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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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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Does the (Poincare) dual complex represent the same topology?
To start with, consider some abstract $3$-dimensional simplicial complex $\Delta$ representing a manifold without boundary, for simplicity. Then, there is this well-known construction of the "(...
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Manifolds as Cauchy completed objects
The category of smooth manifolds (SmoothMfld) can be thought of the Cauchy completion of the category $U$ of open subsets of Euclidean spaces (with smooth maps) [1]. This fact is shocking to me as it ...
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Smooth curve in $\mathbb{R}^3$ not contained in real analytic surface?
Is there a $C^\infty$-smooth embedding $\gamma : I \to \mathbb{R}^3$ so that there is no real analytic $2$-dimensional submanifold $M \subset \mathbb{R}^3$ with $\gamma(I)\subset M$?
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Are different categories of manifolds non-equivalent (as abstract categories)?
Consider, for instance, the categories of $C^k$-manifolds, where $k=0,1,2,...,\infty,\omega$. ($C^\omega$ means real analytic.) Are these categories pairwise non-equivalent?
Of course, the obviuos ...
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Space filling curves
The classic Hahn-Mazurkiewicz theorem has the following consequence: Let $X$ be a compact, connected topological manifold. Then there is a continuous surjective map $f: [0,1] \rightarrow X$.
It is ...
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What is the Freudenthal compactification of a wildly punctured n-sphere?
Let $C$ be a compact and totally-disconnected subspace of the $n$-sphere $\mathbb{S}^n$, where $n\geq 2$.
Question: Must the Freudenthal compactification of $\mathbb{S}^n \setminus C$ be homeomorphic ...
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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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Can every finitely presented group be realized as a fundamental group of a compact four-dimensional smooth submanifold $\mathbb{R}^4$?
Every finitely presented group is realized as a fundamental group of a two-dimensional complex (a simple exercise on Van Kampen's theorem). I was told that a two-dimensional complex can be well ...
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Request for two articles on conformal transformations
I am looking for two articles for my research purpose. The first one is entitled with "Invariant metrics for groups of conformal transformations" (1993, preprint) by K. R. Gutschera and the ...
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To what extent is the Nash embedding not unique?
Consider a smooth Nash embedding, $f$, of a Riemannian manifold $Σ$ into Euclidean space $\mathbb R^n$. To what extent is this embedding not unique?
It is clear that the set of all such embeddings ...
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Examples of manifolds with first nontrivial SW-class in degree 16 or bigger
As a module over the Steenrod algebra, $H^{\ast}(BO;\mathbb F_2) = \mathbb F_2[w_1, w_2, w_3, \dots]$ is generated by $w_{2^t}, t \geq 0$. Thus, the first nontrivial SW-class of any vector bundle $\xi ...
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When does the tangent microbundle of a closed orientable topological $4k$-manifold have a trivial rank 2 subbundle?
$\DeclareMathOperator{\Top}{Top}
\DeclareMathOperator{\co}{H}$Let $M$ be a closed orientable connected topological manifold of dimension $4k$ with $k > 1$. It is known (David Frank, On the index of ...
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Bijective continuous map from subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$ to a manifold of dimension $n$
I'd like to know if the following assertion is true or not (if true I'd like an example):
There exists a positive integer $n$, and a manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ such that there is no subset $X \...
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Transition maps between coordinate charts on the Grassmann manifold
Let $\mathbf{Gr}_{n,k}$ be the manifold of $k$-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{R}^n$, and let $\mathbf{col}$ be the map that takes a matrix in $\mathbb{R}^{n\times k}$ to its columnspace. The map
\...
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Prove that Takens' embedding is a smooth one-to-one map with a smooth inverse
Let $f: \mathcal{M} \rightarrow \mathcal{M}$ be a smooth diffeomorphism and $\phi: \mathcal{M} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be a smooth function, where $\mathcal{M}$ is a $d$-dimensional manifold (which we ...
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If a Compact $n$-Manifold Immerses in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ is there a Locally Flat Immersion?
