Homotopical connectivityIn algebraic topology, homotopical connectivity is a property describing a topological space based on the dimension of its holes. In general, low homotopical connectivity indicates that the space has at least one low-dimensional hole. The concept of n-connectedness generalizes the concepts of path-connectedness and simple connectedness. An equivalent definition of homotopical connectivity is based on the homotopy groups of the space. A space is n-connected (or n-simple connected) if its first n homotopy groups are trivial.
Derived algebraic geometryDerived algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics that generalizes algebraic geometry to a situation where commutative rings, which provide local charts, are replaced by either differential graded algebras (over ), simplicial commutative rings or -ring spectra from algebraic topology, whose higher homotopy groups account for the non-discreteness (e.g., Tor) of the structure sheaf. Grothendieck's scheme theory allows the structure sheaf to carry nilpotent elements.
ConnectednessIn mathematics, connectedness is used to refer to various properties meaning, in some sense, "all one piece". When a mathematical object has such a property, we say it is connected; otherwise it is disconnected. When a disconnected object can be split naturally into connected pieces, each piece is usually called a component (or connected component). Connected space A topological space is said to be connected if it is not the union of two disjoint nonempty open sets.
Retraction (topology)In topology, a branch of mathematics, a retraction is a continuous mapping from a topological space into a subspace that preserves the position of all points in that subspace. The subspace is then called a retract of the original space. A deformation retraction is a mapping that captures the idea of continuously shrinking a space into a subspace. An absolute neighborhood retract (ANR) is a particularly well-behaved type of topological space. For example, every topological manifold is an ANR.
GerbeIn mathematics, a gerbe (dʒɜrb; ʒɛʁb) is a construct in homological algebra and topology. Gerbes were introduced by Jean Giraud following ideas of Alexandre Grothendieck as a tool for non-commutative cohomology in degree 2. They can be seen as an analogue of fibre bundles where the fibre is the classifying stack of a group. Gerbes provide a convenient, if highly abstract, language for dealing with many types of deformation questions especially in modern algebraic geometry.
Spectrum of a ringIn commutative algebra, the prime spectrum (or simply the spectrum) of a ring R is the set of all prime ideals of R, and is usually denoted by ; in algebraic geometry it is simultaneously a topological space equipped with the sheaf of rings . For any ideal I of R, define to be the set of prime ideals containing I. We can put a topology on by defining the to be This topology is called the Zariski topology. A basis for the Zariski topology can be constructed as follows. For f ∈ R, define Df to be the set of prime ideals of R not containing f.
Equivalence of categoriesIn , a branch of abstract mathematics, an equivalence of categories is a relation between two that establishes that these categories are "essentially the same". There are numerous examples of categorical equivalences from many areas of mathematics. Establishing an equivalence involves demonstrating strong similarities between the mathematical structures concerned.
Mapping class groupIn mathematics, in the subfield of geometric topology, the mapping class group is an important algebraic invariant of a topological space. Briefly, the mapping class group is a certain discrete group corresponding to symmetries of the space. Consider a topological space, that is, a space with some notion of closeness between points in the space. We can consider the set of homeomorphisms from the space into itself, that is, continuous maps with continuous inverses: functions which stretch and deform the space continuously without breaking or gluing the space.
Obstruction theoryIn mathematics, obstruction theory is a name given to two different mathematical theories, both of which yield cohomological invariants. In the original work of Stiefel and Whitney, characteristic classes were defined as obstructions to the existence of certain fields of linear independent vectors. Obstruction theory turns out to be an application of cohomology theory to the problem of constructing a cross-section of a bundle.
OrbifoldIn the mathematical disciplines of topology and geometry, an orbifold (for "orbit-manifold") is a generalization of a manifold. Roughly speaking, an orbifold is a topological space which is locally a finite group quotient of a Euclidean space. Definitions of orbifold have been given several times: by Ichirô Satake in the context of automorphic forms in the 1950s under the name V-manifold; by William Thurston in the context of the geometry of 3-manifolds in the 1970s when he coined the name orbifold, after a vote by his students; and by André Haefliger in the 1980s in the context of Mikhail Gromov's programme on CAT(k) spaces under the name orbihedron.
