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Whitehead Torsion
In geometric topology, a field within mathematics, the obstruction to a homotopy equivalence f\colon X \to Y of finite CW-complexes being a simple homotopy equivalence is its Whitehead torsion \tau(f) which is an element in the Whitehead group \operatorname(\pi_1(Y)). These concepts are named after the mathematician J. H. C. Whitehead. The Whitehead torsion is important in applying surgery theory to non-simply connected manifolds of dimension > 4: for simply-connected manifolds, the Whitehead group vanishes, and thus homotopy equivalences and simple homotopy equivalences are the same. The applications are to differentiable manifolds, PL manifolds and topological manifolds. The proofs were first obtained in the early 1960s by Stephen Smale, for differentiable manifolds. The development of handlebody theory allowed much the same proofs in the differentiable and PL categories. The proofs are much harder in the topological category, requiring the theory of Robion Kirby and L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geometric Topology
In mathematics, geometric topology is the study of manifolds and Map (mathematics)#Maps as functions, maps between them, particularly embeddings of one manifold into another. History Geometric topology as an area distinct from algebraic topology may be said to have originated in the 1935 classification of lens spaces by Reidemeister torsion, which required distinguishing spaces that are homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic. This was the origin of simple homotopy, ''simple'' homotopy theory. The use of the term geometric topology to describe these seems to have originated rather recently. Differences between low-dimensional and high-dimensional topology Manifolds differ radically in behavior in high and low dimension. High-dimensional topology refers to manifolds of dimension 5 and above, or in relative terms, embeddings in codimension 3 and above. Low-dimensional topology is concerned with questions in dimensions up to 4, or embeddings in codimension up to 2. Dimensio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Group Ring
In algebra, a group ring is a free module and at the same time a ring, constructed in a natural way from any given ring and any given group. As a free module, its ring of scalars is the given ring, and its basis is the set of elements of the given group. As a ring, its addition law is that of the free module and its multiplication extends "by linearity" the given group law on the basis. Less formally, a group ring is a generalization of a given group, by attaching to each element of the group a "weighting factor" from a given ring. If the ring is commutative then the group ring is also referred to as a group algebra, for it is indeed an algebra over the given ring. A group algebra over a field has a further structure of a Hopf algebra; in this case, it is thus called a group Hopf algebra. The apparatus of group rings is especially useful in the theory of group representations. Definition Let G be a group, written multiplicatively, and let R be a ring. The group ring of G ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Swan
Richard Gordon Swan (; born 1933) is an American mathematician who is known for the Serre–Swan theorem relating the geometric notion of vector bundles to the algebraic concept of projective modules, and for the Swan representation, an ''l''-adic projective representation of a Galois group. His work has mainly been in the area of algebraic K-theory. Education and career As an undergraduate at Princeton University, Swan was one of five winners in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition in 1952. He earned his Ph.D. in 1957 from Princeton University under the supervision of John Coleman Moore. In 1969 he proved in full generality what is now known as the Stallings–Swan theorem. He is the Louis Block Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Chicago.. His doctoral students at Chicago include Charles Weibel, also known for his work in K-theory. Together with Otto Forster he proved the Forster–Swan theorem. Awards and honors In 1970 Swan was awarded t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyman Bass
Hyman Bass (; born October 5, 1932) MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Accessed January 31, 2010 is an American , known for work in and in . From 1959 to 1998 he was Professor in the Mathematics Department at |
Free Abelian Group
In mathematics, a free abelian group is an abelian group with a Free module, basis. Being an abelian group means that it is a Set (mathematics), set with an addition operation (mathematics), operation that is associative, commutative, and invertible. A basis, also called an integral basis, is a subset such that every element of the group (mathematics), group can be uniquely expressed as an integer linear combination, 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. Free abelian groups have properties which make them similar to vector spaces, and may equivalently be called free the free modules over the integers. Lattice (group), Lattice theory studies free abelian subgroups of real number, real vector spaces. In algebraic topology, free abelian groups are used to define Chain (algebraic topology), chain gro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euclidean Domain
In mathematics, more specifically in ring theory, a Euclidean domain (also called a Euclidean ring) is an integral domain that can be endowed with a Euclidean function which allows a suitable generalization of Euclidean division of integers. This generalized Euclidean algorithm can be put to many of the same uses as Euclid's original algorithm in the ring of integers: in any Euclidean domain, one can apply the Euclidean algorithm to compute the greatest common divisor of any two elements. In particular, the greatest common divisor of any two elements exists and can be written as a linear combination of them ( Bézout's identity). In particular, the existence of efficient algorithms for Euclidean division of integers and of polynomials in one variable over a field is of basic importance in computer algebra. It is important to compare the class of Euclidean domains with the larger class of principal ideal domains (PIDs). An arbitrary PID has much the same "structural proper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trivial Group
