In mathematics, specifically algebraic topology, the mapping cylinder of a continuous function between topological spaces and is the quotient where the denotes the disjoint union, and ∼ is the equivalence relation generated by That is, the mapping cylinder is obtained by gluing one end of to via the map . Notice that the "top" of the cylinder is homeomorphic to , while the "bottom" is the space . It is common to write for , and to use the notation or for the mapping cylinder construction.
In mathematics, especially homotopy theory, the homotopy fiber (sometimes called the mapping fiber) is part of a construction that associates a fibration to an arbitrary continuous function of topological spaces . It acts as a homotopy theoretic kernel of a mapping of topological spaces due to the fact it yields a long exact sequence of homotopy groupsMoreover, the homotopy fiber can be found in other contexts, such as homological algebra, where the distinguished trianglegives a long exact sequence analogous to the long exact sequence of homotopy groups.
In mathematics, especially homotopy theory, the mapping cone is a construction of topology, analogous to a quotient space. It is also called the homotopy cofiber, and also notated . Its dual, a fibration, is called the mapping fibre. The mapping cone can be understood to be a mapping cylinder , with one end of the cylinder collapsed to a point. Thus, mapping cones are frequently applied in the homotopy theory of pointed spaces. Given a map , the mapping cone is defined to be the quotient space of the mapping cylinder with respect to the equivalence relation , .
In 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.
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.
