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Concept
Differential topology
Summary
In mathematics, differential topology is the field dealing with the topological properties and smooth properties of smooth manifolds. In this sense differential topology is distinct from the closely related field of differential geometry, which concerns the geometric properties of smooth manifolds, including notions of size, distance, and rigid shape. By comparison differential topology is concerned with coarser properties, such as the number of holes in a manifold, its homotopy type, or the structure of its diffeomorphism group. Because many of these coarser properties may be captured algebraically, differential topology has strong links to algebraic topology.
The central goal of the field of differential topology is the classification of all smooth manifolds up to diffeomorphism. Since dimension is an invariant of smooth manifolds up to diffeomorphism type, this classification is often studied by classifying the (connected) manifolds in each dimension separately:
In dimension 1, the only smooth manifolds up to diffeomorphism are the circle, the real number line, and allowing a boundary, the half-closed interval and fully closed interval .
In dimension 2, every closed surface is classified up to diffeomorphism by its genus, the number of holes (or equivalently its Euler characteristic), and whether or not it is orientable. This is the famous classification of closed surfaces. Already in dimension two the classification of non-compact surfaces becomes difficult, due to the existence of exotic spaces such as Jacob's ladder.
In dimension 3, William Thurston's geometrization conjecture, proven by Grigori Perelman, gives a partial classification of compact three-manifolds. Included in this theorem is the Poincaré conjecture, which states that any closed, simply connected three-manifold is homeomorphic (and in fact diffeomorphic) to the 3-sphere.
Beginning in dimension 4, the classification becomes much more difficult for two reasons.
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