Homology, cohomology, and topological invariants

Use chains, exact sequences, products, and duality to calculate topological information beyond the fundamental group.

10 published lessons1 module388 min of guided study
  1. 01
    Homology, cohomology, and topological invariantsadvanced · 10 lessons

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Homology, cohomology, and topological invariants

Use chains, exact sequences, products, and duality to calculate topological information beyond the fundamental group.

  1. 01

    Simplicial chains and boundary operators

    Build oriented chain groups, verify boundary cancellation, and distinguish cycles from the boundaries that make them trivial.

    35 min
  2. 02

    Singular homology and homotopy invariance

    Replace triangulation choices by continuous simplex maps and use chain homotopies to prove deformation invariance.

    36 min
  3. 03

    Relative homology and long exact sequences

    Quotient chains in a subspace and track how relative cycles connect to ordinary boundaries one degree lower.

    38 min
  4. 04

    Excision and Mayer–Vietoris

    Localize relative homology under valid excision hypotheses and compute a space from an open cover with its overlap maps.

    39 min
  5. 05

    Cellular homology and computations

    Use skeleton-relative generators and attaching-map degrees to compute homology while preserving integral torsion.

    38 min
  6. 06

    Cochains and the universal coefficient theorem

    Dualize a chain complex correctly and retain the Ext term and noncanonical splitting in cohomology calculations.

    40 min
  7. 07

    Cup products and cohomology rings

    Add multiplicative structure to cohomology, track graded signs, and distinguish spaces with identical additive groups.

    40 min
  8. 08

    Künneth formula and tensor products

    Compute product homology with degree bookkeeping, tensor terms, Tor corrections, and noncanonical splitting.

    41 min
  9. 09

    Orientations and Poincaré duality

    Use local orientations and a fundamental class to relate complementary dimensions, with boundary, compactness, and torsion caveats.

    41 min
  10. 10

    De Rham cohomology and the integration pairing

    Relate closed differential forms to real singular cohomology through smooth-chain integration while retaining torsion and global-exactness limits.

    40 min
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