Cone (topology)

In topology, especially algebraic topology, the cone of a topological space is intuitively obtained by stretching X into a cylinder and then collapsing one of its end faces to a point. The cone of X is denoted by or by . Formally, the cone of X is defined as: where is a point (called the vertex of the cone) and is the projection to that point. In other words, it is the result of attaching the cylinder by its face to a point along the projection . If is a non-empty compact subspace of Euclidean space, the cone on is homeomorphic to the union of segments from to any fixed point such that these segments intersect only by itself. That is, the topological cone agrees with the geometric cone for compact spaces when the latter is defined. However, the topological cone construction is more general. The cone is a special case of a join: the join of with a single point . Here we often use a geometric cone ( where is a non-empty compact subspace of Euclidean space). The considered spaces are compact, so we get the same result up to homeomorphism. The cone over a point p of the real line is a line-segment in , . The cone over two points {0, 1} is a "V" shape with endpoints at {0} and {1}. The cone over a closed interval I of the real line is a filled-in triangle (with one of the edges being I), otherwise known as a 2-simplex (see the final example). The cone over a polygon P is a pyramid with base P. The cone over a disk is the solid cone of classical geometry (hence the concept's name). The cone over a circle given by is the curved surface of the solid cone: This in turn is homeomorphic to the closed disc. More general examples: The cone over an n-sphere is homeomorphic to the closed (n + 1)-ball. The cone over an n-ball is also homeomorphic to the closed (n + 1)-ball. The cone over an n-simplex is an (n + 1)-simplex. All cones are path-connected since every point can be connected to the vertex point. Furthermore, every cone is contractible to the vertex point by the homotopy The cone is used in algebraic topology precisely because it embeds a space as a subspace of a contractible space.