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Stable Normal Bundle
In surgery theory, a branch of mathematics, the stable normal bundle of a differentiable manifold is an invariant which encodes the stable normal (dually, tangential) data. There are analogs for generalizations of manifold, notably PL-manifolds and topological manifolds. There is also an analogue in homotopy theory for Poincaré spaces, the Spivak spherical fibration, named after Michael Spivak. Construction via embeddings Given an embedding of a manifold in Euclidean space (provided by the theorem of Hassler Whitney), it has a normal bundle. The embedding is not unique, but for high dimension of the Euclidean space it is unique up to isotopy, thus the (class of the) bundle is unique, and called the ''stable normal bundle''. This construction works for any Poincaré space ''X'': a finite CW-complex admits a stably unique (up to homotopy) embedding in Euclidean space, via general position, and this embedding yields a spherical fibration over ''X''. For more restricted spaces (no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surgery Theory
In mathematics, specifically in geometric topology, surgery theory is a collection of techniques used to produce one finite-dimensional manifold from another in a 'controlled' way, introduced by . Milnor called this technique ''surgery'', while Andrew Wallace called it spherical modification. The "surgery" on a differentiable manifold ''M'' of dimension n=p+q+1, could be described as removing an imbedded sphere of dimension ''p'' from ''M''. Originally developed for differentiable (or, smooth) manifolds, surgery techniques also apply to piecewise linear (PL-) and topological manifolds. Surgery refers to cutting out parts of the manifold and replacing it with a part of another manifold, matching up along the cut or boundary. This is closely related to, but not identical with, handlebody decompositions. More technically, the idea is to start with a well-understood manifold ''M'' and perform surgery on it to produce a manifold ''M''′ having some desired property, in such a way th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Position
In algebraic geometry and computational geometry, general position is a notion of genericity for a set of points, or other geometric objects. It means the ''general case'' situation, as opposed to some more special or coincidental cases that are possible, which is referred to as special position. Its precise meaning differs in different settings. For example, generically, two lines in the plane intersect in a single point (they are not parallel or coincident). One also says "two generic lines intersect in a point", which is formalized by the notion of a generic point. Similarly, three generic points in the plane are not collinear; if three points are collinear (even stronger, if two coincide), this is a degenerate case. This notion is important in mathematics and its applications, because degenerate cases may require an exceptional treatment; for example, when stating general theorems or giving precise statements thereof, and when writing computer programs (see '' generic compl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surgery Obstruction
In mathematics, specifically in surgery theory, the surgery obstructions define a map \theta \colon \mathcal (X) \to L_n (\pi_1 (X)) from the normal invariants to the L-groups which is in the first instance a set-theoretic map (that means not necessarily a homomorphism) with the following property when n \geq 5: A degree-one normal map (f,b) \colon M \to X is normally cobordant to a homotopy equivalence if and only if the image \theta (f,b)=0 in L_n (\mathbb pi_1 (X). Sketch of the definition The surgery obstruction of a degree-one normal map has a relatively complicated definition. Consider a degree-one normal map (f,b) \colon M \to X. The idea in deciding the question whether it is normally cobordant to a homotopy equivalence is to try to systematically improve (f,b) so that the map f becomes m-connected (that means the homotopy groups \pi_* (f)=0 for * \leq m) for high m. It is a consequence of Poincaré duality that if we can achieve this for m > \lfloor n/2 \rfloor then the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Null Homotopic
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 p ... [...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] |
Stable Homotopy Groups Of Spheres
In the mathematical field of algebraic topology, the homotopy groups of spheres describe how spheres of various dimensions can wrap around each other. They are examples of topological invariants, which reflect, in algebraic terms, the structure of spheres viewed as topological spaces, forgetting about their precise geometry. Unlike homology groups, which are also topological invariants, the homotopy groups are surprisingly complex and difficult to compute. The -dimensional unit sphere — called the -sphere for brevity, and denoted as — generalizes the familiar circle () and the ordinary sphere (). The -sphere may be defined geometrically as the set of points in a Euclidean space of dimension located at a unit distance from the origin. The -th ''homotopy group'' summarizes the different ways in which the -dimensional sphere can be mapped continuously into the sphere . This summary does not distinguish between two mappings if one can be continuously deformed to the oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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, denoted \pi_1(X), which records information about loops in a space. Intuitively, homotopy groups record information about the basic shape, or ''holes'', of a topological space. To define the ''n''-th homotopy group, the base-point-preserving maps from an ''n''-dimensional sphere (with base point) into a given space (with base point) are collected into equivalence classes, called homotopy classes. Two mappings are homotopic if one can be continuously deformed into the other. These homotopy classes form a group, called the ''n''-th homotopy group, \pi_n(X), of the given space ''X'' with base point. Topological spaces with differing homotopy groups are never equivalent (homeomorphic), but topological spaces that homeomorphic have the same homotopy groups. The notion of homotopy of paths was introduced by Camille Jordan. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tubular Neighborhood
In mathematics, a tubular neighborhood of a submanifold of a smooth manifold is an open set around it resembling the normal bundle. The idea behind a tubular neighborhood can be explained in a simple example. Consider a smooth curve in the plane without self-intersections. On each point on the curve draw a line perpendicular to the curve. Unless the curve is straight, these lines will intersect among themselves in a rather complicated fashion. However, if one looks only in a narrow band around the curve, the portions of the lines in that band will not intersect, and will cover the entire band without gaps. This band is a tubular neighborhood. In general, let ''S'' be a submanifold of a manifold ''M'', and let ''N'' be the normal bundle of ''S'' in ''M''. Here ''S'' plays the role of the curve and ''M'' the role of the plane containing the curve. Consider the natural map :i : N_0 \to S which establishes a bijective correspondence between the zero section N_0 of ''N'' and the su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitney Sum
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] |
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] |
Hilbert Space
In mathematics, Hilbert spaces (named after David Hilbert) allow generalizing the methods of linear algebra and calculus from (finite-dimensional) Euclidean vector spaces to spaces that may be infinite-dimensional. Hilbert spaces arise naturally and frequently in mathematics and physics, typically as function spaces. Formally, a Hilbert space is a vector space equipped with an inner product that defines a distance function for which the space is a complete metric space. The earliest Hilbert spaces were studied from this point of view in the first decade of the 20th century by David Hilbert, Erhard Schmidt, and Frigyes Riesz. They are indispensable tools in the theories of partial differential equations, quantum mechanics, Fourier analysis (which includes applications to signal processing and heat transfer), and ergodic theory (which forms the mathematical underpinning of thermodynamics). John von Neumann coined the term ''Hilbert space'' for the abstract concept that under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homotopic
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 p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