Suppose that $M$ is a compact, topological $n$-manifold and there is a topological immersion (i.e. local embedding) of $M$ into $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$. Is there necessarily a locally flat immersion of $M$...
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The geometry of the group of automorphisms of a manifold
Given a manifold $M$, the group $Aut(M)$ is made of diffeomorphisms $M\to M$. Since the complete vector fields on $M$ form an infinite dimensional Lie algebra, and each generates a 1 dimensional Lie ...
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What is the interpretation of Jacobi Identity on sympletic manifold?
Context (pg-321):
We have a manifold with an anti symmetric metric tensor/sympletic form $S$ with components in a basis $S_{ab}$ satisfying the property that
$$dS=0$$
Where $d$ is the exterior ...
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Uniqueness of the set of decomposing spheres in prime decomposition of a 3-manifold
At the end of Section 1.1 of 3-manifold groups it is written that "the decomposing spheres are not unique up to isotopy, but two different sets of decomposing spheres are related by ‘slide ...
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A particular case of the general converse to the preimage (submanifold) theorem
I was thinking whether it would be possible to develop a converse to the preimage theorem in differential topology and I found the following post:
When is a submanifold of $\mathbf R^n$ given by ...
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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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If tangent vectors are a vector space of same dimension at every point, does one has a manifold? [closed]
Let $M$ be a non-empty subset of $\mathbb R^n$, $n \geq 2$.
Recall that a vector $v$ is tangent to $M$ at the point $m \in M$ if it exists a differentiable curve $\gamma : I \to M$ such that $\gamma(0)...
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Good resources that talk about geodesically convex sets for riemannian manifolds?
Are there any good resources that talk about geodesically convex sets, and in particular convex hulls, for riemannian manifolds? I’ve been wanting to learn more about them, their geometry and ...
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Geometric intuition behind definition of $\delta$-necklike points of the Ricci flow
In "The Ricci Flow: An Introduction", the authors define a $\delta$-necklike point of the Ricci flow as a point $(x, t)$ where $$\|\text{Rm} - R (\theta \otimes \theta)\| \leq \delta \|\text{...
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Converse to Hopf degree theorem
Below, I mean smooth oriented closed connected manifolds and smooth maps (but am happy to hear about the topological category, or unoriented manifolds, etc instead).
Say that $X^n$ has the Hopf ...
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Given a Heegaard splitting $M = V\cup_F W$, then $V\setminus N(D_1)$ is ambient isotopic to $V\cup N(D_2)$ for a meridian pair $\{D_1,D_2\}$
I sincerely apologize if MathOverflow is not the appropriate place to ask this question. I also tried consulting M.SE but it seems that this question gained little to no interest .
Consider a ...
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Must a space that is locally injective image of $\mathbb{R}^n$ be a manifold?
Suppose $X\subseteq\mathbb{R}^m$ s.t. for any $x\in X$ and any open $U\subseteq\mathbb{R}^m$ that contains $x$, there exists a smaller open set $V\subseteq U$ also containing $x$, so that $V\cap X$ is ...
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(Homotopy) colimit and manifold
Suppose that I have an arbitrary regular CW complex. By associating a topological space to each vertex of the CW complex, I can have a diagram of topological spaces, denoted by $D$, over the CW ...
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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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Persistence of planar trajectory converging to a node / focus
I consider a planar system $\dot u =F(u,p)$ where p is a scalar parameter. Suppose that the flow $\phi^t(u_0; 0)$ from $u_0$ converges to a stable node / focus $x^{eq}_0$ for the parameter value $p=0$....
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Is $\mathbb{CP}^3$ minus two points the universal cover of a compact manifold?
After reading some recent questions on mathoverflow about universal coverings, I am curious about the following:
Is it possible to construct a closed $6$-manifold $M$, with universal cover ...
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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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Is there a closed manifold whose universal cover is $\mathbb{R}^n\setminus\{x_1, \dots, x_k\}$ for some $k > 1$?
