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Pontryagin Classes
In mathematics, the Pontryagin classes, named after Lev Pontryagin, are certain characteristic classes of real vector bundles. The Pontryagin classes lie in cohomology groups with degrees a multiple of four. Definition Given a real vector bundle ''E'' over ''M'', its ''k''-th Pontryagin class p_k(E) is defined as :p_k(E) = p_k(E, \Z) = (-1)^k c_(E\otimes \Complex) \in H^(M, \Z), where: *c_(E\otimes \Complex) denotes the 2k-th Chern class of the complexification E\otimes \Complex = E\oplus iE of ''E'', *H^(M, \Z) is the 4k-cohomology group of ''M'' with integer coefficients. The rational Pontryagin class p_k(E, \Q) is defined to be the image of p_k(E) in H^(M, \Q), the 4k-cohomology group of ''M'' with rational coefficients. Properties The total Pontryagin class :p(E)=1+p_1(E)+p_2(E)+\cdots\in H^*(M,\Z), is (modulo 2-torsion) multiplicative with respect to Whitney sum of vector bundles, i.e., :2p(E\oplus F)=2p(E)\smile p(F) for two vector bundles ''E'' and ''F'' over ... [...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] |
Cup Product
In mathematics, specifically in algebraic topology, the cup product is a method of adjoining two cocycles of degree ''p'' and ''q'' to form a composite cocycle of degree ''p'' + ''q''. This defines an associative (and distributive) graded commutative product operation in cohomology, turning the cohomology of a space ''X'' into a graded ring, ''H''∗(''X''), called the cohomology ring. The cup product was introduced in work of J. W. Alexander, Eduard Čech and Hassler Whitney from 1935–1938, and, in full generality, by Samuel Eilenberg in 1944. Definition In singular cohomology, the cup product is a construction giving a product on the graded cohomology ring ''H''∗(''X'') of a topological space ''X''. The construction starts with a product of cochains: if \alpha^p is a ''p''-cochain and \beta^q is a ''q''-cochain, then :(\alpha^p \smile \beta^q)(\sigma) = \alpha^p(\sigma \circ \iota_) \cdot \beta^q(\sigma \circ \iota_) where σ is a singular (''p'' + ''q'') -simplex and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topological Invariant
In topology and related areas of mathematics, a topological property or topological invariant is a property of a topological space that is invariant under homeomorphisms. Alternatively, a topological property is a proper class of topological spaces which is closed under homeomorphisms. That is, a property of spaces is a topological property if whenever a space ''X'' possesses that property every space homeomorphic to ''X'' possesses that property. Informally, a topological property is a property of the space that can be expressed using open sets. A common problem in topology is to decide whether two topological spaces are homeomorphic or not. To prove that two spaces are ''not'' homeomorphic, it is sufficient to find a topological property which is not shared by them. Properties of topological properties A property P is: * Hereditary, if for every topological space (X, \mathcal) and X' \subset X, the subspace (X', \mathcal, X') has property P. * Weakly hereditary, if for every ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homotopy
In topology, a branch of mathematics, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from grc, ὁμός "same, similar" and "place") if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy (, ; , ) between the two functions. A notable use of homotopy is the definition of homotopy groups and cohomotopy groups, important invariants in algebraic topology. In practice, there are technical difficulties in using homotopies with certain spaces. Algebraic topologists work with compactly generated spaces, CW complexes, or spectra. Formal definition Formally, a homotopy between two continuous functions ''f'' and ''g'' from a topological space ''X'' to a topological space ''Y'' is defined to be a continuous function H: X \times ,1\to Y from the product of the space ''X'' with the unit interval , 1to ''Y'' such that H(x,0) = f(x) and H(x,1) = g(x) for all x \in X. If we think of the second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homeomorphism
In the mathematical field of topology, a homeomorphism, topological isomorphism, or bicontinuous function is a bijective and continuous function between topological spaces that has a continuous inverse function. Homeomorphisms are the isomorphisms in the category of topological spaces—that is, they are the mappings that preserve all the topological properties of a given space. Two spaces with a homeomorphism between them are called homeomorphic, and from a topological viewpoint they are the same. The word ''homeomorphism'' comes from the Greek words '' ὅμοιος'' (''homoios'') = similar or same and '' μορφή'' (''morphē'') = shape or form, introduced to mathematics by Henri Poincaré in 1895. Very roughly speaking, a topological space is a geometric object, and the homeomorphism is a continuous stretching and bending of the object into a new shape. Thus, a square and a circle are homeomorphic to each other, but a sphere and a torus are not. However, this desc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergei Novikov (mathematician)
Sergei Petrovich Novikov (also Serguei) (Russian: Серге́й Петро́вич Но́виков) (born 20 March 1938) is a Soviet and Russian mathematician, noted for work in both algebraic topology and soliton theory. In 1970, he won the Fields Medal. Early life Novikov was born on 20 March 1938 in Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia). He grew up in a family of talented mathematicians. His father was Pyotr Sergeyevich Novikov, who gave a negative solution to the word problem for groups. His mother, Lyudmila Vsevolodovna Keldysh, and maternal uncle, Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh, were also important mathematicians. In 1955 Novikov entered Moscow State University, from which he graduated in 1960. Four years later he received the Moscow Mathematical Society Award for young mathematicians. In the same year he defended a dissertation for the ''Candidate of Science in Physics and Mathematics'' degree (equivalent to the PhD) at Moscow State University. In 196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tangent Bundle
