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 Basic
Algebraic
Topology

Anant R. Shastri
 Basic
Algebraic
Topology

Anant R. Shastri
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Mumbai,
Maharastra, India
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2014 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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Contents

Foreword vii

Preface ix

List of Symbols and Abbreviations xiii

Sectionwise Dependence Tree xv

1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Basic Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Fundamental Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3 Function Spaces and Quotient Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.4 Relative Homotopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.5 Some Typical Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.6 Cofibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1.7 Fibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
1.8 Categories and Functors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
1.9 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

2 Cell Complexes and Simplicial Complexes 63

2.1 Basics of Convex Polytopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
2.2 Cell Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
2.3 Product of Cell Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
2.4 Homotopical Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
2.5 Cellular Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
2.6 Abstract Simplicial Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
2.7 Geometric Realization of Simplicial Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
2.8 Barycentric Subdivision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
2.9 Simplicial Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
2.10 Links and Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
2.11 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

3 Covering Spaces and Fundamental Group 127

3.1 Basic Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
3.2 Lifting Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
3.3 Relation with the Fundamental Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
3.4 Classification of Covering Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
3.5 Group Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
3.6 Pushouts and Free Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
3.7 Seifert–van Kampen Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
3.8 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.9 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

iii
iv

4 Homology Groups 169

4.1 Basic Homological Algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
4.2 Singular Homology Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
4.3 Construction of Some Other Homology Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
4.4 Some Applications of Homology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
4.5 Relation between π1 and H1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
4.6 All Postponed Proofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
4.7 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

5 Topology of Manifolds 213

5.1 Set Topological Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
5.2 Triangulation of Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
5.3 Classification of Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
5.4 Basics of Vector Bundles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
5.5 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

6 Universal Coefficient Theorem for Homology 253

6.1 Method of Acyclic Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
6.2 Homology with Coefficients: The Tor Functor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
6.3 Künneth Formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
6.4 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

7 Cohomology 273
7.1 Cochain Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
7.2 Universal Coefficient Theorem for Cohomology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
7.3 Products in Cohomology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
7.4 Some Computations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
7.5 Cohomology Operations; Steenrod Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

8 Homology of Manifolds 303

8.1 Orientability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
8.2 Duality Theorems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
8.3 Some Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
8.4 de Rham Cohomology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
8.5 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

9 Cohomology of Sheaves 329

9.1 Sheaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
9.2 Injective Sheaves and Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
9.3 Cohomology of Sheaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
9.4 Čech Cohomology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
9.5 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

10 Homotopy Theory 357

10.1 H-spaces and H ′ -spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
10.2 Higher Homotopy Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
10.3 Change of Base Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
10.4 The Hurewicz Isomorphism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
10.5 Obstruction Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
10.6 Homotopy Extension and Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
10.7 Eilenberg–Mac Lane Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
10.8 Moore–Postnikov Decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
 v

10.9 Computation with Lie Groups and Their Quotients . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

10.10 Homology with Local Coefficients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
10.11 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

11 Homology of Fibre Spaces 415

11.1 Generalities about Fibrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
11.2 Thom Isomorphism Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
11.3 Fibrations over Suspensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
11.4 Cohomology of Classical Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
11.5 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

12 Characteristic Classes 445

12.1 Orientation and Euler Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
12.2 Construction of Steifel–Whitney Classes and Chern Classes . . . . . . . . . 452
12.3 Fundamental Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
12.4 Splitting Principle and Uniqueness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
12.5 Complex Bundles and Pontrjagin Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
12.6 Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

13 Spectral Sequences 463

13.1 Warm-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
13.2 Exact Couples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
13.3 Algebra of Spectral Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
13.4 Leray–Serre Spectral Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
13.5 Some Immediate Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
13.6 Transgression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484
13.7 Cohomology Spectral Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
13.8 Serre Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
13.9 Homotopy Groups of Spheres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Hints and Solutions 501

