Small loop spaces

The importance of small loops in the covering space theory was pointed out by Brodskiy, Dydak, Labuz, and Mitra in [2] and [3]. A small loop is a loop which is homotopic to a loop contained in an arbitrarily small neighborhood of its base point and a small loop space is a topological space in which every loop is small. Small loops are the strongest obstruction to semi-locally simply connectedness. We construct a small loop space using the Harmonic Archipelago. Furthermore, we define the small loop group of a space and study its impact on covering spaces, in particular its contribution to the fundamental group of the universal covering space.     

A geometric decomposition of spaces into cells of different types II: Homology theory

We develop the homology theory of CW(A)-complexes, generalizing the classical cellular homology theory for CW-complexes. A CW(A)-complex is a topological space which is built up out of cells of a certain core A.     

Bredon homology and ramified covering G-maps

Let G be a finite group. The objective of this paper is twofold. First we prove that the cellular Bredon homology groups with coefficients in an arbitrary coefficient system M are isomorphic to the homotopy groups of certain topological abelian group. And second, we study ramified covering G-maps of simplicial sets and of simplicial complexes. As an application, we construct a transfer for them in Bredon homology, when M is a Mackey functor. We also show that the Bredon-Illman homology with coefficients in M satisfies the equivariant weak homotopy equivalence axiom in the category of G-spaces.     

THE FUNDAMENTAL GROUP IN FIBRATIONS

A generalized Mayer-Vietoris sequence involving crossed homomorphisms is established and the construction is applied to the homotopy sequence of the CW-pair (X.X¹) to relate the homotopy sequences of (X.X¹) and the fibre bundle F → E → X in low dimensions. If there is a partial cross-section of E → X over X², the classical form, π₁ E ～ π₁ [xtilde] π₁ F as a semidirect product, results. In case there is no extension over X² of any cross-section of the restricted bundle χ:π₂ (x², x¹) → X¹ the corresponding obstruction map X_E:π₂(x²,x¹) → π₁F is non-trivial and in case F → E → X is an SO(n)-bundle (n ≥ 3), χ_E maps into a subgroup of the centre, Z(π₁ F), of order at most 2.     

On semilocally simply connected spaces

The purpose of this paper is: (i) to construct a space which is semilocally simply connected in the sense of Spanier even though its Spanier group is non-trivial; (ii) to propose a modification of the notion of a Spanier group so that via the modified Spanier group semilocal simple connectivity can be characterized; and (iii) to point out that with just a slightly modified definition of semilocal simple connectivity which is sometimes also used in literature, the classical Spanier group gives the correct characterization within the general class of path-connected topological spaces.While the condition “semilocally simply connected” plays a crucial role in classical covering theory, in generalized covering theory one needs to consider the condition “homotopically Hausdorff” instead. The paper also discusses which implications hold between all of the abovementioned conditions and, via the modified Spanier groups, it also unveils the weakest so far known algebraic characterization for the existence of generalized covering spaces as introduced by Fischer and Zastrow. For most of the implications, the paper also proves the non-reversibility by providing the corresponding examples. Some of them rely on spaces that are newly constructed in this paper.     

Simple homotopy types and finite spaces

We present a new approach to simple homotopy theory of polyhedra using finite topological spaces. We define the concept of collapse of a finite space and prove that this new notion corresponds exactly to the concept of a simplicial collapse. More precisely, we show that a collapse X↘Y of finite spaces induces a simplicial collapse K(X)↘K(Y) of their associated simplicial complexes. Moreover, a simplicial collapse K↘L induces a collapse X(K)↘X(L) of the associated finite spaces. This establishes a one-to-one correspondence between simple homotopy types of finite simplicial complexes and simple equivalence classes of finite spaces. We also prove a similar result for maps: We give a complete characterization of the class of maps between finite spaces which induce simple homotopy equivalences between the associated polyhedra. This class describes all maps coming from simple homotopy equivalences at the level of complexes. The advantage of this theory is that the elementary move of finite spaces is much simpler than the elementary move of simplicial complexes: It consists of removing (or adding) just a single point of the space.     