In differential geometry, the tangent bundle of a differentiable manifold M is a manifold TM which assembles all the tangent vectors in M . As a set, it is given by the disjoint unionThe disjoint union ensures that for any two points and of manifold the tangent spaces and have no common vector. This is graphically illustrated in the accompanying picture for tangent bundle of circle , see tangent bundle#Examples, Examples section: all tangents to a circle lie in the plane of the circle. In order to make them disjoint it is necessary to align them in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the circle. of the tangent spaces of M . That is, : \begin TM &= \bigsqcup_ T_xM \\ &= \bigcup_ \left\ \times T_xM \\ &= \bigcup_ \left\ \\ &= \left\ \end where T_x M denotes the tangent space to M at the point x . So, an element of TM can be thought of as a ordered pair, pair (x,v), where x is a point in M and v is a tangent vector to M at x . There i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Rham Cohomology
In mathematics, de Rham cohomology (named after Georges de Rham) is a tool belonging both to algebraic topology and to differential topology, capable of expressing basic topological information about smooth manifolds in a form particularly adapted to computation and the concrete representation of cohomology classes. It is a cohomology theory based on the existence of differential forms with prescribed properties. On any smooth manifold, every exact form is closed, but the converse may fail to hold. Roughly speaking, this failure is related to the possible existence of "holes" in the manifold, and the de Rham cohomology groups comprise a set of topological invariants of smooth manifolds that precisely quantify this relationship. Definition The de Rham complex is the cochain complex of differential forms on some smooth manifold , with the exterior derivative as the differential: :0 \to \Omega^0(M)\ \stackrel\ \Omega^1(M)\ \stackrel\ \Omega^2(M)\ \stackrel\ \Omega^3(M) \to \cd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Connection Form
In mathematics, and specifically differential geometry, a connection form is a manner of organizing the data of a connection using the language of moving frames and differential forms. Historically, connection forms were introduced by Élie Cartan in the first half of the 20th century as part of, and one of the principal motivations for, his method of moving frames. The connection form generally depends on a choice of a coordinate frame, and so is not a tensorial object. Various generalizations and reinterpretations of the connection form were formulated subsequent to Cartan's initial work. In particular, on a principal bundle, a principal connection is a natural reinterpretation of the connection form as a tensorial object. On the other hand, the connection form has the advantage that it is a differential form defined on the differentiable manifold, rather than on an abstract principal bundle over it. Hence, despite their lack of tensoriality, connection forms continue to be used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differentiable Manifold
In mathematics, a differentiable manifold (also differential manifold) is a type of manifold that is locally similar enough to a vector space to allow one to apply calculus. Any manifold can be described by a collection of charts (atlas). One may then apply ideas from calculus while working within the individual charts, since each chart lies within a vector space to which the usual rules of calculus apply. If the charts are suitably compatible (namely, the transition from one chart to another is differentiable), then computations done in one chart are valid in any other differentiable chart. In formal terms, a differentiable manifold is a topological manifold with a globally defined differential structure. Any topological manifold can be given a differential structure locally by using the homeomorphisms in its atlas and the standard differential structure on a vector space. To induce a global differential structure on the local coordinate systems induced by the homeomorphisms, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector Bundle
In mathematics, a vector bundle is a topological construction that makes precise the idea of a family of vector spaces parameterized by another space X (for example X could be a topological space, a manifold, or an algebraic variety): to every point x of the space X we associate (or "attach") a vector space V(x) in such a way that these vector spaces fit together to form another space of the same kind as X (e.g. a topological space, manifold, or algebraic variety), which is then called a vector bundle over X. The simplest example is the case that the family of vector spaces is constant, i.e., there is a fixed vector space V such that V(x)=V for all x in X: in this case there is a copy of V for each x in X and these copies fit together to form the vector bundle X\times V over X. Such vector bundles are said to be ''trivial''. A more complicated (and prototypical) class of examples are the tangent bundles of smooth (or differentiable) manifolds: to every point of such a manifold w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
