Questions tagged [homology]

Homology is a general way of associating a sequence of algebraic objects such as abelian groups or modules to other mathematical objects such as topological spaces.

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102 votes
10 answers
35k views

What is (co)homology, and how does a beginner gain intuition about it?

This question comes along with a lot of associated sub-questions, most of which would probably be answered by a sufficiently good introductory text. So a perfectly acceptable answer to this question ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
86 votes
16 answers
8k views

Teaching homology via everyday examples

What stories, puzzles, games, paradoxes, toys, etc from everyday life are better understood after learning homology theory? To be more precise, I am teaching a short course on homology, from ...
82 votes
6 answers
15k views

What is a cohomology theory (seriously)?

This question has bugged me for a long time. Is there a unifying concept behind everything that is called a "cohomology theory"? I know that there exist generalized cohomology theories, Weil ...
user717's user avatar
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79 votes
15 answers
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Why torsion is important in (co)homology ?

I've once been told that "torsion in homology and cohomology is regarded by topologists as a very deep and important phenomenon". I presume an analogous statement could be said in the context of ...
62 votes
5 answers
7k views

Does homology have a coproduct?

Standard algebraic topology defines the cup product which defines a ring structure on the cohomology of a topological space. This ring structure arises because cohomology is a contravariant functor ...
JoeG's user avatar
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58 votes
6 answers
7k views

Torsion in homology or fundamental group of subsets of Euclidean 3-space

Here's a problem I've found entertaining. Is it possible to find a subset of 3-dimensional Euclidean space such that its homology groups (integer coefficients) or one of its fundamental groups is not ...
Ryan Budney's user avatar
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51 votes
3 answers
12k views

Spaces with same homotopy and homology groups that are not homotopy equivalent?

A common caution about Whitehead's theorem is that you need the map between the spaces; it's easy to give examples of spaces with isomorphic homotopy groups that are not homotopy equivalent. (See Are ...
Dylan Thurston's user avatar
40 votes
16 answers
11k views

"Homotopy-first" courses in algebraic topology

A first course in algebraic topology, at least the ones I'm familiar with, generally gets students to a point where they can calculate homology right away. Building the theory behind it is generally ...
36 votes
2 answers
4k views

Maps which induce the same homomorphism on homotopy and homology groups are homotopic

I am interested in the following question. Are maps which induce the same homomorphism on homotopy and homology groups homotopic? I am sure the answer is no, however I cannot imagine how to construct ...
Samarkand's user avatar
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36 votes
3 answers
3k views

For which spaces is homology (or cohomology) determined by the Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms

This is a spinoff of Can anyone give me a good example of two interestingly different ordinary cohomology theories? . By an ordinary homology theory, I mean a functor on topological spaces which ...
Charles Rezk's user avatar
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29 votes
3 answers
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Why is homology not (co)representable?

This is in the same vein as my previous question on the representability of the cohomology ring. Why are the homology groups not corepresentable in the homotopy category of spaces?
Dinakar Muthiah's user avatar
29 votes
4 answers
2k views

Geometric Interpretation of the Lower Central Series for the Fundamental Group?

For any group G we can form the lower central series of normal subgroups by taking $G_0 = G$, $G_1 = [G,G]$, $G_{i+1} = [G,G_i]$. We can check this gives a normal chain $G_0 > G_1 > ... > ...
Anthony Bak's user avatar
25 votes
3 answers
2k views

Are fundamental groups of aspherical manifolds Hopfian?

A group $G$ is Hopfian if every epimorphism $G\to G$ is an isomorphism. A smooth manifold is aspherical if its universal cover is contractible. Are all fundamental groups of aspherical closed smooth ...
Sergei Ivanov's user avatar
24 votes
10 answers
4k views

Why localize spaces with respect to homology?

A basic construction in algebraic topology is the localization of spaces or spectra with respect to a homology theory: one formally inverts the $E$-homology isomorphisms, reflecting each space into ...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
24 votes
3 answers
4k views

Is there a map of spectra implementing the Thom isomorphism?

A well known theorem in algebraic topology relates the (co)homology of the Thom space $X^\mu$ of a orientable vector bundle $\mu$ of dimension $n$ over a space $X$ to the (co)homology of $X$ itself: $...
skupers's user avatar
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23 votes
3 answers
6k views

Does homology detect chain homotopy equivalence?

Is the following true: If two chain complexes of free abelian groups have isomorphic homology modules then they are chain homotopy equivalent.
Stephen Bigelow's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
3k views

Homology theory constructed in a homotopy-invariant way

Singular homology sends homotopic morphisms on equal morphisms and weakly equivalent spaces on isomorphic objects. So singular homology is in fact defined on the homotopy category of topological ...
Guillaume Brunerie's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
2k views

A homology theory which satisfies Milnor's additivity axiom but not the direct limit axiom?