There are many closed manifolds with universal cover homotopy equivalent to $\mathbb{R}^n$, they are precisely the closed aspherical manifolds. There are also many closed smooth manifolds with ...
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Which quantity could hold its convergence under Gromov-Hausdorff convergence?
Recently I've been reading T.H.Colding's paper of Ricci curvature and volume convergence. A proof of the continuity of volume functions was given under the lower Ric bounded condition.
Having searched ...
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Sobolev embedding theorems on manifolds
I had asked the following question on math.stackexchange but did not get any response:
I'm looking for a reference which states the Sobolev embedding theorems on Riemann manifolds for fractional ...
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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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Can someone explain this proof on aspherical manifolds?
I am trying to understand this proof that the fundamental group of an aspherical manifold is torsion free. The proof is lemma 4.1 from Aspherical manifolds at the Manifold Atlas Project. The proof is:
...
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Proper isotopy of proper embeddings of manifolds
We know from Theorem 2.2 in(http://www.map.mpim-bonn.mpg.de/Embeddings_of_manifolds_with_boundary:_classification#6.2) that
Any two smooth embeddings of closed oriented $n$-manifold(n>1) in $\...
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Mathematics Roadmap [closed]
I immediately apologize for my English, Google translator is my assistant. I couldn't find the information in my own language.
My question is addressed to people who understand mathematics. I hope for ...
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Is there a version of the Poincaré–Hopf theorem for manifold with corners?
As we know, the square $S=[0,1]\times[0,1]$ is not a manifold with boundary. Instead, it's a manifold with corners. For a tangent vector field on a compact manifold with boundary, we have the Poincaré–...
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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)?
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Is every (not necessarily PL-) triangulation of a manifold pure, non-branching and strongly-connected?
A triangulation of a topological manifold $\mathcal{M}$ possibly with boundary is an abstract simplicial complex $\Delta$ together with a homeomorphism $\varphi:\vert\Delta\vert\to\mathcal{M}$, where $...
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Analogue of Kolmogorov/Arnold superposition for general manifolds?
Previously asked and bountied at MSE with slightly different language:
Given a topological space $\mathcal{X}$, let $$\mathsf{Cl_C}(\mathcal{X})=\bigcup_{n\in\mathbb{N}}C(\mathcal{X}^n,\mathcal{X})$$ ...
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Decomposition of manifolds with toroidal boundary
Let $\mathcal{M}$ be a compact, connected, oriented 3-manifolds with non-empty connected boundary $\partial\mathcal{M}$. Then, following this article, it is stated that $\mathcal{M}$ can be written as
...
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Classification of 3-dimensional manifolds with boundary
It is well-known that every closed, connected and orientable 3-manifold $\mathcal{M}$ can uniquely be decomposed as
$$\mathcal{M}=P_{1}\#\dots\# P_{n}$$
where $P_{i}$ are prime manifolds, i.e. ...
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Obstruction of smooth structure
The first 24 lectures of Jacob Lurie on Geometric Topology [1]
gave a concise introduction to the comparison of smooth manifolds
and piecewise-linear manifold. In the first five lectures, it is
shown ...
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Relation between cohomological dimensions of manifolds
$\DeclareMathOperator\Ch{Ch}$Let $M$ be a connected manifold of finite type. We denote $\Ch_{\mathbb{Q}}(M),$ $\Ch_{\mathbb{Z}}(M)$ and $\Ch_{\mathbb{\pm}\mathbb{Z}}(M)$ by cohomological dimensions of ...
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CW-complexes that cannot be homotopically compressed
Definition. A CW-complex $A$ can be elementary compressed to a CW-complex $B$ if there is a deformation retraction $A \to B$ or a quotient map by a contractible subcopmlex $A \to B$ (meaning according ...
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Domain of definition of a certain mapping
Suppose we have a compact smooth riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ and a $\mathcal{C}^2$ diffeomorphism $f$ of this manifold.
I am studying the mapping
$$\tilde{f}(x)= \exp_{f(x)}^{-1} \circ f \circ \exp_x \...