Bibliography 525

Index 531
Foreword

While the subject of algebraic topology began long before H. Poincaré’s Analysis Situs,
the discipline started to take shape only in the 1930s during which the foundation of mod-
ern algebraic topology was laid. Fundamental concepts such as manifolds, fiber spaces,
higher homotopy groups, and various homology and cohomology theories were firmly es-
tablished. Meanwhile, obstruction theory, cohomology operations, and spectral sequences
were among some of the powerful tools developed as the subject rapidly grew. By the 1960s
(see [Dieudonné, 1989]), algebraic topology was already a well-established discipline and
together with differential topology dominated much of mathematics at the time.
Applications to analysis and other fields were some of the motivating factors in the
early development of algebraic topology. For instance, the Lusternik–Schnirelmann (LS-)
category cat(X) of a topological space X was first introduced in the early 1930s as a means
to obtain information about the critical points of a functional. This subject was later taken
up and advanced by R. Palais and S. Smale (1963–64). The homotopy approach to the LS-
category by T. Ganea (1971) revived the subject. The so-called Ganea conjecture claiming
that cat(X × S n ) = cat(X) + 1 for any sphere S n with n > 0 attracted much attention until
a counter-example was given by N. Iwase in 1998. The study of the classical LS-category and
its many variants and their applications to analysis continues to be an active area of current
research. The classical Borsuk-Ulam theorem (first conjectured by S. Ulam and later proved
by K. Borsuk in 1933) is another example which has generated many new and interesting
problems with diverse applications in other fields such as combinatorics and economics (see
[Matousek, 2003]), among many others.
One of the deepest and most important theorems in homotopy theory is J. F. Adams’
work ([Adams, 1960]) on the Hopf invariant one problem, which asserts that the sphere S n
is an H-space exactly when n is 0, 1, 3, or 7. In 1966, an alternate proof by Adams and M.
Atiyah was given using Adams operations and topological K-theory. The study of stable
homotopy theory (see [Adams, 1974]) recently saw a major breakthrough when M. Hopkins,
M. Hill, and D. Ravenel resolved the so-called Kervaire-invariant one problem except in
dimension 126. The existence of smooth framed manifolds of Kervaire-invariant one has
been a long-standing problem in differential and algebraic topology. Through the work of
W. Browder (1969), the original problem is equivalent to a problem in stable homotopy
groups of spheres and it is known that such framed manifolds can only exist in dimension
n = 2j+1 − 2. The recent achievement of Hopkins et al. states that such manifolds exist
only in dimensions 2, 6, 14, 30, 62, and possibly 126.
Nowadays, every student in his or her first year of a Ph.D. program in mathematics must
take basic graduate courses in algebra, analysis, and geometry/topology. Algebraic topology
constitutes a significant portion of such basic knowledge a practicing mathematician should
know in geometry/topology. As suggested by the title, Professor Shastri’s book covers the
most basic and essential elements in algebraic topology. Similar to his other well-written
textbook [Shastri, 2011] on differential topology, Professor Shastri’s book gives a detailed
introduction to the vast subject of algebraic topology together with an abundance of care-
fully chosen exercises at the end of each chapter. The content of Professor Shastri’s book
furnishes the necessary background to access many major achievements such as the results

vii
viii

cited above, to explore current research work as well as the possible applications to other
branches of mathematics of modern algebraic topology.