Let us agree on the following: a "homology theory" means a functor $h_*$ from the category of pointed CW complexes to the category of graded abelian groups, together with natural isomorphisms $h_{*+1}(...
Bruno Stonek's user avatar
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23 votes
2 answers
2k views

Massey Products vs. $A_\infty$-Structures

Does anyone know a good reference for a proof of the fact that given a dga $A$, an $A_\infty$-structure on $HA$ is ''the same'' as coherent choices for all of the higher Massey products of $HA$? More ...
Steve's user avatar
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22 votes
3 answers
1k views

Which paths in a graph are orthogonal to all cycles?

Start with some standard stuff. Suppose we have a directed graph $\Gamma$. I'll write $e : v \to w \,$ when $e$ is an edge going from the vertex $v$ to the vertex $w$. We get a vector space of 0-...
John Baez's user avatar
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21 votes
2 answers
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Does this approach for the Poincaré conjecture work?

Several months ago a paper was posted at http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.4164 called "Another way of answering Henri Poincaré's fundamental question." The author gave a talk on it today at my institution. ...
21 votes
1 answer
798 views

What is the homotopy type of the poset of nontrivial decompositions of $\mathbf{R}^n$?

Consider the following partial order. The objects are unordered tuples $\{V_1,\ldots,V_m\}$, where each $V_i \subseteq \mathbf{R}^n$ is a nontrivial linear subspace and $V_1 \oplus \cdots \oplus V_m =...
Inna's user avatar
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19 votes
7 answers
5k views

CW-structures and Morse functions: a reference request

The following is probably well known, but I wasn't able to locate a reference in the literature. Let $f$ be a Morse function on a smooth compact manifold $M$ without boundary and let $\rho$ be a ...
algori's user avatar
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19 votes
1 answer
533 views

Homotopy equivalent Postnikov sections but not homotopy equivalent

Two pointed, connected CW complexes with the same homotopy groups need not be homotopy equivalent (Are there two non-homotopy equivalent spaces with equal homotopy groups?). Moreover, having the same ...
george's user avatar
  • 554
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Simple curves on non-orientable surfaces.

Given an element in the (first) homology group of a surface, I would like to know if it can be represented as a simple closed curve. For orientable surfaces, this is well-known, but I wasn't able to ...
Tony Huynh's user avatar
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18 votes
2 answers
699 views

Integral homology classes that can be represented by immersed submanifolds but not embedded submanifolds

Let $M$ be an $m$-dimensional compact closed smooth manifold and $z\in H_n(M,\mathbb{Z})$ an $n$-dimensional integral homology class, with $m>n.$ Does there exist a pair of $M$ and $z$ so that $z$ ...
Zhenhua Liu's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
2k views

Does the bordism homology theory satisfy the weak equivalence axiom?

There is an interesting and important homology theory called bordism. Briefly speaking, a singular manifold in a space $X$ is a pair $(M, f)$ where $M$ is a closed smooth manifold and $f : M \to X$ is ...
Karol Szumiło's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are the homology and cohomology Serre spectral sequences dual to each other?

If we use homology and cohomology over a field $k$, if a space has homology and cohomology groups of finite type in each degree, then $H_\ast(X;k)$ is dual to $H^\ast(X;k)$ using the universal ...
skupers's user avatar
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17 votes
1 answer
658 views

Ordinal-indexed homology theory?

Back when I was a grad student sitting in on Mike Freedman's topology seminar at UCSD, he posed the following question. Does there exist a good homology theory $H_{\alpha}(X)$ where $\alpha$ is an ...
Jim Conant's user avatar
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17 votes
2 answers
1k views

What is the Hopf algebra structures in the homology of the based loop spaces of $E_7$ and $E_8$?

Since $\Omega X$ is a $H$-space, if it has homology of finite type, the homology acquires the structure of a Hopf algebra. Bott has shown that for $X=G$ a Lie group, in fact $H_*(\Omega X)$ is free ...
skupers's user avatar
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16 votes
8 answers
3k views

Smooth classifying spaces?

Take G to be a group. I care about discrete groups, but the answer in general would be welcome too. There are the various ways to construct the classifying space of G, bar construction, cellular ...
Josh's user avatar
  • 1,402
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Computer-aided homology computations

Background I am currently working on the homology of some moduli space and there exists a much simpler chain complex with the same homology. It is a quotient of a bisimplicial complex by a subcomplex....
Felix Boes's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
2k views

Cohomology of associative algebras

Let $A$ be an associative algebra over a commutative ring $k$. I've read statements saying that Hochschild (co)homology is the "right" notion of (co)homology for associative algebras. When $A$ is ...
haakon's user avatar
  • 163
16 votes
5 answers
1k views

Take contraction wrt a vector field twice and define kernel mod image. Does that give anything interesting?

