DOCSLIB.ORG

Differential Topology Forty-Six Years Later

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Differential Topology Forty-Six Years Later Differential Topology Forty-six Years Later John Milnor n the 1965 Hedrick Lectures,1 I described its uniqueness up to a PL-isomorphism that is the state of differential topology, a field that topologically isotopic to the identity. In particular, was then young but growing very rapidly. they proved the following. During the intervening years, many problems Theorem 1. If a topological manifold Mn without in differential and geometric topology that boundary satisfies Ihad seemed totally impossible have been solved, 3 n 4 n often using drastically new tools. The following is H (M ; Z/2) = H (M ; Z/2) = 0 with n ≥ 5 , a brief survey, describing some of the highlights then it possesses a PL-manifold structure that is of these many developments. unique up to PL-isomorphism. Major Developments (For manifolds with boundary one needs n > 5.) The corresponding theorem for all manifolds of The first big breakthrough, by Kirby and Sieben- dimension n ≤ 3 had been proved much earlier mann [1969, 1969a, 1977], was an obstruction by Moise [1952]. However, we will see that the theory for the problem of triangulating a given corresponding statement in dimension 4 is false. topological manifold as a PL (= piecewise-linear) An analogous obstruction theory for the prob- manifold. (This was a sharpening of earlier work lem of passing from a PL-structure to a smooth by Casson and Sullivan and by Lashof and Rothen- structure had previously been introduced by berg. See [Ranicki, 1996].) If B and B are the Top PL Munkres [1960, 1964a, 1964b] and Hirsch [1963]. stable classifying spaces (as described in the lec- (See also [Hirsch-Mazur, 1974].) Furthermore, Cerf tures), they showed that the relative homotopy had filled in a crucial step, proving by a difficult group π (B ,B ) is cyclic of order two for j = 4, j Top PL geometric argument that the space of orientation- and zero otherwise. Given an n-dimensional topo- preserving diffeomorphisms of the three-sphere logical manifold Mn, it follows that there is an is connected. (See the Cartan Seminar Lectures of obstruction o ∈ H4(Mn; Z/2) to triangulating Mn 1962/63, as well as [Cerf, 1968].) Combined with ≥ as a PL-manifold. In dimensions n 5 this is other known results, this led to the following. the only obstruction. Given such a triangulation, there is a similar obstruction in H3(Mn; Z/2) to Theorem 2. Every PL-manifold of dimension n ≤ 7 possesses a compatible differentiable structure, John Milnor is professor of mathematics at Stony Brook and this structure is unique up to diffeomorphism University. His email address is [email protected]. whenever n < 7. The author would like to thank Mike Hopkins, Rob Kirby, For more information see Further Details at the Mark Mahowald, John Morgan, Larry Siebenmann, and Jonathan Sondow for their help. He also wants to thank end of this article. the NSF for its support under grant DMSO757856. The next big breakthrough was the classifi- 1These lectures have recently been digitized by MSRI and cation of simply connected closed topological should be available soon. Thanks to Dusa McDuff for 4-manifolds by Freedman [1982]. He proved, us- unearthing the original tapes. (With regard to Wilder’s ing wildly nondifferentiable methods, that such a introduction, compare [Milnor, 1999].) manifold is uniquely determined by 804 Notices of the AMS Volume 58, Number 6 (1) the isomorphism class of The Poincaré Hypothesis: Three Versions the symmetric bilinear form First consider the purely topological version. H2 ⊗ H2 → H4 ≅ Z , where Theorem 3. The topological Poincaré hypothesis is Hk = Hk(M4; Z), together with true in all dimensions. (2) the Kirby-Siebenmann invariant o ∈ H4(M4; Z/2) ≅ Z/2. That is, every closed topological manifold with the homotopy type of an n-sphere is actually These can be prescribed arbitrarily, except for homeomorphic to the n-sphere. For n > 4 this was two restrictions: The bilinear form must have proved by Newman [1966] and by Connell [1967], determinant ±1; and in the “even case” where both making use of the “engulfing method” of x ∪ x ≡ 0 (mod 2 H4) for every x ∈ H2, the Stallings [1960]. For n = 4 it is of course due to Kirby-Siebenmann class must be