HomotopyIn topology, a branch of mathematics, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from ὁμός "same, similar" and τόπος "place") if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy (həˈmɒtəpiː, ; ˈhoʊmoʊˌtoʊpiː, ) between the two functions. A notable use of homotopy is the definition of homotopy groups and cohomotopy groups, important invariants in algebraic topology. In practice, there are technical difficulties in using homotopies with certain spaces.
Connection (principal bundle)In mathematics, and especially differential geometry and gauge theory, a connection is a device that defines a notion of parallel transport on the bundle; that is, a way to "connect" or identify fibers over nearby points. A principal G-connection on a principal G-bundle P over a smooth manifold M is a particular type of connection which is compatible with the action of the group G. A principal connection can be viewed as a special case of the notion of an Ehresmann connection, and is sometimes called a principal Ehresmann connection.
Homotopy groupIn mathematics, homotopy groups are used in algebraic topology to classify topological spaces. The first and simplest homotopy group is the fundamental group, denoted which records information about loops in a space. Intuitively, homotopy groups record information about the basic shape, or holes, of a topological space. To define the n-th homotopy group, the base-point-preserving maps from an n-dimensional sphere (with base point) into a given space (with base point) are collected into equivalence classes, called homotopy classes.
Classifying spaceIn mathematics, specifically in homotopy theory, a classifying space BG of a topological group G is the quotient of a weakly contractible space EG (i.e., a topological space all of whose homotopy groups are trivial) by a proper free action of G. It has the property that any G principal bundle over a paracompact manifold is isomorphic to a pullback of the principal bundle EG → BG. As explained later, this means that classifying spaces represent a set-valued functor on the of topological spaces.
Tautological bundleIn mathematics, the tautological bundle is a vector bundle occurring over a Grassmannian in a natural tautological way: for a Grassmannian of -dimensional subspaces of , given a point in the Grassmannian corresponding to a -dimensional vector subspace , the fiber over is the subspace itself. In the case of projective space the tautological bundle is known as the tautological line bundle. The tautological bundle is also called the universal bundle since any vector bundle (over a compact space) is a pullback of the tautological bundle; this is to say a Grassmannian is a classifying space for vector bundles.
Abelian groupIn mathematics, an abelian group, also called a commutative group, is a group in which the result of applying the group operation to two group elements does not depend on the order in which they are written. That is, the group operation is commutative. With addition as an operation, the integers and the real numbers form abelian groups, and the concept of an abelian group may be viewed as a generalization of these examples. Abelian groups are named after early 19th century mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.
Lefschetz fixed-point theoremIn mathematics, the Lefschetz fixed-point theorem is a formula that counts the fixed points of a continuous mapping from a compact topological space to itself by means of traces of the induced mappings on the homology groups of . It is named after Solomon Lefschetz, who first stated it in 1926. The counting is subject to an imputed multiplicity at a fixed point called the fixed-point index. A weak version of the theorem is enough to show that a mapping without any fixed point must have rather special topological properties (like a rotation of a circle).
Euler characteristicIn mathematics, and more specifically in algebraic topology and polyhedral combinatorics, the Euler characteristic (or Euler number, or Euler–Poincaré characteristic) is a topological invariant, a number that describes a topological space's shape or structure regardless of the way it is bent. It is commonly denoted by (Greek lower-case letter chi). The Euler characteristic was originally defined for polyhedra and used to prove various theorems about them, including the classification of the Platonic solids.
Free abelian groupIn mathematics, a free abelian group is an abelian group with a basis. Being an abelian group means that it is a set with an addition operation that is associative, commutative, and invertible. A basis, also called an integral basis, is a subset such that every element of the group can be uniquely expressed as an integer combination of finitely many basis elements. For instance the two-dimensional integer lattice forms a free abelian group, with coordinatewise addition as its operation, and with the two points (1,0) and (0,1) as its basis.
Projective bundleIn mathematics, a projective bundle is a fiber bundle whose fibers are projective spaces. By definition, a scheme X over a Noetherian scheme S is a Pn-bundle if it is locally a projective n-space; i.e., and transition automorphisms are linear. Over a regular scheme S such as a smooth variety, every projective bundle is of the form for some vector bundle (locally free sheaf) E. Every vector bundle over a variety X gives a projective bundle by taking the projective spaces of the fibers, but not all projective bundles arise in this way: there is an obstruction in the cohomology group H2(X,O*).