Simplicial ramified covering maps

In this paper we define the concept of a ramified covering map in the category of simplicial sets and we show that it has properties analogous to those of the topological ramified covering maps. We show that the geometric realization of a simplicial ramified covering map is a topological ramified covering map, and we also consider the relation with ramified covering maps in the category of simplicial complexes.     

Self homotopy groups with large nilpotency classes

We demonstrate that for any n>0 there exists a compact connected Lie group G such that the self homotopy group [G,G] has the nilpotency class greater than n, where [G,G] is a nilpotent group for a compact connected Lie group G.     

A core-free semicovering of the Hawaiian Earring

The connected covering spaces of a connected and locally path-connected topological space X   can be classified by the conjugacy classes of those subgroups of _π1(X,x)${\pi }_1(X,x)$ which contain an open normal subgroup of _π1(X,x)${\pi }_1(X,x)$, when endowed with the natural quotient topology of the compact-open topology on based loops. There are known examples of semicoverings (in the sense of Brazas) that correspond to open subgroups which do not contain an open normal subgroup. We present an example of a semicovering of the Hawaiian Earring H$\mathbb{H}$ with corresponding open subgroup of _π1(H)${\pi }_1(\mathbb{H})$ which does not contain any   nontrivial normal subgroup of _π1(H)${\pi }_1(\mathbb{H})$.     

Trunks and classifying spaces

Trunks are objects loosely analogous to categories. Like a category, a trunk has vertices and edges (analogous to objects and morphisms), but instead of composition (which can be regarded as given by preferred triangles of morphisms) it has preferred squares of edges. A trunk has a natural cubical nerve, analogous to the simplicial nerve of a category. The classifying space of the trunk is the realisation of this nerve. Trunks are important in the theory of racks [8]. A rackX gives rise to a trunkT (X) which has a single vertex and the setX as set of edges. Therack space BX ofX is the realisation of the nerveNT (X) ofT(X). The connection between the nerve of a trunk and the usual (cubical) nerve of a category determines in particular a natural mapBX BAs(X) whereBAs(X) is the classifying space of the associated group ofX. There is an extension to give a classifying space for an augmented rack, which has a natural map to the loop space of the Brown-Higgins classifying space of the associated crossed module [8, Section 2] and [3].The theory can be used to define invariants of knots and links since any invariant of the rack space of the fundamental rack of a knot or link is ipso facto an invariant of the knot or link.     

Duality and finite spaces

Using that finite topological spaces are just finite orders, we develop a duality theory for sheaves of Abelian groups over finite spaces following closely Grothendieck's duality theory for coherent sheaves over proper schemes. Since the geometric realization of a finite space is a polyhedron, we relate this duality with the duality theory for Abelian sheaves over polyhedra.     

On the homotopy groups of separable metric spaces

The aim of this paper is to discuss the homotopy properties of locally well-behaved spaces. First, we state a nerve theorem. It gives sufficient conditions under which there is a weak n-equivalence between the nerve of a good cover and its underlying space. Then we conclude that for any (n−1)-connected, locally (n−1)-connected compact metric space X which is also n-semilocally simply connected, the nth homotopy group of X, πn(X), is finitely presented. This result allows us to provide a new proof for a generalization of Shelah?s theorem (Shelah, 1988 [18]) to higher homotopy groups (Ghane and Hamed, 2009 [8]). Also, we clarify the relationship between two homotopy properties of a topological space X, the property of being n-homotopically Hausdorff and the property of being n-semilocally simply connected. Further, we give a way to recognize a nullhomotopic 2-loop in 2-dimensional spaces. This result will involve the concept of generalized dendrite which introduce here. Finally, we prove that each 2-loop is homotopic to a reduced 2-loop.     