congruent to Freedman. For n = 3 it is due to Perelman, using (1/8)th of the signature. As an example, the Moise [1952] to pass from the topological to the Poincaré hypothesis for 4-dimensional topological PL case, and then using the Munkres-Hirsch-Mazur manifolds is an immediate consequence. For if obstruction theory to pass from PL to smooth. M4 is a homotopy sphere, then both H2 and the obstruction class must be zero. Theorem 4. The piecewise-linear Poincaré hypoth- One year later, Donaldson [1983] used gauge esis is true for n-dimensional manifolds except pos- theoretic methods to show that many of these sibly when n = 4. topological manifolds cannot possess any smooth That is, any closed PL manifold of dimension structure (and hence by Theorem 2 cannot be n = 4 with the homotopy type of an n-sphere is triangulated as PL-manifolds). More explicitly, if PL-homeomorphic to the n-sphere. For n > 4 this 4 M is smooth and simply connected with positive was proved by Smale [1962]; while for n = 3 it definite bilinear form, he showed that this form follows from Perelman’s work, together with the must be diagonalizable; hence M4 must be home- Munkres-Hirsch-Mazur obstruction theory. omorphic to a connected sum of copies of the The differentiable Poincaré hypothesis is more complex projective plane. There are many posi- complicated, being true in some dimensions tive definite bilinear forms with determinant 1, and false in others, while remaining totally and with signature divisible by 16 in the even mysterious in dimension 4. We can formulate case, which are not diagonalizable. (See, for ex- the question more precisely by noting that the ample, [Milnor-Husemoller, 1973].) Each of these set of all oriented diffeomorphism classes of corresponds to a topological manifold M4 with closed smooth homotopy n-spheres (= topological 4 no smooth structure but such that M × R does n-spheres) forms a commutative monoid Sn under have a smooth structure that is unique up to the connected sum operation. In fact this monoid diffeomorphism. is actually a finite abelian group except possibly The combination of Freedman’s topological re- when n = 4. Much of the following outline is sults and Donaldson’s analytic results quickly led based on [Kervaire-Milnor, 1963], which showed in to rather amazing consequences. For example, it principle how to compute these groups2 in terms followed that there are uncountably many noniso- of the stable homotopy groups of spheres for morphic smooth or PL structures on R4. (Compare n > 4. Unfortunately, many proofs were put off to [Gompf, 1993].) All other dimensions are better part 2 of this paper, which was never completed. behaved: For n > 4, Stallings [1962] showed that However, the missing arguments have been the topological space Rn has a unique PL-structure supplied elsewhere; see especially [Levine, 1985]. up to PL-isomorphism. Using the Moise result for Using Perelman’s result for n = 3, the group Sn n < 4 together with the Munkres-Hirsch-Mazur ob- can be described as follows for small n (Table 1). struction theory, it follows that the differentiable (Here, for example, 2 · 8 stands for the group Z Z structure of Rn is unique up to diffeomorphism /2 ⊕ /8, and 1 stands for the trivial group.) for all n = 4. Thus the differentiable Poincaré hypothesis is A satisfactory theory of three-dimensional man- true in dimensions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 12, but ifolds took longer. The first milestone was the unknown in dimension 4. I had conjectured that it geometrization conjecture by Thurston [1982, would be false in all higher dimensions. However, 1986], which set the goal for what a theory Mahowald has pointed out that there is at least of three-manifolds should look like. This con- 2The Kervaire-Milnor paper worked rather with the jecture was finally verified by Perelman [2002, group n of homotopy spheres up to h-cobordism. This 2003a, 2003b], using a difficult argument based makesΘ a difference only for n = 4, since it is known, on the “Ricci flow” partial differential equation. using the h-cobordism theorem of Smale [1962], that (Compare the expositions of Morgan-Tian [2007] ≅ Sn → n for n = 4. However, the difference is important and Kleiner-Lott [2008].) The three-dimensional in theΘ four-dimensional case, since 4 is trivial, while the Poincaré hypothesis followed as a special case. structure of S4 is the great unsolvedΘ problem. June/July 2011 Notices of the AMS 805 Table 1 n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Sn 1 1 1 ? 