Paper 2, Section II, H

Algebraic Topology
Part II, 2015

Define what it means for p:X~Xp: \widetilde{X} \rightarrow X to be a covering map, and what it means to say that pp is a universal cover.

Let p:X~Xp: \tilde{X} \rightarrow X be a universal cover, AXA \subset X be a locally path connected subspace, and A~p1(A)\tilde{A} \subset p^{-1}(A) be a path component containing a point a~0\tilde{a}_{0} with p(a~0)=a0p\left(\tilde{a}_{0}\right)=a_{0}. Show that the restriction pA~:A~A\left.p\right|_{\tilde{A}}: \widetilde{A} \rightarrow A is a covering map, and that under the Galois correspondence it corresponds to the subgroup

Ker(π1(A,a0)π1(X,a0))\operatorname{Ker}\left(\pi_{1}\left(A, a_{0}\right) \rightarrow \pi_{1}\left(X, a_{0}\right)\right)

of π1(A,a0)\pi_{1}\left(A, a_{0}\right).