Questions tagged [manifolds]
A manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, each point of an n-dimensional manifold has a neighbourhood that is homeomorphic to the Euclidean space of dimension n.
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Is $\operatorname{Spin}(8)$ a direct product of $\operatorname{Spin}(7)$ and $S^7$?
Is $\textrm{Spin}(8)$ a direct product of $\textrm{Spin}(7)$ and $S^7$?
I met this statement in the literature, but without a reference. If it is true, where is it explicitly written?
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Is limit of null-homotopic maps null-homotopic?
The question is motivated by my failed comment to this one.
Let $M$ and $N$ be path connected locally compact, locally contractible metric spaces (you may assume that they are manifolds).
Let $\...
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Action of diffeomorphism group on non-vanishing vector fields
Let $M$ denote a closed manifold. Let $\Gamma(TM\setminus 0) $ denote the space of non-vanishing sections of $TM$. Note that the diffeomorphism group $\text{Diff} (M)$ acts on $\Gamma(TM\setminus 0)...
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When does the diagonal cohomology class of a non-compact oriented manifold vanish?
Let $M$ be a non-compact, connected and oriented topological $d$-manifold without boundary. My understanding is that there are two (equivalent) ways of defining the diagonal class $\delta_M \in H^{d}(...
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Reference for the Brown-Gersten property for smooth manifolds
A classical result by Brown and Gersten says that to verify the homotopy descent property for the Zariski topology
it suffices to verify it for Zariski squares and the empty cover of the empty scheme.
...
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Existence of $1$-separated and $(1-\varepsilon)$-dense set in metric spaces
Is it know which metric spaces $M$ do have the following property: there is $\varepsilon>0$ and a maximal $1$-separated set which is $(1-\varepsilon)$-dense?
In other words, when does at set $S\...
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History of the definition of smooth manifold with boundary
I am trying to determine the earliest source for the definition of smooth ($C^\infty$) manifold with boundary. Milnor and Stasheff (1958) give a definition, but a scrutiny of that definition shows it ...
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$k$ times differentiable but not $C^k$ manifold
I asked the following question on Math Stack Exchange 3 months ago but got no answer. So maybe Math Overflow is a more suitable place for such a question:
I cannot find the notion of $k$ times ...
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Is it possible to glue together complex manifolds?
In the case of Riemannian manifolds, there are ways to take two manifolds and glue them together to get a new Riemannian manifold. For example, taking connected sums in local regions where the two ...
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Almost Poincaré duality
Let $M^n$ be a connected, closed manifold. It has Poincaré duality with $\mathbb{Z}/2$ coefficients $H^k(M;\mathbb{Z}/2)\cong H_{n-k}(M;\mathbb{Z}/2)$, induced by cap product with the fundamental ...
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Pin$^+$ and Pin$^−$ structure for manifolds in any dimensions
For an oriented $d$-manifold $M$, we can ask whether the manifold
admits a Spin structure, say, if the transition functions for the
tangent bundle, which take values in $SO(d)$, can be lifted to $\...
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Maximal exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$
Article Exotic $\mathbb{R}^4$ on Wikipedia says that there is at least one maximal smooth structure on $\mathbb{R}^4$, that is such an atlas on $\mathbb{R}^4$ that any other smooth $\mathbb{R}^4$ can ...
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Number of critical points of smooth functions on $S^1$
Let $u$ be a smooth function on the unit circle $S^1$ such that $\int_{S^1}ux_j=0$, for $j=1,2$. Is the number of critical points of $u$ strictly bigger than 2?
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On the Euler characteristic of a Poincaré duality space
Background. Suppose that $M$ is an oriented, connected, closed manifold of dimension $d$ with fundamental class $\mu \in H_d(M;\Bbb Z)$. Let $\Delta : M \to M \times M$ be the diagonal map. Then the ...
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Degree one self-map of $\Bbb R^2\big\backslash \big\{(n,0):n\in \Bbb Z\big\}$ not homotopic to any self-homotopy equivalence
Consider the surface $\Sigma=\Bbb R^2\big\backslash \big\{(n,0):n\in \Bbb Z\big\}$. Does there exist a proper
map $f\colon \Sigma\to \Sigma$ of degree $1$ and not homotopic to
any self-homotopy ...
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Vanishing of Aronhold S-invariant on the cubic forms on $H^2(X, \mathbb Q)$
I am considering several examples of compact complex threefolds $X$ such that $rk H^2(X)=3$.