1 1 28 2 2·2·2 6 992 1 3 2 2·8128 2 2·8 2·8 bp one more exceptional case: The group S61 is also where Sn ⊂ Sn stands for the subgroup trivial. (Compare Further Details below.) represented by homotopy spheres that bound parallelizable manifolds. This subgroup is the Problem. Is the group S nontrivial for all n part of S that is best understood. It can be n > 6 , n = 12, 61? n partially described as follows. (Any precise computation for large n is impossi- Theorem 5. = Sbp ble at the present time, since the stable homotopy For n 4 the group n is finite cyclic groups of spheres have been computed completely with an explicitly known generator.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Persistent Obstruction Theory for a Model Category of Measures with Applications to Data Merging
    TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, SERIES B Volume 8, Pages 1–38 (February 2, 2021) https://doi.org/10.1090/btran/56 PERSISTENT OBSTRUCTION THEORY FOR A MODEL CATEGORY OF MEASURES WITH APPLICATIONS TO DATA MERGING ABRAHAM D. SMITH, PAUL BENDICH, AND JOHN HARER Abstract. Collections of measures on compact metric spaces form a model category (“data complexes”), whose morphisms are marginalization integrals. The fibrant objects in this category represent collections of measures in which there is a measure on a product space that marginalizes to any measures on pairs of its factors. The homotopy and homology for this category allow measurement of obstructions to finding measures on larger and larger product spaces. The obstruction theory is compatible with a fibrant filtration built from the Wasserstein distance on measures. Despite the abstract tools, this is motivated by a widespread problem in data science. Data complexes provide a mathematical foundation for semi- automated data-alignment tools that are common in commercial database software. Practically speaking, the theory shows that database JOIN oper- ations are subject to genuine topological obstructions. Those obstructions can be detected by an obstruction cocycle and can be resolved by moving through a filtration. Thus, any collection of databases has a persistence level, which measures the difficulty of JOINing those databases. Because of its general formulation, this persistent obstruction theory also encompasses multi-modal data fusion problems, some forms of Bayesian inference, and probability cou- plings. 1. Introduction We begin this paper with an abstraction of a problem familiar to any large enterprise. Imagine that the branch offices within the enterprise have access to many data sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Obstructions, Extensions and Reductions. Some Applications Of
    Obstructions, Extensions and Reductions. Some applications of Cohomology ∗ Luis J. Boya Departamento de F´ısica Te´orica, Universidad de Zaragoza. E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain [email protected] October 22, 2018 Abstract After introducing some cohomology classes as obstructions to ori- entation and spin structures etc., we explain some applications of co- homology to physical problems, in especial to reduced holonomy in M- and F -theories. 1 Orientation For a topological space X, the important objects are the homology groups, H∗(X, A), with coefficients A generally in Z, the integers. A bundle ξ : E(M, F ) is an extension E with fiber F (acted upon by a group G) over an space M, noted ξ : F → E → M and it is itself a Cech˘ cohomology element, arXiv:math-ph/0310010v1 8 Oct 2003 ξ ∈ Hˆ 1(M,G). The important objects here the characteristic cohomology classes c(ξ) ∈ H∗(M, A). Let M be a manifold of dimension n. Consider a frame e in a patch U ⊂ M, i.e. n independent vector fields at any point in U. Two frames e, e′ in U define a unique element g of the general linear group GL(n, R) by e′ = g · e, as GL acts freely in {e}. An orientation in M is a global class of frames, two frames e (in U) and e′ (in U ′) being in the same class if det g > 0 where e′ = g · e in the overlap of two patches. A manifold is orientable if it is ∗To be published in the Proceedings of: SYMMETRIES AND GRAVITY IN FIELD THEORY.
