Boundary Map in Mayer Vietoris and Homology of Knot Complement
$begingroup$
Let $K$ be a knot in $S^3$, and N(K) be its tubular neighborhood. I want to compute the homology of $S^3-N(K)$ using Mayer-Vietoris. Let $A$ be $N(K)$ minus a small neighborhood, and $B$ be the complement of N(K) with a small neighborhood added. Note that $Acup B$ is $S^3$, and $Acap B$ deformations retracts onto a torus. $H_1(S^3-N(K))$ and $H_n(S^3-N(K))$, $n>2$, pop out of Mayer Vietoris applied to A and B. However I am struggling with $H_2$. According to Mayer-Vietoris we have the following exact sequence $$H_3(S^3) to H_2(T) to H_2(A)bigoplus H_2(B) to 0$$
The part I don't understand is the map $H_3(S^3) to H_2(T)$. Let $alpha$ be the generator of $H_3(S^3)$. Under the boundary map of Mayer-Vietoris, $alpha$ is subdivided into a part residing in $A$ and a part residing in $B$. Then we take the boundary of the part residing in $A$. Thinking of the boundary map like this makes me think that it is an isomorphism. However, I am not sure of this.
Are there other ways to see what this map does to the generator of $H_3(S^3)$? More generally, how does one work with the boundary map in the MV sequence in higher dimensions, where things cannot be simply visualized?
algebraic-topology knot-theory
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Let $K$ be a knot in $S^3$, and N(K) be its tubular neighborhood. I want to compute the homology of $S^3-N(K)$ using Mayer-Vietoris. Let $A$ be $N(K)$ minus a small neighborhood, and $B$ be the complement of N(K) with a small neighborhood added. Note that $Acup B$ is $S^3$, and $Acap B$ deformations retracts onto a torus. $H_1(S^3-N(K))$ and $H_n(S^3-N(K))$, $n>2$, pop out of Mayer Vietoris applied to A and B. However I am struggling with $H_2$. According to Mayer-Vietoris we have the following exact sequence $$H_3(S^3) to H_2(T) to H_2(A)bigoplus H_2(B) to 0$$
The part I don't understand is the map $H_3(S^3) to H_2(T)$. Let $alpha$ be the generator of $H_3(S^3)$. Under the boundary map of Mayer-Vietoris, $alpha$ is subdivided into a part residing in $A$ and a part residing in $B$. Then we take the boundary of the part residing in $A$. Thinking of the boundary map like this makes me think that it is an isomorphism. However, I am not sure of this.
Are there other ways to see what this map does to the generator of $H_3(S^3)$? More generally, how does one work with the boundary map in the MV sequence in higher dimensions, where things cannot be simply visualized?
algebraic-topology knot-theory
$endgroup$
1
$begingroup$
This is a great question here, and I hope you find Nick L's answer useful :)
$endgroup$
– Mike Miller
Dec 6 '18 at 13:27
add a comment |
$begingroup$
Let $K$ be a knot in $S^3$, and N(K) be its tubular neighborhood. I want to compute the homology of $S^3-N(K)$ using Mayer-Vietoris. Let $A$ be $N(K)$ minus a small neighborhood, and $B$ be the complement of N(K) with a small neighborhood added. Note that $Acup B$ is $S^3$, and $Acap B$ deformations retracts onto a torus. $H_1(S^3-N(K))$ and $H_n(S^3-N(K))$, $n>2$, pop out of Mayer Vietoris applied to A and B. However I am struggling with $H_2$. According to Mayer-Vietoris we have the following exact sequence $$H_3(S^3) to H_2(T) to H_2(A)bigoplus H_2(B) to 0$$
The part I don't understand is the map $H_3(S^3) to H_2(T)$. Let $alpha$ be the generator of $H_3(S^3)$. Under the boundary map of Mayer-Vietoris, $alpha$ is subdivided into a part residing in $A$ and a part residing in $B$. Then we take the boundary of the part residing in $A$. Thinking of the boundary map like this makes me think that it is an isomorphism. However, I am not sure of this.