Note that we have a cubic form on $H^2(X, \mathbb Q)$ which comes from the cup product.
I calculated the ...
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Inverse cohomological isomorphisms
Let $\ M'\ M''\ $ be simply-connected Hausdorff compact manifolds (possibly with boundary for another variant of the question). Let $\ f:M'\rightarrow M''\ $ be a continuous function which induces an ...
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Universal cover with one end
Suppose that $M$ is a non-compact manifold of finite topological type with one end which is the universal cover of some closed manifold $N$.
Is $M $ necessarily homeomorphic to the total space of some ...
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When is a triangulation of sphere two-colorable?
Let $T$ be a triangulation of sphere. We say that $T$ is $k$-colorable if the triangles of $T$ can be assigned with $k$ colors such that any two triangles with a common edge have different colors.
I ...
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A topological group which is also a (not necessarily smooth) manifold is orientable
I am trying to show that a topological group which is also a (not necessarily smooth) manifold is automatically orientable. I know of a proof involving transition functions for smooth manifolds, in ...
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If $M$ is contractible manifold and $X\subset \partial M$, does the cone over $X$ embed in $M$?
Let $M$ be a compact contractible manifold, $X\subset\partial M$ and $C_X$ the cone over $X$.
Question: Is it true that $C_X$ embeds in $M$ with its boundary $\partial C_X$ mapped to $X\subset \...
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Status of Hilbert-Smith conjecture and H-S conjecture for Hölder actions
The Hilbert-Smith conjecture states that
If $G$ is a locally compact group which acts effectively on a connected manifold as a
topological transformation group then is $G$ a Lie group.
It was ...
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Non-compact three-manifolds with the same proper homotopy type are homeomorphic?
I am looking for some literature with some (counter) examples of the following fact (though I don't know if the fact is true or not):
Let $M, M'$ be two non-compact connected $3$-manifolds with the ...
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Fundamental groups of non-orientable closed four-manifolds
The fundamental group of a closed orientable manifold is finitely presented, and every finitely presented group arises as the fundamental group of a closed orientable four-manifold; see this question. ...
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Inverse function theorem for manifolds with boundary as the domain
I wonder that whether there exists a version of the inverse function theorem for smooth maps from a smooth manifolds with boundary to a smooth manifold without boundary? More precisely, whether the ...
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Cobordism Theory of Topological Manifolds
Unfortunately, due to my ignorance, my present knowledge is limited to the cobordism Theory of Differentiable Manifolds.
Cobordism Theory for DIFF/Differentiable/smooth manifolds
However, there are ...
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Poisson structures on non-smooth manifolds with singularities
It's very known how we can describe a Poisson structure on a manifold $M$, where $M$ is a smooth manifold, but what about a Non-smooth manifold with singularities? In section $(2)$ of the paper The ...
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Are all monotonically normal manifolds of dimension at least two metrizable?
Alan Dow and Frank Tall recently proved the consistency of the statement Every hereditarily normal manifold of dimension at least two is metrizable.
See: Dow, Alan; Tall, Franklin D., Hereditarily ...
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Tietze's extension theorem for contractible manifolds
I've read that the Tietze's extension theorem was still valid for continuous applications from a closed subspace of a normal topological space to a contractible topological manifold (understood as ...
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Can the graph Laplacian be well approximated by a Laplace-Beltrami operator?
It seems rather well known that given a Laplace-Beltrami operator $\mathcal{L}_{M}$ on a manifold $M$ we can approximate its spectrum by that of a graph Laplacian $L_{G}$ for some $G$ (where $G$ is ...
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Universal covers of non-prime 3-manifolds
Let $M$ be a closed, connected, oriented 3-manifold. If $M$ is prime, then we know what the universal cover of $M$ looks like: it is either $S^3, \mathbb{R}^3$ or $S^2 \times \mathbb{R}$ depending on ...
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An orientable surface that cannot be embedded into $\Bbb R^3$? [duplicate]
I previously asked this question on MSE, without success.
By Whitney's embedding theorem, every 2-dimensional manifold (aka. a surface) can be embedded into $\Bbb R^4$.
Now, Wikipedia states in this ...
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Given an embedded disk in $\mathbb{R}^n$, is there always another disk which intersects it nontrivially in a disk?
We call an open subset $D\subset X$ of a manifold $X$ an embedded disk, if there exists a homeomorphism $D\cong \mathbb{R}^n$.
