Paper 4, Section II, H
State the Mayer-Vietoris theorem, and use it to calculate, for each integer , the homology group of the space obtained from the unit disc by identifying pairs of points on its boundary whenever . [You should construct an explicit triangulation of .]
Show also how the theorem may be used to calculate the homology groups of the suspension of a connected simplicial complex in terms of the homology groups of , and of the wedge union of two connected polyhedra. Hence show that, for any finite sequence of finitely-generated abelian groups, there exists a polyhedron such that for and for . [You may assume the structure theorem which asserts that any finitely-generated abelian group is isomorphic to a finite direct sum of (finite or infinite) cyclic groups.]