Peter Wong
Lewiston, Maine
Preface

This book is intended for a two-semester first course in algebraic topology, though I would
recommend not to try to cover the whole thing in two semesters. A glance through the
contents page will tell the reader that the selection of topics is quite standard whereas the
sequencing of them may not be so. The material in the first five chapters is very basic and
quite enough for a semester course. A teacher can afford to be a little choosy in selecting
exactly which sections she may want to teach. There is more freedom in the choice of
material to be taught from latter chapters. It goes without saying that the material in later
chapters demands much higher mathematical maturity than the first five chapters. Also,
this is where some knowledge of differential manifolds helps to understand the material
better.
The book can be adopted as a text for M.Sc./B.Tech./M.Tech./Ph.D. students. We
assume that the readers of this book have gone through a semester course each in real
analysis and point-set-topology and some basic algebra. It is desirable that they also have
had a course in differential topology or are concurrently studying such a course, but that is
necessary only for a few sections. There are exercises at the end of many sections or within
a section, which involve a single theme of that particular section. There are Miscellaneous
Exercises at the end of most of the chapters, which may normally involve themes studied
thus far. Most of these exercises are part of the main material and working through them
is an essential part of learning. However, it is not necessary that a student get the right
answers before proceeding further. Also, it is not a good idea to get stuck with a problem
for too long—keep going further and come back to it later. There is a hint/solution manual
at the end of the book for some selected exercises, especially for those which are being used
in a later section, so as to make this book self-readable by any interested student. However,
peeping into the solutions at the beginning is like reading the last section of a thriller first.
You will notice that the number of exercises goes down as the chapters proceed for the
simple reason that more and more ‘routine verifications’ of claims in the main text are left
to the reader as exercises.
In the first chapter, we begin with a general discussion of what algebraic topology is and
what to expect from this book, and then go on to introduce one of the very basic algebraic
topological invariants, viz., the fundamental group. We then give a quick introduction to
some set topological results such as function spaces and quotient spaces, which are crucial
to understanding homotopy theory. The concept of relative homotopy, basics of cofibrations
and fibrations, and an introduction to the language of category theory, etc., make up the
rest of this chapter. No doubt the material here is used throughout the rest of the book and
a teacher/reader may choose only a part of it and go ahead with other chapters preferring
to come back later, to whatever is wanted.
In Chapter 2, we begin with an introduction to basics of convex polytopes laying down a
foundation for the study of simplicial complexes/polyhedral topology. We take the view that
simplicial complexes are a very special type of CW-complexes, with additional combinatorial
structure but with the same point-set-topological and homotopy theoretic behaviour. If
nothing else, this point of view saves us some time. Simplicial approximation theorem is

ix
x

one of the milestone results here. We give a number of applications of this. A simple proof
of Brouwer’s invariance of domain via Sperner’s lemma is one such.
Chapter 3 deals with the notion of covering spaces, along with the study of discontinuous
group actions and the relationship with fundamental group. We then give yet another pow-
erful tool of computation of the fundamental groups, viz., Seifert–Van Kampen theorems.
Grothendieck’s idea of G-coverings is introduced especially for this purpose.
In Chapter 4, we start the study of homology theory. With singular homology taking
centre stage, we also introduce CW-homology, simplicial homology, etc. Standard applica-
tions to results such as Brouwer’s and Lefschetz’s fixed point theorems, hairy ball theorem,
Jordan-Brouwer separation theorem, Brouwer’s invariance of domain, etc., are included.
We also give the result which relates fundamental group with the first homology group,
paving the way for a more general result known as Hurewicz’s isomorphism theorem to be
discussed in Chapter 10. The emphasis here is to get familiar with the tools so as to start
using them rather than the theory and the proofs. So, most of the long and pedagogically
less important proofs have been clubbed together in one section.
In Chapter 5, we introduce topological manifolds, the central objects of study in topol-
ogy. This chapter also contains a topological classification of compact surfaces by first show-
ing that they are all triangulable. We also include some preparatory materials on vector
bundles and fibrations.
Chapter 6 contains more algebraic tools which help us to develop homology with coef-
ficients and study homology of product spaces, etc. (Method of acyclic models should not
be postponed any more.) Künneth formula is an important result here.
In Chapter 7, we develop cohomology algebra, carry out some computations and ap-
plications, and discuss cohomology operations. Steenrod squares are constructed and their
fundamental properties are verified but the proof of the uniqueness is omitted. Similarly,
though we discuss Adem’s relations to some extent and verify them on finite product of
infinite real projective spaces, further discussion is postponed to Chapter 10.
In Chapter 8, we return to the study of manifolds. Poincaré duality theorem is the
central result here. We include a number of variants of it such as Alexander duality and
Lefschetz’s duality. Bootstrap lemma which plays the central role in the proof here is taken
from [Bredon, 1977]. Various applications of duality are included. The notion of degree and
the index of a 4n-dimensional smooth manifold, etc., are discussed. This chapter ends with
another important result, viz., de Rham’s Theorem which relates the singular cohomology
with that of cohomology of differential forms on a smooth manifold. The proof here does
not use sheaf cohomology.
Chapter 9 contains more topics on cohomology. We introduce the important concept of
sheaves and basics of sheaf cohomology, and Čech cohomology of sheaves. As an application
we present the standard proof of de Rham’s theorem.
Chapter 10 is the heart of the book. With a somewhat digressive note on H-spaces
and co H-spaces in Section 10.1, we quickly reintroduce higher homotopy groups (which
have been introduced in the Miscellaneous Exercises to Chapter 1) and verify their basic
properties, in Section 10.2. In Section 10.3, we thoroughly discuss the effect of change
of base points on homotopy groups. In Section 10.4, we present Hurewicz’s isomorphism
theorem, Whitehead’s theorem, etc. In Section 10.5, we are able to address one of the
central problems that we had posed in Section 1.1, through obstruction theory. In Section
10.6, we give a number of applications to extension and classification problems such as
Eilenberg classification and Hopf–Whitney theorem. As a natural fall-out, the homotopy
theoretic building blocks, viz., the Eilenberg–Mac Lane spaces are introduced in Chapter
10.7. As an application, we continue our discussion on Steenrod squares and show how to
prove Adem’s relations modulo a technical result of Serre on the structure of cohomology
algebra of K(Zm ; Z2 )-spaces. In Section 10.8, we present a method of breaking up spaces
 Acknowledgments xi