    [Show full text]
  • Hirschdx.Pdf
    130 5. Degrees, Intersection Numbers, and the Euler Characteristic. 2. Intersection Numbers and the Euler Characteristic M c: Jr+1 Exercises 8. Let be a compad lHlimensionaJ submanifold without boundary. Two points x, y E R"+' - M are separated by M if and only if lkl(x,Y}.MI * O. lSee 1. A complex polynomial of degree n defines a map of the Riemann sphere to itself Exercise 7.) of degree n. What is the degree of the map defined by a rational function p(z)!q(z)? 9. The Hopfinvariant ofa map f:5' ~ 5' is defined to be the linking number Hlf) ~ 2. (a) Let M, N, P be compact connected oriented n·manifolds without boundaries Lk(g-l(a),g-l(b)) (see Exercise 7) where 9 is a c~ map homotopic 10 f and a, b are and M .!, N 1. P continuous maps. Then deg(fg) ~ (deg g)(deg f). The same holds distinct regular values of g. The linking number is computed in mod 2 if M, N, P are not oriented. (b) The degree of a homeomorphism or homotopy equivalence is ± 1. f(c) * a, b. *3. Let IDl. be the category whose objects are compact connected n-manifolds and whose (a) H(f) is a well-defined homotopy invariant off which vanishes iff is nuD homo- topic. morphisms are homotopy classes (f] of maps f:M ~ N. For an object M let 7t"(M) (b) If g:5' ~ 5' has degree p then H(fg) ~ pH(f). be the set of homotopy classes M ~ 5".
    [Show full text]
  • PIECEWISE LINEAR TOPOLOGY Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Basic
    PIECEWISE LINEAR TOPOLOGY J. L. BRYANT Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Basic Definitions and Terminology. 2 3. Regular Neighborhoods 9 4. General Position 16 5. Embeddings, Engulfing 19 6. Handle Theory 24 7. Isotopies, Unknotting 30 8. Approximations, Controlled Isotopies 31 9. Triangulations of Manifolds 33 References 35 1 2 J. L. BRYANT 1. Introduction The piecewise linear category offers a rich structural setting in which to study many of the problems that arise in geometric topology. The first systematic ac- counts of the subject may be found in [2] and [63]. Whitehead’s important paper [63] contains the foundation of the geometric and algebraic theory of simplicial com- plexes that we use today. More recent sources, such as [30], [50], and [66], together with [17] and [37], provide a fairly complete development of PL theory up through the early 1970’s. This chapter will present an overview of the subject, drawing heavily upon these sources as well as others with the goal of unifying various topics found there as well as in other parts of the literature. We shall try to give enough in the way of proofs to provide the reader with a flavor of some of the techniques of the subject, while deferring the more intricate details to the literature. Our discussion will generally avoid problems associated with embedding and isotopy in codimension 2. The reader is referred to [12] for a survey of results in this very important area. 2. Basic Definitions and Terminology. Simplexes. A simplex of dimension p (a p-simplex) σ is the convex closure of a n set of (p+1) geometrically independent points {v0, .
    [Show full text]
  • New Ideas in Algebraic Topology (K-Theory and Its Applications)
    NEW IDEAS IN ALGEBRAIC TOPOLOGY (K-THEORY AND ITS APPLICATIONS) S.P. NOVIKOV Contents Introduction 1 Chapter I. CLASSICAL CONCEPTS AND RESULTS 2 § 1. The concept of a fibre bundle 2 § 2. A general description of fibre bundles 4 § 3. Operations on fibre bundles 5 Chapter II. CHARACTERISTIC CLASSES AND COBORDISMS 5 § 4. The cohomological invariants of a fibre bundle. The characteristic classes of Stiefel–Whitney, Pontryagin and Chern 5 § 5. The characteristic numbers of Pontryagin, Chern and Stiefel. Cobordisms 7 § 6. The Hirzebruch genera. Theorems of Riemann–Roch type 8 § 7. Bott periodicity 9 § 8. Thom complexes 10 § 9. Notes on the invariance of the classes 10 Chapter III. GENERALIZED COHOMOLOGIES. THE K-FUNCTOR AND THE THEORY OF BORDISMS. MICROBUNDLES. 11 § 10. Generalized cohomologies. Examples. 