First, we make the following observation: let $X: M \rightarrow TM $ be a vector field on a smooth manifold. Taking the contraction with respect to $X$ twice gives zero, i.e. $$ i_X \circ i_{X} =0.$$...
Ritwik's user avatar
  • 3,235
16 votes
1 answer
2k views

On the wikipedia entry for Borel-Moore homology

The wikipedia page on Borel-Moore homology claims to give several definitions of it, all of which are supposed to coincide for those spaces $X$ which are homotopy equivalent to a finite CW complex and ...
John Klein's user avatar
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16 votes
0 answers
1k views

Homology classes of subvarieties of toric varieties

Let $X$ be a smooth proper toric variety, $Z\subseteq X$ a smooth subvariety. Is the fundamental class $[Z] \in H_\ast(X) = A_\ast(X)$ nonzero? Background If $X$ is a Kaehler variety, this is of ...
Piotr Achinger's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
4k views

Is it true that all real projective space $RP^n$ can not be smoothly embedded in $R^{n+1}$ for n >1

So first for n even, $RP^n$ is not orientable, hence can not be embedded in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$. For odd n, $RP^{n}$ is orientable, hence the normal bundle is trivial. Now using stiefel-Whitney ...
Xiaolei Wu's user avatar
  • 1,588
15 votes
5 answers
915 views

What fraction of n x n invertible integer matrices contain at least one unit?

The question is simple: What fraction of matrices in $G_n = \text{GL}_n(\mathbb{Z})$ have at least one unit entry (i.e., either $\lbrace\pm 1 \rbrace$)? I'm not sure what the correct measure on $...
Vidit Nanda's user avatar
  • 15.4k
15 votes
1 answer
883 views

Spectra with "finite" homology and homotopy

As known, any non-trivial finite spectrum $X$ can not have non-zero homotopy groups $\pi_i(X)$ only for finite number of $i$. As I understand, the same is true for any spectrum $X$ with finitely ...
Q. Q.'s user avatar
  • 399
15 votes
0 answers
714 views

Is this "Homology" useful to study?

In the usual singular homology of a topological space $X$, one consider the free abelian group generated by all continuous maps from the standard simplex $\Delta^{n}$ to $X$. Now we can ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
2k views

Projective dimension of zero module

Is there any consensus on what the projective dimension of the zero module should be? Here are three statements one commonly encounters in textbooks, sometimes with or without the condition $M\neq 0$: ...
ashpool's user avatar
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14 votes
4 answers
5k views

homology with compact supports

In one of the exercises in McDuff and Salamon, they mention homology with compact supports. I know how to define *co*homology with compact supports, but I can't picture the homology version. How do ...
jvkersch's user avatar
  • 1,367
14 votes
2 answers
971 views

Are acyclic subcomplexes of finite contractible 2-complexes contractible?

Let $Y$ be a contractible finite simplicial 2-complex. Let $X$ be an acyclic subcomplex of $Y$ (i.e. $X$ connected, $H_1(X)=0$, $H_2(X)=0$). Is $X$ contractible? (Equivalently, is $\pi_1(X)$ trivial?)...
Alexey Muranov's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
2k views

When does homology represent an embedded sphere?

If we have a triangulation of a manifold $M$ of dimension $i$ and we have simplicial homology $H_i(M)=\mathbb{Z}$, what is the condition than there exists an embedded sphere $S^i$ that generates the ...
Jake B.'s user avatar
  • 1,423
13 votes
2 answers
801 views

Is the singular homology of a real algebraic set always finitely generated?

Here is a precise statement of my question: Let $p\in \mathbb{R}[x_1, \ldots, x_n]$ be a polynomial, and let $Z(p)\subset \mathbb{R}^n$ be the set of zeros of $p$. Must the singular homology $H_i (Z(...
Dan Ramras's user avatar
  • 8,498
13 votes
1 answer
472 views

Impossibility of realizing codimension 1 homology classes by embedded non-orientable hypersurfaces

Suppose we have an $n+1$-dimensional compact closed oriented manifold $M$ and an $n$-dimensional integral homology class $[\Sigma]\in H_n(M,\mathbb{Z})$ on $M.$ Then is it true that $[\Sigma]$ mod $2$ ...
Zhenhua Liu's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
325 views

Realizing integral homology classes on non-orientable manifolds by embedded orientable submanifolds

Let $M^m$ denote a compact, non-orientable smooth manifold and $\nu$ an integral homology class of dimension $n$. I am interested in understanding the representability of $\nu$ by embedded, orientable ...
Zhenhua Liu's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
664 views

Singular chains generated by manifolds with corners --- does it really work?

Usually we define singular homology via the complex of singular chains: $$C_\ast(X)=\bigoplus_{n\geq 0}\mathbb Z\langle\sigma:\Delta^n\to X\rangle$$ where the right hand side denotes the free abelian ...
John Pardon's user avatar
  • 18.3k
13 votes
0 answers
847 views

About maps inducing bijections on homotopy classes

Let us assume that $f:X \to Y$ is a map of connected CW complexes, having the following property: if $K$ is a finite CW complex, then the induced map $f_{\ast}:[K,X] \to [K,Y]$ on \emph{free} homotopy ...
Johannes Ebert's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
4k views

Examples of non-simply connected manifolds with trivial H^1

It is known that, if a topological space is simply connected,its first homology group vanishes. The converse is not true, since for every presentation of a (say, finite) perfect group G we can ...
Luciano Mari's user avatar

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