Pushouts and Adjunction Spaces This Note Augments Material in Hatcher, Chapter 0
Pushouts and Adjunction Spaces This note augments material in Hatcher, Chapter 0. Pushouts Given maps i: A → X and f: A → B, we wish to complete the commu- tative square (a) in a canonical way. 7 Z nn? G X ____ / Y h nnn ~ O g O nnn ~ nnnm ~ nnn ~ (a) i j (b) n / (1) XO g YO k f i j A / B f A / B Definition 2 We call (1)(a) a pushout square if it commutes, j ◦ f = g ◦ i, and is universal, in the sense that given any space Z and maps h: X → Z and k: B → Z such that k ◦ f = h ◦ i, there exists a unique map m: Y → Z that makes diagram (1)(b) commute, m ◦ g = h and m ◦ j = k. We then call Y a pushout of i and f. The good news is that uniqueness of pushouts is automatic. Proposition 3 Given any maps i and f as in (1)(a), the pushout space Y is unique up to canonical homeomorphism. Proof Suppose Y 0, with maps g0: X → Y 0 and j0: B → Y 0, is another pushout. Take Z = Y 0; we find a map m: Y → Y 0 such that m ◦ g = g0 and m ◦ j = j0. By reversing the roles of Y and Y 0, we find m0: Y 0 → Y such that m0 ◦ g0 = g and m0 ◦ j0 = j. Then m0 ◦ m ◦ g = m0 ◦ g0 = g, and similarly m0 ◦ m ◦ j = j. Now take Z = Y , h = g, and 0 k = j. We have two maps, m ◦ m: Y → Y and idY : Y → Y , that make diagram (1)(b) 0 0 commute; by the uniqueness in Definition 2, m ◦ m = idY .
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