Midterm

Math 242, Spring 2020

Due February 28 by 5pm

Name:

Instructions:

• You have until February 28 at 5pm to complete this midterm. Solve as many problems as
you can.

• You may use any course materials (notes, Hatcher, Bredon). No other outside resources are
permitted. You may not work with anyone else.

• Only work written on this midterm will be graded.

• If you have any questions, please ask (over email). Good luck!

Problem Points Possible

1 15

2 10

3 10

4 10

5 or 6 10

Bonus 10

Total 55

1
Your Name Math 242, Midterm

Problem 1. True or False. To receive full credit you must give some justification.

(a) The loop space ΩS 1 is weakly homotopy equivalent to Z.

(b) If p : (E, e0 ) → (B, b0 ) is a fibration, and there is a section (i.e. a map s : B → E with
p ◦ s = idB ), then πk (E) ∼
= πk (F ) × πk (B) for each k ≥ 1, where F = p−1 (b0 ).

(c) If X = [0, 1] × {0} ∪ {0} × [0, 1] (a subset of R2 ), and p : X → [0, 1] is the restriction of the
projection of R2 onto the x-axis, then p is a fibration.

Solution. (a) True. There is a map Φ : ΩS 1 → π0 (ΩS 1 ) which sends f ∈ ΩS 1 to its path component
[f ]. This map is a bijection on π0 by construction. By the LES π0 (ΩS 1 ) ∼
= π1 (S 1 ) ∼
= Z, so Φ is a
1 1 ∼
map ΩS → Z. The LES of the path fibration also gives πk (ΩS ) = πk+1 (S 1 ) = 0 for k ≥ 1, which
shows that Φ is a weak homotopy equivalence.
(b) (Mostly) True. The section shows that p∗ : πk (E) → πk (B) is a split surjective for each k.
Then the LES of the fibration gives split short exact sequences

0 → πk (F ) → πk (E) → πk (B) → 0.

Now when all the groups involved are abelian, this implies that πk (E) ∼ = πk (F ) × πk (B). For
∼
k = 1, this need not be so; in this case we only get πk (E) = πk (F ) o πk (B) (semi-direct product)
in general. (For example, look at fiber bundles E → S 1 with fiber T 2 , similar to the trefoil knot
complement.)
(c) This is false. E.g. you can’t lift the identity h : I → I to a map with H(0) = (0, y) when
y 6= 0.

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Your Name Math 242, Midterm

Problem 2. Recall U (n) denotes the unitary group {A ∈ GLn (C) : A∗ A = I}. Show that the
determinant det : U (n) → S 1 is a fiber bundle.

Solution. There is a section s : S 1 → U (n) defined by

 iθ 
e
 1 
s(eiθ ) =  .
 
..
 . 
1

By the argument from class, this implies that there is a homeomorphism S 1 × SU(n) ∼ = U (n)
defined by (eiθ , A) 7→ s(eiθ )A, which commutes with projection to S 1 . (Note that this is not a
group isomorphism.)

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Your Name Math 242, Midterm

Problem 3. Compute

(a) π1 (SO(n)) for n ≥ 2.

(b) π3 (SO(3)).

(c) πk (U (2)) for k ≤ 3.

Solution. (a) First note that SO(2) ∼= S 1 , so π1 (SO(2)) ∼

= Z. Next note π1 (SO(3)) ∼
= Z/2Z since
SO(3) ∼= RP 3 . We show π1 (SO(n)) ∼
= Z/2Z for n ≥ 3 by induction. Now fix n ≥ 4, and suppose
∼
that we’ve shown π1 (SO(n − 1)) = Z/2Z. From homework, there is a fibration

SO(n − 1) → SO(n) → S n−1 .

From the LES,

∼
=
π2 (S n−1 ) → π1 (SO(n − 1)) −
→ π1 (SO(n)) → π1 (S n−1 ) .
| {z } | {z } | {z }
0 Z/2Z 0

This shows π1 (SO(n)) ∼

= Z/2Z, completing the induction.
(b) SO(3) ∼
= RP 3 has universal cover S 3 , so π3 (SO(3)) ∼
= π3 (S 3 ) ∼
= Z.
(c) From the previous problem U (2) ∼ = SU(2) × S 1 . From HW2, SU(2) ∼ = S 3 . Then π1 (U (2)) ∼
=Z
∼
and πk (U (2)) = πk (S ) for k ≥ 2. In particular π2 (U (2)) = 0 and π3 (U (2)) ∼
3
= Z.

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Your Name Math 242, Midterm

Problem 4. Let X, Y be cell complexes and suppose that X ' Y .

(a) Prove that the n-skeletons X (n) and Y (n) are homotopy equivalent if X and Y don’t have any
(n + 1)-cells.

(b) Show by example that the assumption on (n + 1)-cells is necessary.

Solution. (a) Let f : X → Y be a homotopy equivalence with homotopy inverse g : Y → X.

