v_0,\dots ,v_r]$ to $[g(v_0),\dots ,g(v_r)]$, with repeated-vertex simplices sent to zero. It commutes with the boundary operator and induces $g_{\ast }$. Compose this with the subdivision isomorphism $H_r(K)\to H_r(K^{\prime })$ and the triangulation identifications to define $f_{\ast }:H_r(X)\to H_r(Y)$.

For $z\mapsto z^n$, a positively oriented fundamental loop winds $n$ times around the target circle. With integer coefficients,All higher homology groups vanish. The $H_1$ result can also be read from a subdivision into $n$ copies of a target fundamental cycle.