into these building blocks, viz., Moore-Postnikov decomposition. We then carry out some
elementary computations with the homotopy groups of classical groups in Section 10.9. The
chapter ends with the section on homology with local coefficients.
In Chapter 11, we return again to the study of homology. Here the theme is to relate
the homology of the total space of a fibration with that of the base and the fibre under
special conditions. We first consider the case when the fibre is a sphere. After establishing
the celebrated Thom isomorphism theorem, and as a consequence the Gysin exact homology
sequences, we present a generalization of this, viz., Leray Hirsch theorem. We then consider
fibrations in which the base is a sphere. Since the technique involved uses only the fact
that spheres are suspensions, we treat the broader class of fibrations over suspensions.
Wang homology exact sequence and Freudenthal’s homotopy suspension theorem are two
important results here. We give an application to computation of the integral homology of
the Eilenberg-Mac Lane space of type (Z, 3). We then compute the cohomology algebra of
some of the classical groups. As a necessity, we include Borel’s structure theorem for Hopf
algebras.
Chapter 12 is a quick introduction to characteristic classes of vector bundles. In Section
12.1, we discuss orientation and Euler class. The relation between Euler class and the Euler
characteristic is the main result here. In section 12.2, we give constructions of Steifel–
Whitney classes and Chern classes, treating both of them simultaneously. Section 12.3
contains discussion of standard properties of these characteristic classes and applications to
non-existence of division algebras and un-oriented cobordism theory. Section 12.4 contains
the splitting principle and the proof of uniqueness of characteristic classes. In section 12.5,
we study complex vector bundles and Pontrjagin classes and give some applications to
oriented cobordism theory. All in all, our treatment of this subject here is merely a glimpse
of the theory of characteristic classes and is far from being complete.
The last chapter introduces spectral sequences. After some brief discussion of gener-
alities, we concentrate on one particular spectral sequence, viz., the Leray–Serre spectral
sequence of a fibration. We first give the construction of homology spectral sequence, give
some immediate applications. For instance, we show how to derive both Gysin sequence
and Wang sequence from spectral sequence. We then discuss transgression in homology.
In Section 13.7, we discuss cohomology spectral sequences with product structure without
proof. (Theorem 13.7.4 is one of the few results in the book that we have used without
proving it.) This is immediately applied in obtaining the structure of cohomology algebra
of the loop space ΩX under two different types of assumptions on the cohomology algebra
of X. In Section 13.8, we introduce “Serre class of abelian groups” and generalize several
homotopy theoretic results of Chapter 10. For example, an immediate consequence here is
that all homotopy groups of all the spheres are finitely generated. The book concludes with
a presentation of Serre’s celebrated results on higher homotopy groups.
According to Ahlfors, no teacher should follow any single book in toto. There is a certain
amount of comprehensiveness in the early chapters, which is time consuming but deliberate.
For instance, a lot of material in the later chapters can be understood without the knowledge
of Van Kampen theorem. So, I have included a ‘section-wise dependence tree’ which may
help a teacher to make his/her pick-and-choose course plan and then tell the students to
read the book for the rest of the stuff.

