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Kan-Thurston Theorem
In mathematics, particularly algebraic topology, the Kan-Thurston theorem associates a discrete group G to every path-connected topological space X in such a way that the group cohomology of G is the same as the cohomology of the space X. The group G might then be regarded as a good approximation to the space X, and consequently the theorem is sometimes interpreted to mean that homotopy theory can be viewed as part of group theory. More precisely, the theorem states that every path-connected topological space is homology-equivalent to the classifying space K(G,1) of a discrete group G, where homology-equivalent means there is a map K(G,1) \rightarrow X inducing an isomorphism on homology. The theorem is attributed to Daniel Kan and William Thurston who published their result in 1976. Statement of the Kan-Thurston theorem Let X be a path-connected topological space. Then, naturally associated to X, there is a Serre fibration t_x \colon T_X \to X where T_X is an aspherica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Map (mathematics)
In mathematics, a map or mapping is a function in its general sense. These terms may have originated as from the process of making a geographical map: ''mapping'' the Earth surface to a sheet of paper. The term ''map'' may be used to distinguish some special types of functions, such as homomorphisms. For example, a linear map is a homomorphism of vector spaces, while the term linear function may have this meaning or it may mean a linear polynomial. In category theory, a map may refer to a morphism. The term ''transformation'' can be used interchangeably, but ''transformation'' often refers to a function from a set to itself. There are also a few less common uses in logic and graph theory. Maps as functions In many branches of mathematics, the term ''map'' is used to mean a function, sometimes with a specific property of particular importance to that branch. For instance, a "map" is a " continuous function" in topology, a "linear transformation" in linear algebra, etc. Some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Induced Homomorphism
In mathematics, especially in algebraic topology, an induced homomorphism is a homomorphism derived in a canonical way from another map. For example, a continuous map from a topological space ''X'' to a topological space ''Y'' induces a group homomorphism from the fundamental group of ''X'' to the fundamental group of ''Y''. More generally, in category theory, any functor by definition provides an induced morphism in the target category for each morphism in the source category. For example, fundamental groups, higher homotopy groups, singular homology, and De Rham cohomology are algebraic structures that are ''functorial'', meaning that their definition provides a functor from (e.g.) the category of topological spaces to (e.g.) the category of groups or rings. This means that each space is associated with an algebraic structure, while each continuous map between spaces is associated with a structure-preserving map between structures, called an induced homomorphism. A homomorphism in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surjective Function
In mathematics, a surjective function (also known as surjection, or onto function) is a function that every element can be mapped from element so that . In other words, every element of the function's codomain is the image of one element of its domain. It is not required that be unique; the function may map one or more elements of to the same element of . The term ''surjective'' and the related terms ''injective'' and ''bijective'' were introduced by Nicolas Bourbaki, a group of mainly French 20th-century mathematicians who, under this pseudonym, wrote a series of books presenting an exposition of modern advanced mathematics, beginning in 1935. The French word '' sur'' means ''over'' or ''above'', and relates to the fact that the image of the domain of a surjective function completely covers the function's codomain. Any function induces a surjection by restricting its codomain to the image of its domain. Every surjective function has a right inverse assuming the axiom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aspherical Space
In topology, a branch of mathematics, an aspherical space is a topological space with all homotopy groups \pi_n(X) equal to 0 when n>1. If one works with CW complexes, one can reformulate this condition: an aspherical CW complex is a CW complex whose universal cover is contractible. Indeed, contractibility of a universal cover is the same, by Whitehead's theorem, as asphericality of it. And it is an application of the exact sequence of a fibration that higher homotopy groups of a space and its universal cover are same. (By the same argument, if ''E'' is a path-connected space and p\colon E \to B is any covering map, then ''E'' is aspherical if and only if ''B'' is aspherical.) Each aspherical space ''X'' is, by definition, an Eilenberg–MacLane space of type K(G,1), where G = \pi_1(X) is the fundamental group of ''X''. Also directly from the definition, an aspherical space is a classifying space for its fundamental group (considered to be a topological group when endowed with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fibration
The notion of a fibration generalizes the notion of a fiber bundle and plays an important role in algebraic topology, a branch of mathematics. Fibrations are used, for example, in postnikov-systems or obstruction theory. In this article, all mappings are continuous mappings between topological spaces. Formal definitions Homotopy lifting property A mapping p \colon E \to B satisfies the homotopy lifting property for a space X if: * for every homotopy h \colon X \times , 1\to B and * for every mapping (also called lift) \tilde h_0 \colon X \to E lifting h, _ = h_0 (i.e. h_0 = p \circ \tilde h_0) there exists a (not necessarily unique) homotopy \tilde h \colon X \times , 1\to E lifting h (i.e. h = p \circ \tilde h) with \tilde h_0 = \tilde h, _. The following commutative diagram shows the situation:^ Fibration A fibration (also called Hurewicz fibration) is a mapping p \colon E \to B satisfying the homotopy lifting property for all spaces X. The space B is called base ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Transformation
