The Borsuk-Ulam Theorem

Artur Bicalho Saturnino

June 2018

Abstract
I am going to present the Borsuk-Ulam theorem in its historical con-
text. After that I will give a proof using differential topology and also
show some well-known corollaries. To close the talk, I will show some
applications of this theorem to measure theory and combinatorics.

1 Introduction
The degree of a map f : S n → S n is a topological invariant that count how
many time f wraps the sphere around itself. Rigorously, it can be defined as
the integer satisfying
f∗ ([σ]) = (deg f )[σ]
where [σ] ∈ Hn (S n ) is non-zero.
The study of this early topological invariant led to some remarkable results
in the early 20th century, namely:

• Brower fixed point theorem (1912): Every map from the closed n-dimensional
ball to itself has a fixed point.
• Hopf theorem (1927): Two maps from the sphere to itself are homotopic
iff they have the same degree.
• Borsuk-Ulam theorem (1933): Every antipode-preserving map (i.e. a map
f : S n → S n such that f (−x) = −f (x)) has odd degree.
Note that the result conjectured by Ulam and proven by Borsuk differs from the
other two and from most of the results that we see in basic algebraic topology
to the extend that it takes into account symmetry, in this case the antipode
action of Z2 on S n .
The antipode-preserving condition might seem strong, but any map f : S n →
n
S such that f (x) 6= f (−x) is homotopic to an antipode-preserving map. More
explicitly, this homotopy can be defined by moving f (x) and f (−x) away from
each other on the great circle that connects this two points.

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Figure 1: We can move f (x) and f (−x) to antipode points tough the great
circle in blue.

2 Proof
We are now going to proof the Borsuk-Ulam theorem. We will assume for now
that f : S n → S n is smooth. Then the degree of f is given by
X
deg f = sig(det dx f )
x∈f −1 (y)

where y ∈ S n is a regular value.

The proof proceeds by induction on the dimension.

Case n = 1:
Let r : R → S 1 be the covering map r(x) = e2πx and let f˜ : R → R be the
lift of f by r. The antipode-preserving condition implies that for all x ∈ R there
is an odd number k(x) such that f˜(x + 1/2) = f˜(x) + k(x)/2. By continuity
k(x) must be constant in x. Finally note that deg f = f˜(1) = f˜(1/2) + k/2 = k.
Case n > 1:
Assume WLOG that the north pole is a regular value of f and denote it
by p. Let p1 , · · · , pk be the preimages of p. Since this set is finite there must
be a totally geodesic n − 1-sphere in S n that does not intersect any of the pi ’s,
so by pre-composing f with a rotation we may assume WLOG that none of
the pi ’s are in the equator. Let q be the south pole and let qi be antipodal
to pi . Let U be an open ball around p contained in the northern hemisphere
and sufficiently small so that f −1 (U ) is disjoint from the equator and has k
components U1 , · · · Uk , such that pi ∈ Ui and f |Ui is a diffeomorphism onto its
image. Let V = −U , Vi = −Ui .

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Figure 2: Map f and the neighborhoods we are interested in. U and the Ui ’s
are blue, V and the Vi ’s are red.

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Figure 3: Streching U and V in an antipode-preserving way so that their com-
plement is mapped to the equator.

Let ρ : S n → S n be the reflection around the equator. By moving points in

n
S \ {p, q} to the equator by the great circle joining each point to its image by
ρ and controlling the speed at which points near the poles move we can define a
smooth homotopy that preserves antipodes and brings the complement of U ∪ V
to the equator.
Sk So f is smoothly homotopic to an atipode-preserving map g that
brings S n \ i=1 Ui ∪ Vi to the equator.
Let M be the oriented n − 1-manifold given by the union of the equator
(with positive orientation) and the boundary of all Ui ’s and Vi ’s in the northern
hemisphere (with negative orientation). Denote the equator by S n−1 and con-
sider the restriction of g to M as a map to the equator. Since g|M extends to
a map from a compact, connected,
Sk oriented manifold that has M as its border
(namely the part of S n \ i=1 Ui ∪ Vi on the northern hemisphere) we have that
X X
0 = deg g|M = deg g|S n−1 − deg g|∂Ui − deg g|∂Vi
Ui ∈N H Vi ∈N H

n
where N H ⊂ S is the northern hemisphere and all functions are seen as maps
to the equator. Now note that by the anipode-preserving property we have
X X X X
deg g|∂Ui + deg g|∂Vi ≡ deg g|∂Ui + deg g|∂Ui mod 2
Ui ∈N H Vi ∈N H Ui ∈N H Ui ∈SH

