22 CHAPTER 1.

SINGULAR HOMOLOGY

be a map of short exact sequences of chain complexes. If two of the three maps induced in homology
by f, g, and h are isomorphisms, then so is the third.

Here’s an application.

Proposition 9.6. Let (A, X) → (B, Y ) be a map of pairs, and assume that two of A → B, X → Y ,
and (X, A) → (Y, B) induce isomorphims
/ in homology.
/ Then
/ the / third one does as well.

Proof. Just apply the five lemma to the map between the two homology long exact sequences.
  
/ / / /
10 Excision and applications
We have found two general properties of singular homology: homotopy invariance and the long
exact sequence of a pair. We also claimed that H∗ (X, A) “depends only on X − A.” You have to
be careful about this. The following definition gives conditions that will capture the sense in which
the relative homology of a pair (X, A) depends only on the complement of A in X.

Definition 10.1. A triple (X, A, U ) where U ⊆ A ⊆ X, is excisive if U ⊆ Int(A). The inclusion

(X − U, A − U ) ⊆ (X, A) is then called an excision.

Theorem 10.2. An excision induces an isomorphism in homology,

∼
=
H∗ (X − U, A − U ) −
→ H∗ (X, A) .
10. EXCISION AND APPLICATIONS 23

So you can cut out closed bits of the interior of A without changing the relative homology. The
proof will take us a couple of days. Before we give applications, let me pose a different way to
interpret the motto “H∗ (X, A) depends only on X − A.” Collapsing the subspace A to a point gives
us a map of pairs
(X, A) → (X/A, ∗) .
When does this map induce an isomorphism in homology? Excision has the following consequence.
Corollary 10.3. Assume that there is a subspace B of X such that (1) A ⊆ IntB and (2) A → B
is a deformation retract. Then
H∗ (X, A) → H∗ (X/A, ∗)
is an isomorphism.
Proof. The diagram of pairs
j
(X, A)
i / (X, B) o (X − A, B − A)
k
   
(X/A, ∗)
ı / (X/A, B/A) o (X/A − ∗, B/A − ∗)

commutes. We want the left vertical to be a homology isomorphism, and will show that the rest of
the perimeter consists of homology isomorphisms. The map k is a homeomorphism of pairs while j
is an excision by assumption (1). The map i induces an isomorphism in homology by assumption
(2), the long exact sequences, and the five-lemma. Since I is a compact Hausdorff space, the map
B × I → B/A × I is again a quotient map, so the deformation B × I → B, which restricts to the
constant deformation on A, descends to show that ∗ → B/A is a deformation retract. So the map
ı is also a homology isomorphism. Finally, ∗ ⊆ Int(B/A) in X/A, by definition of the quotient
topology, so  induces an isomorphism by excision.
Now what are some consequences? For a start, we’ll finally get around to computing the ho-
mology of the sphere. It happens simultaneously with a computation of H∗ (Dn , S n−1 ). (Note that
S −1 = ∅.) To describe generators, for each n ≥ 0 pick a homeomorphism

(∆n , ∂∆n ) → (Dn , S n−1 ) ,

and write
ιn ∈ Sn (Dn , S n−1 )
for the corresponding relative n-chain.
Proposition 10.4. Let n > 0 and let ∗ ∈ S n−1 be any point. Then:

Z = h[∂ιn+1 ]i

 if q = n > 0
Z = h[c0 ]i

if q = 0, n > 0
∗
Hq (S n ) = 0


Z ⊕ Z = h[c∗ ], [∂ι1 ]i if q = n = 0

0 otherwise

and
(
n n−1 Z = h[ιn ]i if q = n
Hq (D , S )=
0 otherwise .
24 CHAPTER 1. SINGULAR HOMOLOGY

Proof. The division into cases for Hq (S n ) can be eased by employing reduced homology. Then the
claim is merely that for n ≥ 0
(
He q (S n−1 ) = Z if q = n − 1
0 if q 6= n − 1

and the map

∂ : Hq (Dn , S n−1 ) → H
e q−1 (S n−1 )

is an isomorphism. The second statement follows from the long exact sequence in reduced homology
e ∗ (Dn ) = 0 since Dn is contractible. The first uses induction and the
together with the fact that H
pair of isomorphisms
∼
= ∼
=
e q−1 (S n−1 ) ←
H − Hq (Dn , S n−1 ) −
→ Hq (Dn /S n−1 , ∗)

since Dn /S n−1 ∼
= S n . The right hand arrow is an isomorphism since S n−1 is a deformation retract
of a neighborhood in Dn .

Why should you care about this complicated homology calculation?

Corollary 10.5. If m 6= n, then S m and S n are not homotopy equivalent.

Proof. Their homology groups are not isomorphic.

Corollary 10.6. If m 6= n, then Rm and Rn are not homeomorphic.

Proof. If m or n is zero, this is clear, so let m, n > 0. Assume we have a homeomorphism f : Rm →

Rn . This restricts to a homeomorphism Rm − {0} → Rn − {f (0)}. But these spaces are homotopy
equivalent to spheres of different dimension.

Theorem 10.7 (Brouwer fixed-point theorem). If f : Dn → Dn is continuous, then there is some

point x ∈ Dn such that f (x) = x.

Proof. Suppose not. Then you can draw a ray from f (x) through x. It meets the boundary of Dn
at a point g(x) ∈ S n−1 . Check that g : Dn → S n−1 is continuous. If x is on the boundary, then
x = g(x), so g provides a factorization of the identity map on S n−1 through Dn . This is inconsistent
with our computation because the identity map induces the identity map on H e n−1 (S n−1 ) ∼
= Z, while
n
Hn−1 (D ) = 0.
e
11. THE EILENBERG STEENROD AXIOMS AND THE LOCALITY PRINCIPLE 25

Our computation of the homology of a sphere also implies that there are many non-homotopic
self-maps of S n , for any n ≥ 1. We will distinguish them by means of the “degree”: A map
f : S n → S n induces an endomorphism of the infinite cyclic group Hn (S n ). Any endomorphism
of an infinite cyclic group is given by multiplication by an integer. This integer is well defined
(independent of a choice of basis), and any integer occurs. Thus End(Z) = Z× , the monoid of
integers under multiplication. The homotopy classes of self-maps of S n also form a monoid, under
composition, and:

Theorem 10.8. Let n ≥ 1. The degree map provides us with a surjective monoid homomorphism

deg : [S n , S n ] → Z× .

Proof. Degree is multiplicative by functoriality of homology.

We construct a map of degree k on S n by induction on n. If n = 1, this is just the winding
number; an example is given by regarding S 1 as unit complex numbers and sending z to z k . The
proof that this has degree k is an exercise.
Suppose we’ve constructed a map fk : S n−1 → S n−1 of degree k. Extend it to a map f k : Dn →
n
D by defining f k (tx) = tfk (x) for t ∈ [0, 1]. We may then collapse the sphere to a point and
identify the quotient with S n . This gives us a new map gk : S n → S n making the diagram below
commute.
∼ ∼
Hn−1 (S n−1 ) o
= = /
Hn (Dn , S n−1 ) Hn (S n )
fk∗ gk∗
 ∼  ∼ 
Hn−1 (S n−1 ) o / Hn (S n )
= =
Hn (Dn , S n−1 )
The horizontal maps are isomorphisms, so deg gk = k as well.

We will see (in 18.906) that this map is in fact an isomorphism.

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18.905 Algebraic Topology I

Fall 2016

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