Mathematics 612, Fall 2013
Algebraic Topology II
Wednesdays, Fridays 1:25-2:40pm, Physics 227
Office hours: Wednesdays 4:20-5:00, Thursdays 12:00-2:00, or drop by
or make an appointment. (Please note that my undergraduate course has
priority for the official office hours.)
There will be no class November 6 and November 8.
Homework assignments
Course information
Textbooks:
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Algebraic Topology by Allen Hatcher
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Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology
by Raoul Bott and Loring Tu.
We will use Hatcher for the first portion of the course, when we discuss
singular cohomology. The rest of the course will be based on Bott and Tu.
Prerequisites: Math 611 or familiarity with equivalent material
(fundamental group, simplicial/singular homology, CW complexes;
essentially the first two chapters of Hatcher). Math 621 or familiarity
with basic differential topology (smooth manifolds, tangent/cotangent
bundle, differential forms) will also be helpful.
There
will be weekly/biweekly homework assignments and a take-home final exam
for this course.
Here are topics that I plan to cover in the course:
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Singular cohomology, cup product, Poincaré duality
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Differential forms, de Rham cohomology, Poincaré duality
(again), Künneth Theorem
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Vector bundles, Thom isomorphism
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Cech cohomology, presheaves
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Spectral sequences, double complexes, equivalence of cohomology theories, Leray-Serre
spectral sequence.