On the genus of real projective spaces

We construct a crystallization of the real projective space whose associated contracted complex is minimal with respect to the number of n-simplexes. Then we compute the regular genus of , which is the minimum genus of a closed connected surface into which a crystallization of regularly embeds. Received: 7 February 2007     

What is wrong with the Hausdorff measure in Finsler spaces

We construct a class of Finsler metrics in three-dimensional space such that all their geodesics are lines, but not all planes are extremal for their Hausdorff area functionals. This shows that if the Hausdorff measure is used as notion of volume on Finsler spaces, then totally geodesic submanifolds are not necessarily minimal, filling results such as those of Ivanov [On two-dimensional minimal fillings, St. Petersburg Math. J. 13 (2002) 17-25] do not hold, and integral-geometric formulas do not exist. On the other hand, using the Holmes-Thompson definition of volume, we prove a general Crofton formula for Finsler spaces and give an easy proof that their totally geodesic hypersurfaces are minimal.     

Correction to: “Algebraic topology of Peano continua” [Topology Appl. 153 (2-3) (2005) 213-226] and “Fundamental groups having the whole information of spaces” [Topology Appl. 146-147 (2005) 317-328]

We correct lemmata in the papers in the title.     

A class of 4-pseudomanifolds similar to the lens spaces

A family of 4-dimensional pseudomanifolds is introduced using a standard graph-theoretical representation of lens spaces Some homeomorphisms between these lens-like spaces are established, the computation of their fundamental groups and of bounds for their genera are carried out     

On fundamental groups of quotient spaces

In classical covering space theory, a covering map induces an injection of fundamental groups. This paper reveals a dual property for certain quotient maps having connected fibers, with applications to orbit spaces of vector fields and leaf spaces in general.     

A class of 4-pseudomanifolds similar to the lens spaces

A family of 4-dimensional pseudomanifolds is introduced using a standard graph-theoretical representation of lens spaces Some homeomorphisms between these lens-like spaces are established, the computation of their fundamental groups and of bounds for their genera are carried out     

Uniform universal covers of uniform spaces

We develop a generalized covering space theory for a class of uniform spaces called coverable spaces. Coverable spaces include all geodesic metric spaces, connected and locally pathwise connected compact topological spaces, in particular Peano continua, as well as more pathological spaces like the topologist's sine curve. The uniform universal cover of a coverable space is a kind of generalized cover with universal and lifting properties in the category of uniform spaces and uniformly continuous mappings. Associated with the uniform universal cover is a functorial uniform space invariant called the deck group, which is related to the classical fundamental group by a natural homomorphism. We obtain some specific results for one-dimensional spaces.     

Estimating Matveev's complexity via crystallization theory

In [M.R. Casali, Computing Matveev's complexity of non-orientable 3-manifolds via crystallization theory, Topology Appl. 144(1-3) (2004) 201-209], a graph-theoretical approach to Matveev's complexity computation is introduced, yielding the complete classification of closed non-orientable 3-manifolds up to complexity six. The present paper follows the same point-of view, making use of crystallization theory and related results (see [M. Ferri, Crystallisations of 2-fold branched coverings of S³, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 73 (1979) 271-276; M.R. Casali, Coloured knots and coloured graphs representing 3-fold simple coverings of S³, Discrete Math. 137 (1995) 87-98; M.R. Casali, From framed links to crystallizations of bounded 4-manifolds, J. Knot Theory Ramifications 9(4) (2000) 443-458]) in order to significantly improve existing estimations for complexity of both 2-fold and three-fold simple branched coverings (see [O.M. Davydov, The complexity of 2-fold branched coverings of a 3-sphere, Acta Appl. Math. 75 (2003) 51-54] and [O.M. Davydov, Estimating complexity of 3-manifolds as of branched coverings, talk-abstract, Second Russian-German Geometry Meeting dedicated to 90-anniversary of A.D.Alexandrov, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, June 2002]) and 3-manifolds seen as Dehn surgery (see [G. Amendola, An algorithm producing a standard spine of a 3-manifold presented by surgery along a link, Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo 51 (2002) 179-198]).