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2 votes

Construction of the Mayer-Vietoris spectral sequence

Here is a purely algebro-topological way of obtaining the Mayer–Vietoris spectral sequence for any homology theory $h_{\bullet}$ (the cohomological version is analogous). It is obtained by combining ...
Thorgott's user avatar
  • 508
6 votes
Accepted

Codimension zero embeddings and maps with small fibers

Isn't the following an example? Build $M$ starting from the plane by attaching an infinite sequence of handles whose size decreases to zero. Take for $N$ the disjoint union of $M_k$, where $M_k$ is ...
alesia's user avatar
  • 2,772
11 votes

Reduction of structure group and classifying spaces

To begin, I should mention that the proof of this equivalence is convincingly sketched in Stephen A. Mitchell's "Notes on principal bundles and classifying spaces", see Theorem 10.1 on page ...
Baylee Schutte's user avatar
0 votes
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An attempt at an alternative calculation of the rank of $\pi_n(MO)$

$\newcommand{\a}{\mathfrak a}\newcommand{\Hom}{\operatorname{Hom}}\newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb Z}$ This can be proven by only assuming that $H^*(MO)$ is a free module. Indeed, due to $H^*(MO)$ being a ...
Chris's user avatar
  • 391
6 votes

The simplicial Nerve

Just for the historical record. That is the way that Jean-Marc Cordier defined the homotopy coherent nerve in his paper in 1982. His notion was, in turn, based on the earlier work by Rainer Vogt and ...
Tim Porter's user avatar
  • 9,597
10 votes
Accepted

Are there any tests for knowing whether a topological space admits a CW structure?

Every compact topological manifold $M$ has the homotopy type of CW-complex. So, in the compact case, there is no such invariant of the type you are looking for (or, at least, such an invariant cannot ...
Francesco Polizzi's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

What does Robert Stong mean when he says $H^*(MO(k))$ is a free Steenrod algebra in dimension less than $2k$?

First, let's clarify what the statement means: The Steenrod algebra is a graded algebra, and $H^*(X)$ for any spectrum $X$ is a graded module over it. This means that the action $\mathcal{A}_2\otimes ...
Achim Krause's user avatar
  • 10.8k
3 votes
Accepted

The double of the genus two handlebody minus three tori

Your manifold $M$ is not well-defined. This is because you made a non-trivial choice - namely of the pants decomposition $P$. We could perhaps think of your question as asking about a particular &...
Sam Nead's user avatar
  • 28.1k
1 vote

Question about maps on cofibers being zero

The answer is no. Here is a counterexample. Let $p$ be a prime. Let $F = \mathbb Z / p \otimes_{\mathbb Z}^L (-) : D(\mathbb Z) \to D(\mathbb Z)$, and let $\phi = p : \mathbb Z \to \mathbb Z$. Take $Z'...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 63.9k
3 votes

Cohomology version of Moore space

As Allen Hatcher answered, there is no space whose cohomology is a countable direct sum of $\mathbb{Z}$'s in a single degree, and the cohomology of a wedge of spheres is instead a product. However, ...
Achim Krause's user avatar
  • 10.8k
5 votes

Is this true of the frame bundle $\operatorname{Fr}(M)$?

There is a tiny confusion of language here. If you are talking about the orthonormal frame bundle you have a Riemannian manifold not just a manifold. The frame bundle has structure group $Gl_n(\...
Tom Mrowka's user avatar
  • 3,409
8 votes

Cohomology version of Moore space

One needs to distinguish between the direct sum and the direct product of a collection of groups. For a countably infinite collection of copies of $\mathbb Z$ the direct sum of these groups is a free ...
Allen Hatcher's user avatar
4 votes

Is this true of the frame bundle $\operatorname{Fr}(M)$?

A lifting of the map $Fr(M)\to EO(n)$ along the map $(B\phi^\ast)EO(n)\to EO(n)$ always exists (up to homotopy, which I think is what you mean), simply because the space $EO(n)$ is contractible and ...
Tom Goodwillie's user avatar
2 votes

Is it always possible to connect the endpoints of a smooth injective path, so the resulting path is smooth, closed and simple?