In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a natural transformation provides a way of transforming one functor into another while respecting the internal structure (i.e., the composition of morphisms) of the categories involved. Hence, a natural transformation can be considered to be a "morphism of functors". Informally, the notion of a natural transformation states that a particular map between functors can be done consistently over an entire category. Indeed, this intuition can be formalized to define so-called functor categories. Natural transformations are, after categories and functors, one of the most fundamental notions of category theory and consequently appear in the majority of its applications. Definition If F and G are functors between the categories C and D , then a natural transformation \eta from F to G is a family of morphisms that satisfies two requirements. # The natural transformation must associate, to every object X in C, a morphism \eta_X : F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Thurston
William Paul Thurston (October 30, 1946August 21, 2012) was an American mathematician. He was a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional topology and was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions to the study of 3-manifolds. Thurston was a professor of mathematics at Princeton University, University of California, Davis, and Cornell University. He was also a director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Early life and education William Thurston was born in Washington, D.C. to Margaret Thurston (), a seamstress, and Paul Thurston, an aeronautical engineer. William Thurston suffered from congenital strabismus as a child, causing issues with depth perception. His mother worked with him as a toddler to reconstruct three-dimensional images from two-dimensional ones. He received his bachelor's degree from New College in 1967 as part of its inaugural class. For his undergraduate thesis, he developed an intuitionist foundation for topology. Following this, he r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniel Kan
Daniel Marinus Kan (or simply Dan Kan) (August 4, 1927 – August 4, 2013) was a Dutch mathematician working in category theory and homotopy theory. He was a prolific contributor to both fields for six decades, having authored or coauthored several dozen research papers and monographs. Career He received his Ph.D. at Hebrew University in 1955, under the direction of Samuel Eilenberg. His students include Aldridge K. Bousfield, William Dwyer, Stewart Priddy, Emmanuel Dror Farjoun and Jeffrey H. Smith. He was an emeritus professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he taught from 1959, formally retiring in 1993. Work He played a role in the beginnings of modern homotopy theory similar to that of Saunders Mac Lane in homological algebra, namely the adroit and persistent application of categorical methods. His most famous work is the abstract formulation of the discovery of adjoint functors, which dates from 1958. The Kan extension is one of the broadest descript ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singular Homology
In algebraic topology, singular homology refers to the study of a certain set of algebraic invariants of a topological space ''X'', the so-called homology groups H_n(X). Intuitively, singular homology counts, for each dimension ''n'', the ''n''-dimensional holes of a space. Singular homology is a particular example of a homology theory, which has now grown to be a rather broad collection of theories. Of the various theories, it is perhaps one of the simpler ones to understand, being built on fairly concrete constructions (see also the related theory simplicial homology). In brief, singular homology is constructed by taking maps of the standard ''n''-simplex to a topological space, and composing them into formal sums, called singular chains. The boundary operation – mapping each ''n''-dimensional simplex to its (''n''−1)-dimensional boundary – induces the singular chain complex. The singular homology is then the homology of the chain complex. The resulting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classifying Space
In mathematics, specifically in homotopy theory, a classifying space ''BG'' of a topological group ''G'' is the quotient of a weakly contractible space ''EG'' (i.e. a topological space all of whose homotopy groups are trivial) by a proper free action of ''G''. It has the property that any ''G'' principal bundle over a paracompact manifold is isomorphic to a pullback of the principal bundle ''EG'' → ''BG''. As explained later, this means that classifying spaces represent a set-valued functor on the homotopy category of topological spaces. The term classifying space can also be used for spaces that represent a set-valued functor on the category of topological spaces, such as Sierpiński space. This notion is generalized by the notion of classifying topos. However, the rest of this article discusses the more commonly used notion of classifying space up to homotopy. For a discrete group ''G'', ''BG'' is, roughly speaking, a path-connected topological space ''X'' such that the fundam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algebraic Topology
Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify up to Homotopy#Homotopy equivalence and null-homotopy, homotopy equivalence. Although algebraic topology primarily uses algebra to study topological problems, using topology to solve algebraic problems is sometimes also possible. Algebraic topology, for example, allows for a convenient proof that any subgroup of a free group is again a free group. Main branches of algebraic topology Below are some of the main areas studied in algebraic topology: Homotopy groups In mathematics, homotopy groups are used in algebraic topology to classify topological spaces. The first and simplest homotopy group is the fundamental group, which records information about loops in a space. Intuitively, homotopy gro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