11 Chapter IV. SOME APPLICATIONS OF THE K- AND J-FUNCTORS AND BORDISM THEORIES 16 § 11. Strict application of K-theory 16 § 12. Simultaneous applications of the K- and J-functors. Cohomology operation in K-theory 17 § 13. Bordism theory 19 APPENDIX 21 The Hirzebruch formula and coverings 21 Some pointers to the literature 22 References 22 Introduction In recent years there has been a widespread development in topology of the so-called generalized homology theories. Of these perhaps the most striking are K-theory and the bordism and cobordism theories. The term homology theory is used here, because these objects, often very different in their geometric meaning, Russian Math. Surveys. Volume 20, Number 3, May–June 1965. Translated by I.R. Porteous. 1 2 S.P. NOVIKOV share many of the properties of ordinary homology and cohomology, the analogy being extremely useful in solving concrete problems.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Homology of Configuration Spaces
    TopologyVol. 28, No. I. pp. I II-123, 1989 Lmo-9383 89 53 al+ 00 Pm&d I” Great Bntam fy 1989 Pcrgamon Press plc ON THE HOMOLOGY OF CONFIGURATION SPACES C.-F. B~DIGHEIMER,~ F. COHEN$ and L. TAYLOR: (Receiued 27 July 1987) 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BY THE k-th configuration space of a manifold M we understand the space C”(M) of subsets of M with catdinality k. If c’(M) denotes the space of k-tuples of distinct points in M, i.e. Ck(M) = {(z,, . , zk)eMklzi # zj for i #j>, then C’(M) is the orbit space of C’(M) under the permutation action of the symmetric group Ik, c’(M) -+ c’(M)/E, = Ck(M). Configuration spaces appear in various contexts such as algebraic geometry, knot theory, differential topology or homotopy theory. Although intensively studied their homology is unknown except for special cases, see for example [ 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 261 where different terminology and notation is used. In this article we study the Betti numbers of Ck(M) for homology with coefficients in a field IF. For IF = IF, the rank of H,(C’(M); IF,) is determined by the IF,-Betti numbers of M. the dimension of M, and k. Similar results were obtained by Ldffler-Milgram [ 171 for closed manifolds. For [F = ff, or a field of characteristic zero the corresponding result holds in the case of odd-dimensional manifolds; it is no longer true for even-dimensional manifolds, not even for surfaces, see [S], [6], or 5.5 here.
    [Show full text]
  • Floer Homology, Gauge Theory, and Low-Dimensional Topology
    Floer Homology, Gauge Theory, and Low-Dimensional Topology Clay Mathematics Proceedings Volume 5 Floer Homology, Gauge Theory, and Low-Dimensional Topology Proceedings of the Clay Mathematics Institute 2004 Summer School Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics Budapest, Hungary June 5–26, 2004 David A. Ellwood Peter S. Ozsváth András I. Stipsicz Zoltán Szabó Editors American Mathematical Society Clay Mathematics Institute 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 57R17, 57R55, 57R57, 57R58, 53D05, 53D40, 57M27, 14J26. The cover illustrates a Kinoshita-Terasaka knot (a knot with trivial Alexander polyno- mial), and two Kauffman states. These states represent the two generators of the Heegaard Floer homology of the knot in its topmost filtration level. The fact that these elements are homologically non-trivial can be used to show that the Seifert genus of this knot is two, a result first proved by David Gabai. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clay Mathematics Institute. Summer School (2004 : Budapest, Hungary) Floer homology, gauge theory, and low-dimensional topology : proceedings of the Clay Mathe- matics Institute 2004 Summer School, Alfr´ed R´enyi Institute of Mathematics, Budapest, Hungary, June 5–26, 2004 / David A. Ellwood ...[et al.], editors. p. cm. — (Clay mathematics proceedings, ISSN 1534-6455 ; v. 5) ISBN 0-8218-3845-8 (alk. paper) 1. Low-dimensional topology—Congresses. 2. Symplectic geometry—Congresses. 3. Homol- ogy theory—Congresses. 4. Gauge fields (Physics)—Congresses. I. Ellwood, D. (David), 1966– II. Title. III. Series. QA612.14.C55 2004 514.22—dc22 2006042815 Copying and reprinting. Material in this book may be reproduced by any means for educa- tional and scientific purposes without fee or permission with the exception of reproduction by ser- vices that collect fees for delivery of documents and provided that the customary acknowledgment of the source is given.
