Paper 4, Section II, H

Algebraic Topology
Part II, 2018

(a) State the Mayer-Vietoris theorem for a union of simplicial complexes

K=MNK=M \cup N

with L=MNL=M \cap N.

(b) Construct the map :Hk(K)Hk1(L)\partial_{*}: H_{k}(K) \rightarrow H_{k-1}(L) that appears in the statement of the theorem. [You do not need to prove that the map is well defined, or a homomorphism.]

(c) Let KK be a simplicial complex with K|K| homeomorphic to the nn-dimensional sphere SnS^{n}, for n2n \geqslant 2. Let MKM \subseteq K be a subcomplex with M|M| homeomorphic to Sn1×[1,1]S^{n-1} \times[-1,1]. Suppose that K=MNK=M \cup N, such that L=MNL=M \cap N has polyhedron L|L| identified with Sn1×{1,1}Sn1×[1,1]S^{n-1} \times\{-1,1\} \subseteq S^{n-1} \times[-1,1]. Prove that N|N| has two path components.