Are there other ways to see what this map does to the generator of $H_3(S^3)$? More generally, how does one work with the boundary map in the MV sequence in higher dimensions, where things cannot be simply visualized?
algebraic-topology knot-theory
$endgroup$
Let $K$ be a knot in $S^3$, and N(K) be its tubular neighborhood. I want to compute the homology of $S^3-N(K)$ using Mayer-Vietoris. Let $A$ be $N(K)$ minus a small neighborhood, and $B$ be the complement of N(K) with a small neighborhood added. Note that $Acup B$ is $S^3$, and $Acap B$ deformations retracts onto a torus. $H_1(S^3-N(K))$ and $H_n(S^3-N(K))$, $n>2$, pop out of Mayer Vietoris applied to A and B. However I am struggling with $H_2$. According to Mayer-Vietoris we have the following exact sequence $$H_3(S^3) to H_2(T) to H_2(A)bigoplus H_2(B) to 0$$
The part I don't understand is the map $H_3(S^3) to H_2(T)$. Let $alpha$ be the generator of $H_3(S^3)$. Under the boundary map of Mayer-Vietoris, $alpha$ is subdivided into a part residing in $A$ and a part residing in $B$. Then we take the boundary of the part residing in $A$. Thinking of the boundary map like this makes me think that it is an isomorphism. However, I am not sure of this.
Are there other ways to see what this map does to the generator of $H_3(S^3)$? More generally, how does one work with the boundary map in the MV sequence in higher dimensions, where things cannot be simply visualized?
algebraic-topology knot-theory
algebraic-topology knot-theory
asked Dec 6 '18 at 5:00
user2948554user2948554
132
132
1
$begingroup$
This is a great question here, and I hope you find Nick L's answer useful :)
$endgroup$
– Mike Miller
Dec 6 '18 at 13:27
add a comment |
1
$begingroup$
This is a great question here, and I hope you find Nick L's answer useful :)
$endgroup$
– Mike Miller
Dec 6 '18 at 13:27
1
1
$begingroup$
This is a great question here, and I hope you find Nick L's answer useful :)
$endgroup$
– Mike Miller
Dec 6 '18 at 13:27
$begingroup$
This is a great question here, and I hope you find Nick L's answer useful :)
$endgroup$
– Mike Miller
Dec 6 '18 at 13:27
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
You are correct that it is an isomorphism, by the argument you referred to. The Wikipedia page on MV-sequence has a pretty nice description of the boundary map, explaining why it is well-defined etc. I guess the most involved part is seeing why you can sub-divide cycles so that they lie entirely in $A$ or $B$, after this it is simple algebra to define the boundary map.
For the sake of visualising the map you can assume you have a nice triangulation of $S^{3}$ by tetrahedra such that the boundary torus (say $T = partial N(K)$) is contained in the $2$-skeleton. Then we can partition our set of tetrahedra into two subsets, depending on which connected component of $S^{3} setminus T$ the interior of each tetrahedron is contained in. This gives us our two cycles $U,V$, with
$U+V = [S^{3}]$.
$partial U = - partial V = [T]$.
Then, by definition, the boundary map maps $U+V in H_{3}(S^{3},mathbb{Z})$ to $partial U in H_{2}(T,mathbb{Z})$, hence it maps fundamental class to fundamental class and so is an isomorphism.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "69"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmath.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f3028054%2fboundary-map-in-mayer-vietoris-and-homology-of-knot-complement%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
$begingroup$
You are correct that it is an isomorphism, by the argument you referred to. The Wikipedia page on MV-sequence has a pretty nice description of the boundary map, explaining why it is well-defined etc. I guess the most involved part is seeing why you can sub-divide cycles so that they lie entirely in $A$ or $B$, after this it is simple algebra to define the boundary map.