By cellular approximation of maps, we can assume f, g are cellular. Since a map homotopic to a
 homotopy inverses. Let h : X × I →
homotopy equivalence is a homotopy equivalence, f, g are still
X be a homotopy between idX and g ◦ f . Note that hX×∂I is already cellular. By cellular
approximation of maps, h is homotopic rel X × ∂I to a cellular map. In particular,
 this means that
(n)
h(X × I) ⊂ X (n+1) . By assumption X (n+1) (n)
= X . This shows that g ◦ f : X  (n) → X (n) is
homotopic to the identity. The same argument works for f ◦ g, so X (n) ' Y (n) .
Alternate solution. Let f : X → Y be a homotopy equivalence. Without loss of generality, we may
assume that f : X ,→ Y is a cellular and a subcomplex. Then we have a pair (Y (n) , X (n) ) such that
πk (Y (n) , X (n) ) = 0 for k ≤ n (this uses that X, Y have no cells of dimension n + 1). Now apply the
compression lemma to the identity (Y (n) , X (n) ) → (Y (n) , X (n) ) to conclude that Y (n) deformation
retracts to X (n) , which finishes the proof.
Another alternate solution. As before, we can obtain an inclusion i : X (n) ,→ Y (n) so that
(Y (n) , X (n) ) is n-connected. To show X (n) ' Y (n) , it suffices to show that i is a weak homotopy
equivalence (and then use Whitehead). Let A, B be universal covers for X (n) , Y (n) , respectively.
Then i lifts to a map j : A → B. Note that the relative homology groups Hk (B, A) ∼ = Hk (B/A)
vanish in all degrees: they vanish in low degree because (B, A) is n-connected, and they vanish
in high degrees because B/A has no cells of dimension ≥ n + 1. But then by (the corollary to)
Hurewicz, all of the homotopy groups vanish.
(b) The inclusion S 1 ,→ S 1 ∨ D2 is a homotopy equivalence, but (choosing the cell structure wisely)
the restriction to the 1-skeleton S 1 ,→ S 1 ∨ S 1 is not a homotopy equivalence.

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Your Name Math 242, Midterm

You are only required to do one of Problems 5 and 6. If you try both, I will grade
both and any additional points will be added to your score as a bonus.

Problem 5. Let p : E → B be a Serre fibration with B connected. Fix b, b0 ∈ B and let F, F 0 be

the fiber over b, b0 , respectively. Prove that πk (F ) ∼
= πk (F 0 ) for all k.

Solution. Fix two fibers F, F 0 . Define a homomorphism π1 (F ) → π1 (F 0 ) as follows. Given g : S k →

γ
F , choose a path γ between p(F ) and p(F 0 ). The obvious map S k × I → I − → B lifts to E with
S k × 0 equal to f . At time-1, this homotopy gives a map g 0 : S k → F 0 . With more care we can
make this a map of based spaces.1 The argument from class shows that Φ : [g] 7→ [g 0 ] is well-defined
and a homomorphism (use uniqueness of lifts up to homotopy). The inverse map is given by the
same procedure using γ̄.

1
One way to do this is to specify the lift on S k × 0 ∪ {s0 } × I...

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Your Name Math 242, Midterm

Problem 6. Let X be the double comb space from class.

(a) Prove that if K is any locally-connected, compact space and f : K → X is continuous, then
f is not surjective.

(b) Show that any map f : S k → X is homotopic to a constant.

Solution. Fix f : S k → X.
S
First consider the subset n {1/n} × I ∪ {0} × I (one of the combs). For each n, define

sn = sup{y ∈ [0, 1] : (1/n, y) ∈ im(f )}

(the sup may not exist if the set is empty, in this case define sn = 0).
Main claim: 0 is the only limit point of {sn }. To see this suppose that y is a limit point of sn .
Then there is a sequence tn ∈ S k so that f (tn ) converges to (0, y) ∈ X. Since S k is (sequentially)
compact, (tn ) converges to some t ∈ S k (possibly need to pass to a subsequence) with f (t) = (0, y).
By continuity, there is a ball t ∈ B ⊂ S k so that f (B) is contained in a small neighborhood U
of (0, y). If y > 0 then we can choose U small enough so that the connected component of U
containing (0, y) is contained in {0} × I. On the one hand, B contains all but finitely many tn ;
on the other hand, B connected implies f (B) is connected, so f (B) ⊂ U ∩ {0} × I. This is a
contradiction, so if y > 0, then y is not a limit point of {sn }.
The main claim gives a strong constraint on the image of f . Let Y ⊂ X be a connected subset so
limn→0 Y ∩ {1/n} × I = {0} (and also the corresponding condition for the other comb). Now we
claim that any such set is contractible (from this it follows immediately that f is homotopic to a
constant). Indeed we can deformation retract Y to Z = {0} × [0, 2] ∪ [0, 1] × {0} ∪ [−1, 0] × {2},
and this set is contractible.