The precise formulation of the question in the title is as follows:
Let $...
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A modified version of the converse to the Sard's Theorem
When I learned Sard's Theorem in differential topology by myself, I was thinking whether it would be possible to prove a converse version of the theorem. That is to say, can we somehow show that each (...
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Is there a combinatorial representation of general topological manifolds similar to triangulations?
Piece-wise linear manifolds are combinatorially represented by simplicial complexes modulo Pachner moves. However, for dimensions greater than $3$, the notions of piece-wise linear and topological ...
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Geometric argument for "easy" part of Jordan-Brouwer separation theorem without local flatness
Let $M^n \subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ be an $n$-dimensional compact connected topological submanifold. The Jordan-Brouwer separation theorem says that $\mathbb{R}^{n+1} \setminus M^n$ contains two ...
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PL surface projections - is there a theory of folds and cusps?
For smooth surfaces, the generic singularities of a map of one surface to another are folds and cusps (Whitney). It is a standard result in singularity theory that the generic isotopy of such a map is ...
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Transitive embedding of the projective plane $\Bbb R P^2$ into the $4$-sphere
Is there an embedding (i.e. injective continuous map)
$$\phi:\Bbb R \Bbb P^2\hookrightarrow S^4\subseteq\Bbb R^5$$
of the projective plane $\Bbb R\Bbb P^2$ into the $4$-sphere, that is ...
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Classification of closed 3-manifolds with finite first homology group?
I am interested in a topological classification of connected closed 3-manifold $M$ that have finite homology group $H_1(M)$.
Since $H_1(M)$ is the abelization of the fundamental group $\pi_1(M)$, ...
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Question concerning h-cobordisms
Suppose we have a cobordism $W$ of manifolds $M_0$ and $M_1$ and suppose the inclusion of $M_0$ into $W$ is a homotopy equivalence. Is the same true for the inclusion of $M_1$ (ie. is $W$ already an h-...
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Exotic $C^k$ manifolds
How much is known about exotic $C^k$-manifolds? For example,
Is it known whether there are $C^k$-differentiable manifolds that are homeomorphic, but not $C^k$ diffeomorphic?
More generally, is it ...
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Any 3-manifold can be realized as the boundary of a 4-manifold
We know
"Any closed, oriented $3$-manifold $M$ is the boundary of some oriented $4$-manifold $B$." See this post: Elegant proof that any closed, oriented 3-manifold is the boundary of some ...
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Cancellation law for $M^n\times \mathbb R= N^n\times \mathbb R$.
Assume $M^n$ and $N^n$ are null bordant, i.e. each can be realized as boundary of an $n+1$ dimensional manifold. Suppose $M^n \times \mathbb R$ is homeomorphic to $N^n\times \mathbb R$. Is there any ...
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Contractible set in a manifold
Let $M$ be an $n$-dimensional topological closed manifold. Suppose $K$ is a compact subset of $M$ which is contractible in the sense that there exists a continuous map $F:K \times [0,1] \to M$ with $F(...
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Fragmenting a homeomorphism of a compact manifold
Let $M$ be a compact manifold and let $f : M \rightarrow M$ be a homeomorphism which is isotopic to the identity. We will say that $f$ can be fragmented if it satisfies the following property. Let $\...
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G-spaces and manifolds
In his book "The geometry of geodesics" H. Busemann defines the notion of a G-space to be a space which satisfies the following axioms:
The space is metric
The space is finitely compact, i.e., a ...
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The relation between Hausdorff dimension of an $n$-manifold and $n$
It is known that for a topological space with different metrics, the Hausdorff dimensions may not be equal in general.
For the case of manifolds, suppose $M$ is a $n$-manifold with a metric(distance)...
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Is the bordism from disjoint union to connected sum universal for connected manifolds?
Let $M_1$ and $M_2$ be two oriented, connected, closed $n$-manifolds. It is known that the disjoint union $M_1 \sqcup M_2$ and the connected sum $M_1 \# M_2$ are cobordant, via a bordism $\Sigma_{M_1, ...
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Cohomology of the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface?
What is the low degree cohomology of the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface? More specifically, what is the universal central extension of the mapping class group of a non-orientable ...
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On eigenfunctions of the Laplace Beltrami operator [closed]
How can we generate the eigenspace for the Laplace Beltrami operator on SU(2)?