For the sake of visualising the map you can assume you have a nice triangulation of $S^{3}$ by tetrahedra such that the boundary torus (say $T = partial N(K)$) is contained in the $2$-skeleton. Then we can partition our set of tetrahedra into two subsets, depending on which connected component of $S^{3} setminus T$ the interior of each tetrahedron is contained in. This gives us our two cycles $U,V$, with
$U+V = [S^{3}]$.
$partial U = - partial V = [T]$.
Then, by definition, the boundary map maps $U+V in H_{3}(S^{3},mathbb{Z})$ to $partial U in H_{2}(T,mathbb{Z})$, hence it maps fundamental class to fundamental class and so is an isomorphism.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
You are correct that it is an isomorphism, by the argument you referred to. The Wikipedia page on MV-sequence has a pretty nice description of the boundary map, explaining why it is well-defined etc. I guess the most involved part is seeing why you can sub-divide cycles so that they lie entirely in $A$ or $B$, after this it is simple algebra to define the boundary map.
For the sake of visualising the map you can assume you have a nice triangulation of $S^{3}$ by tetrahedra such that the boundary torus (say $T = partial N(K)$) is contained in the $2$-skeleton. Then we can partition our set of tetrahedra into two subsets, depending on which connected component of $S^{3} setminus T$ the interior of each tetrahedron is contained in. This gives us our two cycles $U,V$, with
$U+V = [S^{3}]$.
$partial U = - partial V = [T]$.
Then, by definition, the boundary map maps $U+V in H_{3}(S^{3},mathbb{Z})$ to $partial U in H_{2}(T,mathbb{Z})$, hence it maps fundamental class to fundamental class and so is an isomorphism.
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
You are correct that it is an isomorphism, by the argument you referred to. The Wikipedia page on MV-sequence has a pretty nice description of the boundary map, explaining why it is well-defined etc. I guess the most involved part is seeing why you can sub-divide cycles so that they lie entirely in $A$ or $B$, after this it is simple algebra to define the boundary map.
For the sake of visualising the map you can assume you have a nice triangulation of $S^{3}$ by tetrahedra such that the boundary torus (say $T = partial N(K)$) is contained in the $2$-skeleton. Then we can partition our set of tetrahedra into two subsets, depending on which connected component of $S^{3} setminus T$ the interior of each tetrahedron is contained in. This gives us our two cycles $U,V$, with
$U+V = [S^{3}]$.
$partial U = - partial V = [T]$.
Then, by definition, the boundary map maps $U+V in H_{3}(S^{3},mathbb{Z})$ to $partial U in H_{2}(T,mathbb{Z})$, hence it maps fundamental class to fundamental class and so is an isomorphism.
$endgroup$
You are correct that it is an isomorphism, by the argument you referred to. The Wikipedia page on MV-sequence has a pretty nice description of the boundary map, explaining why it is well-defined etc. I guess the most involved part is seeing why you can sub-divide cycles so that they lie entirely in $A$ or $B$, after this it is simple algebra to define the boundary map.
For the sake of visualising the map you can assume you have a nice triangulation of $S^{3}$ by tetrahedra such that the boundary torus (say $T = partial N(K)$) is contained in the $2$-skeleton. Then we can partition our set of tetrahedra into two subsets, depending on which connected component of $S^{3} setminus T$ the interior of each tetrahedron is contained in. This gives us our two cycles $U,V$, with
$U+V = [S^{3}]$.
$partial U = - partial V = [T]$.
Then, by definition, the boundary map maps $U+V in H_{3}(S^{3},mathbb{Z})$ to $partial U in H_{2}(T,mathbb{Z})$, hence it maps fundamental class to fundamental class and so is an isomorphism.
edited Dec 6 '18 at 13:39
answered Dec 6 '18 at 12:59
Nick LNick L
1,241110
1,241110
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Mathematics Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmath.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f3028054%2fboundary-map-in-mayer-vietoris-and-homology-of-knot-complement%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
$begingroup$
This is a great question here, and I hope you find Nick L's answer useful :)
$endgroup$
– Mike Miller
Dec 6 '18 at 13:27