Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 19 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We use the James reduced product theorem and the Bott–Samelson theorem: if is a connected based CW complex with free integral homology, then is a weak equivalence, and its induced Pontryagin ring isHere is the reduced suspension, is the tensor algebra, and the multiplication is induced by concatenating James words, hence by concatenating loops. Taking supplies a single generator of degree , sois free, with one generator in every degree and zero in the other degrees.
The diagonal makes this a homology coalgebra. The generator is a primitive homology class:There are no nontrivial lower positive degrees in which its reduced diagonal could land. Compatibility of the diagonal with loop multiplication givesThe degree of is even, so the two tensor factors commute without a Koszul sign rule.
The universal coefficient theorem for cohomology has no Ext terms here because homology is free. Let be the cohomology class dual to , with and . The cup product is dual to the diagonal, henceTherefore the integral cohomology ring is the divided power algebraExplicitly for , and all other cohomology groups vanish. In particular : over the integers this is not a polynomial ring on . This is the integral cohomology of an odd-sphere loop space.
For the requested homology multiplication, use the homology cross product followed by concatenation:The constant loop gives the degree-zero unit. Loop concatenation is associative up to homotopy, which suffices for associativity on homology; Moore loops can make the space-level operation strictly associative. The Künneth theorem identifies the tensor-product homology because its groups are free abelian groups. The Bott–Samelson theorem identifies this product with word multiplication, so . The Pontryagin ring of an odd-sphere loop space has presentationWith only one generator the tensor algebra has the indicated polynomial presentation. The homology product and the divided-power cohomology product are different operations.
Primitive lattice element 2026-10-06
A nonzero element of a free abelian group is primitive when it is part of an integral basis, equivalently when some homomorphism to takes it to one. Its coordinates have greatest common divisor one. This lattice meaning differs from a primitive homology class in the coalgebra sense.