    [Show full text]
  • Math 527 - Homotopy Theory Obstruction Theory
    Math 527 - Homotopy Theory Obstruction theory Martin Frankland April 5, 2013 In our discussion of obstruction theory via the skeletal filtration, we left several claims as exercises. The goal of these notes is to fill in two of those gaps. 1 Setup Let us recall the setup, adopting a notation similar to that of May x 18.5. Let (X; A) be a relative CW complex with n-skeleton Xn, and let Y be a simple space. Given two maps fn; gn : Xn ! Y which agree on Xn−1, we defined a difference cochain n d(fn; gn) 2 C (X; A; πn(Y )) whose value on each n-cell was defined using the following \double cone construction". Definition 1.1. Let H; H0 : Dn ! Y be two maps that agree on the boundary @Dn ∼= Sn−1. The difference construction of H and H0 is the map 0 n ∼ n n H [ H : S = D [Sn−1 D ! Y: Here, the two terms Dn are viewed as the upper and lower hemispheres of Sn respectively. 1 2 The two claims In this section, we state two claims and reduce their proof to the case of spheres and discs. Proposition 2.1. Given two maps fn; gn : Xn ! Y which agree on Xn−1, we have fn ' gn rel Xn−1 if and only if d(fn; gn) = 0 holds. n n−1 Proof. For each n-cell eα of X n A, consider its attaching map 'α : S ! Xn−1 and charac- n n−1 teristic map Φα :(D ;S ) ! (Xn;Xn−1).
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2101.06841V2 [Math.AT] 1 Apr 2021
    C2-EQUIVARIANT TOPOLOGICAL MODULAR FORMS DEXTER CHUA Abstract. We compute the homotopy groups of the C2 fixed points of equi- variant topological modular forms at the prime 2 using the descent spectral sequence. We then show that as a TMF-module, it is isomorphic to the tensor product of TMF with an explicit finite cell complex. Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Equivariant elliptic cohomology 5 3. The E2 page of the DSS 9 4. Differentials in the DSS 13 5. Identification of the last factor 25 6. Further questions 29 Appendix A. Connective C2-equivariant tmf 30 Appendix B. Sage script 35 References 38 1. Introduction Topological K-theory is one of the first examples of generalized cohomology theories. It admits a natural equivariant analogue — for a G-space X, the group 0 KOG(X) is the Grothendieck group of G-equivariant vector bundles over X. In 0 particular, KOG(∗) = Rep(G) is the representation ring of G. As in the case of non-equivariant K-theory, this extends to a G-equivariant cohomology theory KOG, and is represented by a genuine G-spectrum. We shall call this G-spectrum KO, omitting the subscript, as we prefer to think of this as a global equivariant spectrum — one defined for all compact Lie groups. The G-fixed points of this, written KOBG, is a spectrum analogue of the representation ring, BG 0 BG −n with π0KO = KOG(∗) = Rep(G) (more generally, πnKO = KOG (∗)). These fixed point spectra are readily computable as KO-modules. For example, KOBC2 = KO _ KO; KOBC3 = KO _ KU: arXiv:2101.06841v2 [math.AT] 1 Apr 2021 This corresponds to the fact that C2 has two real characters, while C3 has a real character plus a complex conjugate pair.
    [Show full text]
  • Differential Topology from the Point of View of Simple Homotopy Theory
    PUBLICATIONS MATHÉMATIQUES DE L’I.H.É.S. BARRY MAZUR Differential topology from the point of view of simple homotopy theory Publications mathématiques de l’I.H.É.S., tome 15 (1963), p. 5-93 <http://www.numdam.org/item?id=PMIHES_1963__15__5_0> © Publications mathématiques de l’I.H.É.S., 1963, tous droits réservés. L’accès aux archives de la revue « Publications mathématiques de l’I.H.É.S. » (http:// www.ihes.fr/IHES/Publications/Publications.html) implique l’accord avec les conditions géné- rales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.org/conditions). Toute utilisation commerciale ou im- pression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright. Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques http://www.numdam.org/ CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION It is striking (but not uncharacteristic) that the « first » question asked about higher dimensional geometry is yet unsolved: Is every simply connected 3-manifold homeomorphic with S3 ? (Its original wording is slightly more general than this, and is false: H. Poincare, Analysis Situs (1895).) The difficulty of this problem (in fact of most three-dimensional problems) led mathematicians to veer away from higher dimensional geometric homeomorphism-classificational questions. Except for Whitney's foundational theory of differentiable manifolds and imbed- dings (1936) and Morse's theory of Calculus of Variations in the Large (1934) and, in particular, his analysis of the homology structure of a differentiable manifold by studying critical points of 0°° functions defined on the manifold, there were no classificational results about high dimensional manifolds until the era of Thorn's Cobordisme Theory (1954), the beginning of" modern 9? differential topology.