Acknowledgments
I have benefited mainly from [Spanier, 1966] and [Whitehead, 1978]. In addition, the
books [Bredon, 1977], [Fulton, 1995], [Hatcher, 2002], [Husemoller, 1994], [McCleary, 2001],
[Milnor–Stasheff, 1974], [Mosher–Tangora, 1968], [Ramanan, 2004], [Seifert–Threlfall, 1990],
xii

etc., were also used whenever I needed extra help or have found an irresistibly beautiful pre-
sentation. The bibliography contains the list of all of these from which I may have borrowed
something or the other.
This book grew out of regular courses that I have taught to M.Sc. and Ph.D. students
since 1989 at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Initially, I was mostly following the
classic book [Spanier, 1966] from which I have myself learned algebraic topology. Invariably,
most of the students were finding the course difficult and so I started writing my own notes
in Chi-writer. When Allen Hatcher’s book on the subject arrived, it was a big relief and
writing my own notes came to an end. With some younger faculty at the department willing
to teach algebraic topology, I was not teaching the course so regularly any more.
The interest in writing the notes was revived when we started the Advanced Training in
Mathematics (ATM) schools under the aegis of the National Board for Higher Mathematics,
DAE, Govt. of India. However, the old Chi-writer notes were lost since the old floppies which
had those files had become unreadable. So, the present version has grown out of these notes
for the Annual Foundation Schools and Advanced Instructional Schools of ATM schools.
The revision efforts were supported twice by the Curriculum Development Programme of
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
In the first year of my graduation at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, I received
a lot of help and encouragement from Anand Doraswami with whom I was sharing my office,
while working through exercises in [Spanier, 1966]. M. S. Raghunathan, R. R. Simha and
Gopal Prasad have educated me through ‘coffee table discussions.’ Interaction with several
students in the department as well as at ATM schools have helped me in understanding
and presenting the material in a better way. Many friends such as Parameswaran Sankaran,
Basudev Datta, Goutam Mukherjee, Mahuya Datta, Keerti Vardhan, and students B. Sub-
hash and K. Ramesh have gone through various parts of these notes and pointed out errors,
and have suggested improvements in presentation. Discussions with colleague Gopal Srini-
vasan were always informative. My heartfelt thanks to all these people. The errors which
still persist are all due to my own limitations. Readers are welcome to report them to me
so that I can keep updating the corrections on my website

http://www.math.iitb.ac.in/∼ars/
Thanks to Prof. Peter Wong for providing a friendly foreword. Finally, my thanks to
CRC Press for publishing these notes and for doing an excellent job of converting it into a
book.

