PART A TOPOLOGY COURSE: HT 2008

Lecture 16: Quotient maps, examples

Proposition 1. (1) Let ∼ be an equivalence relation on a space X , give X/ ∼ the quotient

topology, and let p : X → X/∼ be the ‘natural’ map sending each point of X to its equivalence
class. Then p is a quotient map.
(2) Suppose that p : X → Y is a quotient map, let ∼ be the equivalence relation on X corre-
sponding to the partition {p−1 (y) : y ∈ Y }, and pe : X → X/∼ the ‘natural’ map sending each
point of X to its equivalence class. Then there exists a homeomorphism h : X/∼ → Y such
that p = h ◦ pe.

Examples 2. (1) R/Z is homeomorphic to the planar unit circle S1 .

Indeed, consider the quotient map p : R → S1 , p(x) = e2πix = cos x + i sin x and apply
Proposition 1, (2).

(2) Let X be the interval [0, 1] in R and let ∼ be the equivalence relation on X designed to
stick together its endpoints. (Thus 0 ∼ 1 but otherwise no two distinct points of [0, 1] are
equivalent.) Then X/∼ is homeomorphic to the unit circle S1 .
To prove it, consider the quotient map p defined in (1), and its restriction to [0, 1]. This
restriction is also a quotient map which together with Proposition 1, (2), implies the homeo-
morphism.

(3) Rn /Zn is homeomorphic to S1 × · · · × S1 . This space is denoted by Tn and it is called the

| {z }
n times
n -dimensional torus. ¡ ¢n
Consider the quotient map p defined in (1) and P : Rn → S1 defined by P (x1 , ..., xn ) =
(p(x1 ), ..., p(xn )).

(4) Let X be [0, 1] × [0, 1] , and let ℘ be the (set theoretic) partition composed of {(x, 0), (x, 1)},
where 0 < x < 1, {(0, y), (1, y)}, where 0 < y < 1, {(0, 0), (1, 0), (0, 1), (1, 1)} and {(x, y)}
where 0 < x < 1, 0 < y < 1. The quotient space X/℘ is homeomorphic to S1 × S1 .
Consider the restriction of the map P defined in (3), for n = 2, to [0, 1] × [0, 1]. This
restriction is also a quotient map.

(5) The map p : R2 → R3 ,

p(x, y) = ([2 + cos(2πy)] cos(2πx) , [2 + cos(2πy)] sin(2πx) , sin(2πy))
is a quotient map, and its image p(R2 ) is the surface S obtained by considering in the vertical
plane {(x, 0, z) | x, z ∈ R} the planar circle of centre (2, 0, 0) and radius 1, and rotating it
around the z -axis.
Proposition 1, (2), implies that R2 /Z2 is homeomorphic to S , thus S is a topological
model for the 2 -dimensional torus.
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(6) Let D2 be the closed planar unit disk, D2 = {(x, y) ∈ R2 ; x2 + y 2 ≤ 1}, and let ℘ be
the partition composed of all the singletons in the open disk {(x, y)} with x2 + y 2 < 1 ,
and of the boundary circle S1 . Then D2 /℘ is homeomorphic to the 2-dimensional sphere
S2 = {(x, y, z) ; x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 1} .
This can be seen by considering the quotient map p : D2 → S2 defined for (x, y) 6= (0, 0)
by
à !
x ³ p ´ y ³ p ´ ³ p ´
p(x, y) = p 2
sin π x + y , p 2 2 2
sin π x + y , cos π x + y2 2 ,
x2 + y 2 x2 + y 2
and by p(0, 0) = (0, 0, 1) .

Definition 3. The Klein bottle K is the quotient space of the rectangle [0, 1]×[0, 1] by the equivalence
relation which identifies the points (x, 0), (x, 1) for each x ∈ [0, 1] and the points (0, y), (1, 1 − y)
for each y ∈ [0, 1].

Proposition 4. The Klein bottle K is homeomorphic to a subset in R4 .

Definition 5. The real projective plane PR2 is the quotient space of R3 \ {0} by the equivalence
relation ∼ where x ∼ y if and only if x = λy for some non-zero scalar λ .

In other words PR2 is the set of lines in R3 through the origin 0.

For the next proposition we denote the lower hemisphere of the 2-dimensional sphere S2 by
H − = {(x, y, z) ∈ S2 : z ≤ 0} .

Proposition 6. The following are all homeomorphic to PR2 .

(a) The quotient space S2 /∼ where ∼ identifies each pair of antipodal points of S2 .
(b) The quotient space H − /∼ where ∼ identifies each pair of antipodal points on the boundary
of H − .
(c) The quotient space D2 /∼ where ∼ identifies each pair of antipodal points on the boundary of
D2 .
(d) The quotient space of the square [0, 1] × [0, 1] by the equivalence relation which identifies
(s, 0), (1 − s, 1) for each s ∈ [0, 1] and (0, t), (1, 1 − t) for each t ∈ [0, 1].

Proof. (a) Let p : R3 \ {0} → PR2 be the ‘natural’ map sending each vector in R3 \ {0} to the line
through 0 containing it. Its restriction to S2 is also a quotient map. This and Proposition 1, (2),
imply that S2 /∼ is homeomorphic to PR2 .

(b) We consider the restriction p1 of p to H − .

(c) Let N = (0, 0, 1) be the North Pole on the 2-dimensional sphere S2 .

Consider the stereographic projection of S2 with respect to N , π : S2 \ {N } → R2 , which is the
map associating to every point u ∈ S2 \ {N } the intersection point π(u) of the line through u and
N with the horizontal plane R2 × {0} (identified to R2 ).
It can be easily seen that π is one-to-one and onto, that
µ ¶
x y
π(x, y, z) = , ,
1−z 1−z
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and that µ ¶
−1 2x 2y x2 + y 2 − 1
π (x, y) = , , .
1 + x2 + y 2 1 + x2 + y 2 1 + x2 + y 2
Thus π is a homeomorphism. Note that it can be used to show that the one-point (or Alexandrov)
compactification of R2 is S2 .
In particular π(H − ) = D2 , so π −1 restricted to D2 defines a homeomorphism from D2 to H − . If
we denote this restriction by π1 , and consider the restriction p1 defined in (b), then p1 ◦π1 : D2 → PR2
is a quotient map, and it defines the homeomorphism in (c).
The space in (d) is homeomorphic to the space in (c). We leave the proof of (d) as an exercise.
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