    [Show full text]
  • Topics in Low Dimensional Computational Topology
    THÈSE DE DOCTORAT présentée et soutenue publiquement le 7 juillet 2014 en vue de l’obtention du grade de Docteur de l’École normale supérieure Spécialité : Informatique par ARNAUD DE MESMAY Topics in Low-Dimensional Computational Topology Membres du jury : M. Frédéric CHAZAL (INRIA Saclay – Île de France ) rapporteur M. Éric COLIN DE VERDIÈRE (ENS Paris et CNRS) directeur de thèse M. Jeff ERICKSON (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) rapporteur M. Cyril GAVOILLE (Université de Bordeaux) examinateur M. Pierre PANSU (Université Paris-Sud) examinateur M. Jorge RAMÍREZ-ALFONSÍN (Université Montpellier 2) examinateur Mme Monique TEILLAUD (INRIA Sophia-Antipolis – Méditerranée) examinatrice Autre rapporteur : M. Eric SEDGWICK (DePaul University) Unité mixte de recherche 8548 : Département d’Informatique de l’École normale supérieure École doctorale 386 : Sciences mathématiques de Paris Centre Numéro identifiant de la thèse : 70791 À Monsieur Lagarde, qui m’a donné l’envie d’apprendre. Résumé La topologie, c’est-à-dire l’étude qualitative des formes et des espaces, constitue un domaine classique des mathématiques depuis plus d’un siècle, mais il n’est apparu que récemment que pour de nombreuses applications, il est important de pouvoir calculer in- formatiquement les propriétés topologiques d’un objet. Ce point de vue est la base de la topologie algorithmique, un domaine très actif à l’interface des mathématiques et de l’in- formatique auquel ce travail se rattache. Les trois contributions de cette thèse concernent le développement et l’étude d’algorithmes topologiques pour calculer des décompositions et des déformations d’objets de basse dimension, comme des graphes, des surfaces ou des 3-variétés.
    [Show full text]
  • ON TOPOLOGICAL and PIECEWISE LINEAR VECTOR FIELDS-T
    ON TOPOLOGICAL AND PIECEWISE LINEAR VECTOR FIELDS-t RONALD J. STERN (Received31 October1973; revised 15 November 1974) INTRODUCTION THE existence of a non-zero vector field on a differentiable manifold M yields geometric and algebraic information about M. For example, (I) A non-zero vector field exists on M if and only if the tangent bundle of M splits off a trivial bundle. (2) The kth Stiefel-Whitney class W,(M) of M is the primary obstruction to obtaining (n -k + I) linearly independent non-zero vector fields on M [37; 0391. In particular, a non-zero vector field exists on a compact manifold M if and only if X(M), the Euler characteristic of M, is zero. (3) Every non-zero vector field on M is integrable. Now suppose that M is a topological (TOP) or piecewise linear (IX) manifold. What is the appropriate definition of a TOP or PL vector field on M? If M were differentiable, then a non-zero vector field is just a non-zero cross-section of the tangent bundle T(M) of M. In I%2 Milnor[29] define! the TOP tangent microbundle T(M) of a TOP manifold M to be the microbundle M - M x M G M, where A(x) = (x, x) and ~(x, y) = x. If M is a PL manifold, the PL tangent microbundle T(M) is defined similarly if one works in the category of PL maps of polyhedra. If M is differentiable, then T(M) is CAT (CAT = TOP or PL) microbundle equivalent to T(M).
    [Show full text]