Solution of your original question: A smooth curve cannot intersect infinitely many times lines in all directions. Let $\gamma: T\to \Gamma$ be the parametrization of your curve, where $T$ is the unit ...
Alexandre Eremenko's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

What does $\mathrm{Conf}_n(M)^{h S_n}$ look like?

In general, A nice enough finite dimensional space with a free $\Sigma_i$-action does not admit any homotopy fixed points. This is because a homotopy fixed point provides a splitting of the ...
Connor Malin's user avatar
  • 5,829
6 votes

What does $\mathrm{Conf}_n(M)^{h S_n}$ look like?

[UPDATE: Connor Malin's answer is definitely better than mine, but I will leave mine here in case the approach turns out to be useful for some other purpose.] Put $X=\operatorname{Conf}_n(M)$ and $Y=\...
Neil Strickland's user avatar
5 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

Okninski proved that $M$ is a monoid and $K$ is a field of characteristic $0$ such that the monoid algebra $KM$ is von Neumann regular, then $M$ is locally finite using analytic methods. No algebraic ...
14 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

The Scott-Wiegold conjecture posits that the free product of three non-trivial cyclic groups can never be normally generated by a single element. It was eventually proven by Jim Howie, by studying the ...
5 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progression: if $a$ and $b$ are any relatively prime positive integers, then there are infinitely many prime numbers of the form $a+nb$ for positive ...
16 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

There should be many examples in algebraic number theory, as it often interacts nontrivially with analytic number theory. For example, I am pretty sure there is no algebraic proof of Bauer's theorem (...
10 votes

Do the two orientations on an orientable manifold $M$ witness the same lifts of $\tau_M: M \to B\text{O($n$)}$ to $B\text{SO($n$)}$?

Up to homotopy, there is a fibration $$ BSO_n \to BO_n \to B\mathbb Z_2. $$ The space of orientations of $M$ is the (homotopy) fiber of the induced map of mapping spaces $$ \text{map}(M,BSO_n) \to \...
John Klein's user avatar
  • 18.8k
4 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

Infinitesimal Thurston Rigidity in Holomorphic Dynamics This concerns eigenvalues of a natural operator on cohomology. The statement is Galois invariant. The only known proof is not. Algebraic proofs ...
19 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

Artin's theorem on positive polynomials, which solves Hilbert's 17th problem in the affirmative, apparently still has no algebraic proof. Theorem (Artin): If $f \in \mathbb{R}[X_1,\dots,X_n]$ is ...
7 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

The proof (by Hecke I believe) that in a number field the ideal class of the different is always the square of a class.
39 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

Here is my favorite one (though not so elementary). Theorem (Grothendieck). Let $X$ be a smooth projective variety over an algebraically closed field $k$. Then, the etale fundamental group $\pi^{\rm ...
6 votes
Accepted

When does a cofibrantly generated model category have this factorization property?

I've encountered that condition a few time. Here is what I know about it: If that property is satisfied for a model category $M$ then the full subcategory $C$ of finite $I$-cell complex is itself a ...
Simon Henry's user avatar
  • 42.4k
32 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

An example comes from the connection of function fields and Riemann surfaces: Let $K$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $0$, $t$ a variable, and $L/K(t)$ be a finite Galois extension. ...
7 votes

Algebraic theorems with no known algebraic proofs

The fundamental theorem of algebra states that every non-constant single-variable polynomial with coefficients in $\mathbb C$ has at least one complex root; i.e., the field of complex numbers is ...
6 votes
Accepted

Express fundamental group of $\mathcal H/\Gamma$ by $\Gamma$

The statement I know if we remove the elliptic points then the $\pi_1$ is exactly $\Gamma$. is wrong. You can see this by considering $\Gamma=PSL(2,\mathbb Z)$. What you probably meant to say is ...
Moishe Kohan's user avatar
  • 12.2k
3 votes

Homotopy between posets

No. You are right that $H_i(X,F)$ can be defined for any functor (and is an interesting object to study), but it does not typically vanish for $i > 0$ and $X$ contractible. E.g. take $X$ to a be ...
Phil Tosteson's user avatar

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