Anant R. Shastri
Department of Mathematics
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Powai, Mumbai
List of Symbols and Abbreviations

N set of natural numbers Z ring of integers

Q field of rational numbers R field of real numbers
C field of complex numbers H skew field of quaternions
Zm ring of integers modulo m I unit interval [0, 1] ⊂ R
Dn unit disc in Rn Sn−1 unit sphere in Rn
Pn real projective space of dim. n CPn complex projective space of dim. n
R∞ countable infinite sum of R S∞ unit sphere in R∞
P∞ infinite real projective space CP∞ infinite complex projective space
CX cone over X SX suspension of X
Cf mapping cone of f Mf mapping cylinder of f
LHS left hand side RHS right hand side
WLOG without loss of generality NDR neighbourhood deformation retract
DR deformation retract SDR strong deformation retract
HED homotopy extension data HEP homotopy extension property
HLD homotopy lifting data HLP homotopy lifting property
UCT universal coefficient theorem UPL unique path lifting property
PID principal ideal domain ♠ end of the proof

xiii
Sectionwise Dependence Tree

1.1 − 1.5 1.6 − 1.7 1.8

2.1 2.2 − 2.5 2.6 − 2.10

3.1 − 3.7 3.8

4.1 − 4.5 4.6

5.1 5.2 − 5.3 5.4 − 5.5

6.1 − 6.4

7.1 − 7.4 7.5

8.1 − 8.3 8.4

9.1 − 9.3 9.4

10.1 − 10.3 10.4 10.5 − 10.8 10.9 10.10

11.1 − 11.8

12.1 − 12.5

13.1 − 13.8 13.9

xv
Chapter 1
Introduction

We shall assume that the readers of this book have had a course in general point-set topology
and are familiar with some basic notions such as connectedness, path connectedness, local
path-connectedness, compactness, Hausdorffness, etc. Some of the slightly more advanced
topics such as function spaces, quotient spaces, etc., will be recalled as a ready reference.
Throughout this exposition, we shall use the word ‘space’ to mean a topological space.
Similarly, we shall use the word ‘map’ to mean a continuous function between topological
spaces. This however, does not forbid us from using terminologies such as ‘linear map’ or
‘simplicial map’, etc., wherein we may not really be bothered about the function being
continuous, the emphasis being on something else.
In Section 1.1, we begin with an attempt to describe what algebraic topology is and
what to expect from this book, and discuss an experiment with the Möbius band.
In Section 1.2, as a typical motivating example of tools of algebraic topology, we intro-
duce the concept of fundamental group of a topological space, establish some basic prop-
erties and compute it in the case of the circle. Applications to (2-dimensional) Brouwer’s
fixed point theorem, Borsuk-Ulam theorem, etc., are included, which illustrate the power
of categorical constructions in general, and the fundamental group in particular.
In Section 1.3, we shall quickly introduce the compact open topology and quotient spaces.
These are fundamental point-set-topological background needed to understand homotopies
and constructions in algebraic topology. Section 1.4 will plunge the reader into technical-
ities of relative homotopy. In Section 1.5, we give certain basic constructions which keep
cropping up repeatedly in algebraic topology. In Sections 6 and 7, we introduce the reader
to cofibrations and fibrations, respectively. In Section 1.7, the language of category theory
is introduced.
This chapter, like many others, will end with a large number of doable and challenging
exercises. It is not necessary that the reader solve all of them before proceeding with the
book but she is expected to give a good try. The joy that one gets after cracking a problem
on one’s own is perhaps the best motivation for many of us for doing mathematics.

1.1 The Basic Problem

A central problem in topology is to determine whether two given topological spaces
are homeomorphic or not. For instance, we all know that any two open intervals in R are
homeomorphic to each other, since we can actually write down a homeomorphism in each
case. On the other hand, we also know that a closed interval and an open interval are not
homeomorphic to each other because the former is compact whereas the latter is not.
In general, displaying such homeomorphisms between topological spaces becomes very
difficult. On the other hand, it is fruitful and easier to find out that there is no homeomor-
phism between two given specific spaces X and Y. The standard method is to look for a
suitable ‘topological invariant’ such as compactness, connectedness, etc., which is present
in one of the two spaces and absent in the other.
Let us consider an example. Let us show that R and R2 are not homeomorphic. If

1
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