Summary
In mathematics, real projective space, denoted \mathbb{RP}^n or \mathbb{P}_n(\R), is the topological space of lines passing through the origin 0 in the real space \R^{n+1}. It is a compact, smooth manifold of dimension n, and is a special case \mathbf{Gr}(1, \R^{n+1}) of a Grassmannian space. As with all projective spaces, RPn is formed by taking the quotient of Rn+1 ∖ under the equivalence relation x ∼ λx for all real numbers λ ≠ 0. For all x in Rn+1 ∖ one can always find a λ such that λx has norm 1. There are precisely two such λ differing by sign. Thus RPn can also be formed by identifying antipodal points of the unit n-sphere, Sn, in Rn+1. One can further restrict to the upper hemisphere of Sn and merely identify antipodal points on the bounding equator. This shows that RPn is also equivalent to the closed n-dimensional disk, Dn, with antipodal points on the boundary, ∂Dn = Sn−1, identified. RP1 is called the real projective line, which is topologically equivalent to a circle. RP2 is called the real projective plane. This space cannot be embedded in R3. It can however be embedded in R4 and can be immersed in R3 (see here). The questions of embeddability and immersibility for projective n-space have been well-studied. RP3 is (diffeomorphic to) SO(3), hence admits a group structure; the covering map S3 → RP3 is a map of groups Spin(3) → SO(3), where Spin(3) is a Lie group that is the universal cover of SO(3). The antipodal map on the n-sphere (the map sending x to −x) generates a Z2 group action on Sn. As mentioned above, the orbit space for this action is RPn. This action is actually a covering space action giving Sn as a double cover of RPn. Since Sn is simply connected for n ≥ 2, it also serves as the universal cover in these cases. It follows that the fundamental group of RPn is Z2 when n > 1. (When n = 1 the fundamental group is Z due to the homeomorphism with S1). A generator for the fundamental group is the closed curve obtained by projecting any curve connecting antipodal points in Sn down to RPn.
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Ontological neighbourhood
Related concepts (16)
Manifold
In mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an -dimensional manifold, or -manifold for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open subset of -dimensional Euclidean space. One-dimensional manifolds include lines and circles, but not lemniscates. Two-dimensional manifolds are also called surfaces. Examples include the plane, the sphere, and the torus, and also the Klein bottle and real projective plane.
Generalized flag variety
In mathematics, a generalized flag variety (or simply flag variety) is a homogeneous space whose points are flags in a finite-dimensional vector space V over a field F. When F is the real or complex numbers, a generalized flag variety is a smooth or complex manifold, called a real or complex flag manifold. Flag varieties are naturally projective varieties. Flag varieties can be defined in various degrees of generality. A prototype is the variety of complete flags in a vector space V over a field F, which is a flag variety for the special linear group over F.
Complex projective space
In mathematics, complex projective space is the projective space with respect to the field of complex numbers. By analogy, whereas the points of a real projective space label the lines through the origin of a real Euclidean space, the points of a complex projective space label the complex lines through the origin of a complex Euclidean space (see below for an intuitive account). Formally, a complex projective space is the space of complex lines through the origin of an (n+1)-dimensional complex vector space.
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