In mathematics, a trivial group or zero group is a group that consists of a single element. All such groups are isomorphic, so one often speaks of the trivial group. The single element of the trivial group is the identity element and so it is usually denoted as such: , , or depending on the context. If the group operation is denoted then it is defined by . The similarly defined is also a group since its only element is its own inverse, and is hence the same as the trivial group. The trivial group is distinct from the empty set, which has no elements, hence lacks an identity element, and so cannot be a group. Definitions Given any group , the group that consists of only the identity element is a subgroup of , and, being the trivial group, is called the of . The term, when referred to " has no nontrivial proper subgroups" refers to the only subgroups of being the trivial group and the group itself. Properties The trivial group is cyclic of order ; as such it may be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Normal Subgroup
In abstract algebra, a normal subgroup (also known as an invariant subgroup or self-conjugate subgroup) is a subgroup that is invariant under conjugation by members of the group of which it is a part. In other words, a subgroup N of the group G is normal in G if and only if gng^ \in N for all g \in G and n \in N. The usual notation for this relation is N \triangleleft G. Normal subgroups are important because they (and only they) can be used to construct quotient groups of the given group. Furthermore, the normal subgroups of G are precisely the kernels of group homomorphisms with domain G, which means that they can be used to internally classify those homomorphisms. Évariste Galois was the first to realize the importance of the existence of normal subgroups. Definitions A subgroup N of a group G is called a normal subgroup of G if it is invariant under conjugation; that is, the conjugation of an element of N by an element of G is always in N. The usual notation fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derived Subgroup
In mathematics, more specifically in abstract algebra, the commutator subgroup or derived subgroup of a group is the subgroup generated by all the commutators of the group. The commutator subgroup is important because it is the smallest normal subgroup such that the quotient group of the original group by this subgroup is abelian. In other words, G/N is abelian if and only if N contains the commutator subgroup of G. So in some sense it provides a measure of how far the group is from being abelian; the larger the commutator subgroup is, the "less abelian" the group is. Commutators For elements g and h of a group ''G'', the commutator of g and h is ,h= g^h^gh. The commutator ,h/math> is equal to the identity element ''e'' if and only if gh = hg , that is, if and only if g and h commute. In general, gh = hg ,h/math>. However, the notation is somewhat arbitrary and there is a non-equivalent variant definition for the commutator that has the inverses on the right hand side of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Main Diagonal
In linear algebra, the main diagonal (sometimes principal diagonal, primary diagonal, leading diagonal, major diagonal, or good diagonal) of a matrix A is the list of entries a_ where i = j. All off-diagonal elements are zero in a diagonal matrix. The following four matrices have their main diagonals indicated by red ones: \begin \color & 0 & 0\\ 0 & \color & 0\\ 0 & 0 & \color\end \qquad \begin \color & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \color & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & \color & 0 \end \qquad \begin \color & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \color & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & \color \\ 0 & 0 & 0 \end \qquad \begin \color & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \color & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & \color & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & \color \end Square matrices For a square matrix, the ''diagonal'' (or ''main diagonal'' or ''principal diagonal'') is the diagonal line of entries running from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner. For a matrix A with row index specified by i and column index specified by j, these would be entries A_ with i = j. For example, the iden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shear Matrix
Shear may refer to: Textile production *Animal shearing, the collection of wool from various species **Sheep shearing *The removal of Nap (textile), nap during wool cloth production *Scissors, a hand-operated cutting equipment Science and technology Engineering *Shear strength (soil), the shear strength of soil under loading *Shear line (locksmithing), where the inner cylinder ends and the outer cylinder begins in a cylinder lock *Shearing (manufacturing), a metalworking process which cuts stock without the formation of chips or the use of burning or melting *Shear (sheet metal), various tools to shear sheet metal *Board shear, in bookbinding, a tool to cut board or paper *Shear pin, in machinery, such as a plough, designed to shear (break) when a certain force is exceeded, to protect other components of the machine. *Shearing interferometer, in optics, a simple and very common means to check the collimation of beams by observing interference *Shearing in computer graphics, more c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elementary Matrix
In mathematics, an elementary matrix is a square matrix obtained from the application of a single elementary row operation to the identity matrix. The elementary matrices generate the general linear group when is a field. Left multiplication (pre-multiplication) by an elementary matrix represents elementary row operations, while right multiplication (post-multiplication) represents elementary column operations. Elementary row operations are used in Gaussian elimination to reduce a matrix to row echelon form. They are also used in Gauss–Jordan elimination to further reduce the matrix to reduced row echelon form. Elementary row operations There are three types of elementary matrices, which correspond to three types of row operations (respectively, column operations): ;Row switching: A row within the matrix can be switched with another row. : R_i \leftrightarrow R_j ;Row multiplication: Each element in a row can be multiplied by a non-zero constant. It is also known as ''sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
