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Lens Space
A lens space is an example of a topological space, considered in mathematics. The term often refers to a specific class of 3-manifolds, but in general can be defined for higher dimensions. In the 3-manifold case, a lens space can be visualized as the result of gluing two solid tori together by a homeomorphism of their boundaries. Often the 3-sphere and S^2 \times S^1, both of which can be obtained as above, are not counted as they are considered trivial special cases. The three-dimensional lens spaces L(p;q) were introduced by Heinrich Tietze in 1908. They were the first known examples of 3-manifolds which were not determined by their homology and fundamental group alone, and the simplest examples of closed manifolds whose homeomorphism type is not determined by their homotopy type. J. W. Alexander in 1919 showed that the lens spaces L(5;1) and L(5;2) were not homeomorphic even though they have isomorphic fundamental groups and the same homology, though they do not have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lens Space L(2;5) Side View
A lens is a transmissive optics, optical device that focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a #Compound lenses, compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), usually arranged along a common Optical axis, axis. Lenses are made from materials such as glass or plastic and are Grinding (abrasive cutting), ground, Polishing, polished, or Molding (process), molded to the required shape. A lens can focus light to form an image, unlike a Prism (optics), prism, which refracts light without focusing. Devices that similarly focus or disperse waves and radiation other than visible light are also called "lenses", such as microwave lenses, electron lenses, acoustic lenses, or explosive lenses. Lenses are used in various imaging devices such as telescopes, binoculars, and cameras. They are also used as visual aids in glasses to correct defects of vision such as Near-sightedness, myopia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Group Action (mathematics)
In mathematics, a group action of a group G on a set (mathematics), set S is a group homomorphism from G to some group (under function composition) of functions from S to itself. It is said that G acts on S. Many sets of transformation (function), transformations form a group (mathematics), group under function composition; for example, the rotation (mathematics), rotations around a point in the plane. It is often useful to consider the group as an abstract group, and to say that one has a group action of the abstract group that consists of performing the transformations of the group of transformations. The reason for distinguishing the group from the transformations is that, generally, a group of transformations of a mathematical structure, structure acts also on various related structures; for example, the above rotation group also acts on triangles by transforming triangles into triangles. If a group acts on a structure, it will usually also act on objects built from that st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Configuration Space (mathematics)
In mathematics, a configuration space is a construction closely related to state spaces or phase spaces in physics. In physics, these are used to describe the state of a whole system as a single point in a high-dimensional space. In mathematics, they are used to describe assignments of a collection of points to positions in a topological space. More specifically, configuration spaces in mathematics are particular examples of configuration spaces in physics in the particular case of several non-colliding particles. Definition For a topological space X and a positive integer n, let X^n be the Cartesian product of n copies of X, equipped with the product topology. The ''n''th (ordered) configuration space of X is the set of ''n''-tuples of pairwise distinct points in X: :\operatorname_n(X) := X^n \smallsetminus \. This space is generally endowed with the subspace topology from the inclusion of \operatorname_n(X) into X^n. It is also sometimes denoted F(X, n), F^n(X), or \mathca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Polynomial
In mathematics, the Alexander polynomial is a knot invariant which assigns a polynomial with integer coefficients to each knot type. James Waddell Alexander II discovered this, the first knot polynomial, in 1923. In 1969, John Conway showed a version of this polynomial, now called the Alexander–Conway polynomial, could be computed using a skein relation, although its significance was not realized until the discovery of the Jones polynomial in 1984. Soon after Conway's reworking of the Alexander polynomial, it was realized that a similar skein relation was exhibited in Alexander's paper on his polynomial. Definition Let ''K'' be a knot in the 3-sphere. Let ''X'' be the infinite cyclic cover of the knot complement of ''K''. This covering can be obtained by cutting the knot complement along a Seifert surface of ''K'' and gluing together infinitely many copies of the resulting manifold with boundary in a cyclic manner. There is a covering transformation ''t'' acting on ''X ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knot Theory
In topology, knot theory is the study of knot (mathematics), mathematical knots. While inspired by knots which appear in daily life, such as those in shoelaces and rope, a mathematical knot differs in that the ends are joined so it cannot be undone, the simplest knot being a ring (or "unknot"). In mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, \mathbb^3. Two mathematical knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of \mathbb^3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy); these transformations correspond to manipulations of a knotted string that do not involve cutting it or passing it through itself. Knots can be described in various ways. Using different description methods, there may be more than one description of the same knot. For example, a common method of describing a knot is a planar diagram called a knot diagram, in which any knot can be drawn in many different ways. Therefore, a fundamental p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surgery Obstruction