Since for all i = 1, · · · , k we have that deg deg g|∂Ui is 1 if g keeps orientation
at pi and −1 otherwise we can conclude that
X X
deg g|∂Ui + deg g|∂Ui = deg g = deg f.
Ui ∈N H Ui ∈SH

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So we have that
deg f ≡ deg g|S n−1 mod 2
and we are done by induction.
Now consider the case where f and antipode-preserving and continuous.
Since smooth functions are dense in the space of functions with metric defined
by the supremum of distances we can homotope f to a smooth map h such that
h(x) 6= h(−x) for all x ∈ S n . It is easy to check that the homotopy bringing
h to an antipode-preserving map that we have defined on the introduction is
smooth. So f is homotopic to a smooth, antipode-preserving map, to which we
can apply our proof.

3 Corollaries
The Bursuk-Ulam theorem has some of well-know topological corollaries, a cou-
ple of which we will highlight:
Corollary 1. There is no antipode-preserving map f : S n → S n−1
Proof. Composing such and f with the inclusion of S n−1 on the equator of
S n gives a nullhomotopic, antipode-preserving map. This contradicts Borsuk-
Ulam.
Corollary 2. For every map f : S n → Rn there is an x ∈ S n such that
f (x) = f (−x).
Proof. If there was no such x we could define and antipode-preservig map g :
S n → S n−1 by letting g(x) = (f (x) − f (−x))/kf (x) − f (−x)k.

4 Applications to measure theory and combina-

torics
Surprisingly, this result in topology has applications to distant areas of math,
such as measure theory and combinatoris. Starting from measure theory, using
the Borsuk-Ulam thorem we will show that Ham Sandwich Theorem, which
states that for every sandwich made of ham, cheese and bread there is a pla-
nar cut that simultaneously halves the ham, the cheese and the bread. More
precisely:
Theorem 1. Let µ1 , · · · , µn be finite Borel measures in Rn absolutely continu-
ous with respect to the Lebesgue measure. Then there exits a hyperplane h such
that that
1
µi (h+ ) = µi (Rn )
2
+
where h is the upper half space defined by h.

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Figure 4: The Ham Sandwich theorem states that there is a line that simulta-
neously divides the set contoured by the blue curves and the set contoured by
the red curves in subset with the same area.

Proof. Relate each x = (x1 , · · · , xn+1 ) to the half-space

h+ (x) = {(y1 , · · · , yn ) : x1 y1 + · · · + xn yn ≥ xn+1 }

and consider the map f : S n → Rn , f (x) = (µ1 (h+ (x), · · · , µn (h+ (x))). Since
f is continuous f (x) = f (−x) for some x, now use the fact that h+ (x) and
h+ (−x) are complementary half spaces.
By considering the measures to be given by integration against the indicator
function of small balls we get the discrete version of this theorem:
Theorem 2. A set of points of n distinct colors in Rn with an even number of
points of each color accepts a hyperplane such that each half-space has half the
points of each color.

Thi theorem in turn has applications to combinatorics, such as the Necklace

theorem. Before stating this theorem let us tell the story that motivates it.
Suppose two thieves have stolen a necklace with n different kinds of stone, and
that there are an even number of stones of each kind. The thieves want to cut
the necklace in such a way that each has the same number of stones for each
type of stone, the Necklace theorem states

Theorem 3. Every open necklace with n different kinds of stone can be divided
between two thieves using no more than n cuts

Proof. The trick of the proof is to embed the necklace in Rn along the curve
t 7→ (t, t2 , · · · , tn ) and apply the Ham Sandwich theorem.

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Figure 5: Each half space defined by the black line has half the blue dots and
half the red dots.

Figure 6: The necklace above and the divided between the thieves 1 and 2 using
the 3 cuts above.