In topology, a branch of mathematics, the loop space ΩX of a pointed topological space X is the space of (based) loops in X, i.e. continuous pointed maps from the pointed circle S1 to X, equipped with the compact-open topology. Two loops can be multiplied by concatenation. With this operation, the loop space is an A∞-space. That is, the multiplication is homotopy-coherently associative. The set of path components of ΩX, i.e. the set of based-homotopy equivalence classes of based loops in X, is a group, the fundamental group π1(X).
In mathematics, homotopy theory is a systematic study of situations in which maps can come with homotopies between them. It originated as a topic in algebraic topology but nowadays is studied as an independent discipline. Besides algebraic topology, the theory has also been used in other areas of mathematics such as algebraic geometry (e.g., A1 homotopy theory) and (specifically the study of ). In homotopy theory and algebraic topology, the word "space" denotes a topological space.
In topology, the wedge sum is a "one-point union" of a family of topological spaces. Specifically, if X and Y are pointed spaces (i.e. topological spaces with distinguished basepoints and ) the wedge sum of X and Y is the quotient space of the disjoint union of X and Y by the identification where is the equivalence closure of the relation More generally, suppose is a indexed family of pointed spaces with basepoints The wedge sum of the family is given by: where is the equivalence closure of the relation In other words, the wedge sum is the joining of several spaces at a single point.
In topology, a branch of mathematics, the suspension of a topological space X is intuitively obtained by stretching X into a cylinder and then collapsing both end faces to points. One views X as "suspended" between these end points. The suspension of X is denoted by SX or susp(X). There is a variation of the suspension for pointed space, which is called the reduced suspension and denoted by ΣX. The "usual" suspension SX is sometimes called the unreduced suspension, unbased suspension, or free suspension of X, to distinguish it from ΣX.
In mathematics, a comma category (a special case being a slice category) is a construction in . It provides another way of looking at morphisms: instead of simply relating objects of a to one another, morphisms become objects in their own right. This notion was introduced in 1963 by F. W. Lawvere (Lawvere, 1963 p. 36), although the technique did not become generally known until many years later. Several mathematical concepts can be treated as comma categories. Comma categories also guarantee the existence of some s and colimits.
In topology, a topological space is called a compactly generated space or k-space if its topology is determined by compact spaces in a manner made precise below. There is in fact no commonly agreed upon definition for such spaces, as different authors use variations of the definition that are not exactly equivalent to each other. Also some authors include some separation axiom (like Hausdorff space or weak Hausdorff space) in the definition of one or both terms, and others don't.
In mathematics, the category of topological spaces, often denoted Top, is the whose s are topological spaces and whose morphisms are continuous maps. This is a category because the composition of two continuous maps is again continuous, and the identity function is continuous. The study of Top and of properties of topological spaces using the techniques of is known as categorical topology. N.B. Some authors use the name Top for the categories with topological manifolds, with compactly generated spaces as objects and continuous maps as morphisms or with the .
In , a branch of mathematics, a pushout (also called a fibered coproduct or fibered sum or cocartesian square or amalgamated sum) is the colimit of a consisting of two morphisms f : Z → X and g : Z → Y with a common domain. The pushout consists of an P along with two morphisms X → P and Y → P that complete a commutative square with the two given morphisms f and g. In fact, the defining universal property of the pushout (given below) essentially says that the pushout is the "most general" way to complete this commutative square.
In mathematics, stable homotopy theory is the part of homotopy theory (and thus algebraic topology) concerned with all structure and phenomena that remain after sufficiently many applications of the suspension functor. A founding result was the Freudenthal suspension theorem, which states that given any pointed space , the homotopy groups stabilize for sufficiently large. In particular, the homotopy groups of spheres stabilize for . For example, In the two examples above all the maps between homotopy groups are applications of the suspension functor.
In mathematics, specifically , adjunction is a relationship that two functors may exhibit, intuitively corresponding to a weak form of equivalence between two related categories. Two functors that stand in this relationship are known as adjoint functors, one being the left adjoint and the other the right adjoint. Pairs of adjoint functors are ubiquitous in mathematics and often arise from constructions of "optimal solutions" to certain problems (i.e.