In mathematics, specifically in surgery theory, the surgery obstructions define a map \theta \colon \mathcal (X) \to L_n (\pi_1 (X)) from the normal invariants to the L-groups which is in the first instance a set-theoretic map (that means not necessarily a homomorphism) with the following property when n \geq 5: A degree-one normal map (f,b) \colon M \to X is normally cobordant to a homotopy equivalence if and only if the image \theta (f,b)=0 in L_n (\mathbb pi_1 (X). Sketch of the definition The surgery obstruction of a degree-one normal map has a relatively complicated definition. Consider a degree-one normal map (f,b) \colon M \to X. The idea in deciding the question whether it is normally cobordant to a homotopy equivalence is to try to systematically improve (f,b) so that the map f becomes m-connected (that means the homotopy groups \pi_* (f)=0 for * \leq m) for high m. It is a consequence of Poincaré duality that if we can achieve this for m > \lfloor n/2 \rfloor then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Characteristic Classes
In mathematics, a characteristic class is a way of associating to each principal bundle of ''X'' a cohomology class of ''X''. The cohomology class measures the extent to which the bundle is "twisted" and whether it possesses sections. Characteristic classes are global invariants that measure the deviation of a local product structure from a global product structure. They are one of the unifying geometric concepts in algebraic topology, differential geometry, and algebraic geometry. The notion of characteristic class arose in 1935 in the work of Eduard Stiefel and Hassler Whitney about vector fields on manifolds. Definition Let ''G'' be a topological group, and for a topological space X, write b_G(X) for the set of isomorphism classes of principal ''G''-bundles over X. This b_G is a contravariant functor from Top (the category of topological spaces and continuous functions) to Set (the category of sets and functions), sending a map f\colon X\to Y to the pullback operation f^*\ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normal Invariant
In mathematics, a normal map is a concept in geometric topology due to William Browder which is of fundamental importance in surgery theory. Given a Poincaré complex ''X'' (more geometrically a Poincaré space), a normal map on ''X'' endows the space, roughly speaking, with some of the homotopy-theoretic global structure of a closed manifold. In particular, ''X'' has a good candidate for a stable normal bundle and a Thom collapse map, which is equivalent to there being a map from a manifold ''M'' to ''X'' matching the fundamental classes and preserving normal bundle information. If the dimension of ''X'' is \ge 5 there is then only the algebraic topology surgery obstruction due to C. T. C. Wall to ''X'' actually being homotopy equivalent to a closed manifold. Normal maps also apply to the study of the uniqueness of manifold structures within a homotopy type, which was pioneered by Sergei Novikov. The cobordism classes of normal maps on ''X'' are called normal invariants. De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simple Homotopy
In mathematics, particularly the area of topology, a simple-homotopy equivalence is a refinement of the concept of homotopy equivalence. Two CW-complex In mathematics, and specifically in topology, a CW complex (also cellular complex or cell complex) is a topological space that is built by gluing together topological balls (so-called ''cells'') of different dimensions in specific ways. It generali ...es are simple-homotopy equivalent if they are related by a sequence of collapses and expansions (inverses of collapses), and a homotopy equivalence is a simple homotopy equivalence if it is homotopic to such a map. The obstruction to a homotopy equivalence being a simple homotopy equivalence is the Whitehead torsion, \tau(f). A homotopy theory that studies simple-homotopy types is called simple homotopy theory. See also * Discrete Morse theory References * Homotopy theory Equivalence (mathematics) {{topology-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PL Homeomorphism
In mathematics, a piecewise linear manifold (PL manifold) is a topological manifold together with a piecewise linear structure on it. Such a structure can be defined by means of an atlas, such that one can pass from chart to chart in it by piecewise linear functions. This is slightly stronger than the topological notion of a triangulation. An isomorphism of PL manifolds is called a PL homeomorphism. Relation to other categories of manifolds PL, or more precisely PDIFF, sits between DIFF (the category of smooth manifolds) and TOP (the category of topological manifolds): it is categorically "better behaved" than DIFF — for example, the Generalized Poincaré conjecture is true in PL (with the possible exception of dimension 4, where it is equivalent to DIFF), but is false generally in DIFF — but is "worse behaved" than TOP, as elaborated in surgery theory. Smooth manifolds Smooth manifolds have canonical PL structures — they are uniquely ''triangulizable,'' by Whitehead's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torsion Linking Form
Torsion may refer to: Science * Torsion (mechanics), the twisting of an object due to an applied torque * Torsion of spacetime, the field used in Einstein–Cartan theory and ** Alternatives to general relativity * Torsion angle, in chemistry Biology and medicine * Torsion fracture or spiral fracture, a bone fracture when torque is applied * Organ torsion, twisting that interrupts the blood supply to that organ: ** Splenic torsion, causing splenic infarction ** Ovarian torsion ** Testicular torsion * Penile torsion, a congenital condition * Torsion of the digestive tract in some domestic animals: ** Torsion, a type of horse colic ** Gastric torsion, or gastric dilatation volvulus * Torsion (gastropod), a developmental feature of all gastropods Mathematics * Torsion of a curve * Torsion tensor, in differential geometry * Torsion (algebra), in ring theory * Torsion group, in group theory and arithmetic geometry * Tor functor, the derived functors of the tensor product of mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Polygon
In Euclidean geometry, a regular polygon is a polygon that is Equiangular polygon, direct equiangular (all angles are equal in measure) and Equilateral polygon, equilateral (all sides have the same length). Regular polygons may be either ''convex polygon, convex'' or ''star polygon, star''. In the limit (mathematics), limit, a sequence of regular polygons with an increasing number of sides approximates a circle, if the perimeter or area is fixed, or a regular apeirogon (effectively a Line (geometry), straight line), if the edge length is fixed. General properties These properties apply to all regular polygons, whether convex or star polygon, star: *A regular ''n''-sided polygon has rotational symmetry of order ''n''. *All vertices of a regular polygon lie on a common circle (the circumscribed circle); i.e., they are concyclic points. That is, a regular polygon is a cyclic polygon. *Together with the property of equal-length sides, this implies that every regular polygon also h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
