2025 Topology II - Homework assignments
Instructor: Radhika Gupta, TIFR
March 10, 2025
1 Fundamental group and covering spaces
1. Let X, Y be spaces and f : X → Y a map. The mapping cone of f is the space Cf obtained from the
mapping cylinder X × I ⊔ Y /(x, 1) ∼ f (x) by collapsing X × {0} to a point.
(a) Now assume X, Y are path-connected. Express π1 (Cf ) as a pushout involving π1 (X), π1 (Y ) and
f∗ : π1 (X) → π1 (Y ).
(b) Let X = Y = S 1 ∨ S 1 with the 1-cells labeled a, b and let f : X → Y be given by a 7→ aba−1 b−1
and b 7→ a2 b3 . Compute π1 (Cf ) explicitly.
2. Let X be a space and f : X → X a map. The mapping torus of f is the space
Tf = X × I/(x, 1) ∼ (f (x), 0)
Now suppose that X is a connected cell complex with x0 ∈ X the only 0-cell and f : X → X is a
cellular map with f (x0 ) = x0 . Then Tf is also a cell complex with cells e × {0} and e × (0, 1) for cells
e of X (you don’t have to prove this). Assume that π1 (X, x0 ) = ⟨A | R⟩. Prove that
π1 (Tf ) = ⟨A, t | R, t−1 at = f∗ (a), a ∈ A⟩
Do Problem 11, Section 1.2 as an example.
Hint: t corresponds to the loop {x0 } × I.
Note: The assumption that there is only one 0-cell is for convenience, the general case can be reduced
to this.
3. Hatcher Section 1.2 #16: Hint - Show that the surface deformation retracts to a graph by representing
it as an increasing union of compact subsurfaces X1 ⊂ X2 ⊂ · · · and showing that Xn+1 deformation
retracts to Xn union a graph.
4. Hatcher Section 1.3 #14: Find all the connected covering spaces of RP 2 ∨ RP 2 .
5. Hatcher Section 1.3 #21 : Do only the first part of attaching Möbius band to a torus.
2 Hyperbolic geometry
1. Given two points P and Q in H2 , show that there is a Möbius transformation taking P to Q.
Thus we can say that the group of Möbius transformations that preserves H2 acts transitively on
H2 . Hint: First show that given a generalized line ℓ and a point P on it, there exists a Möbius
transformation taking ℓ and P to the positive y-axis and i, respectively, in the upper half plane
model.
2. Show that the area of a hyperbolic triangle is equal to π minus the sum of angles by following these
steps:
1
n n n n n n
r
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(a) Consider an ideal triangle with vertices ∞, (−1, 0) and (0, 1), as shown in the picture (a).
Compute the area of this triangle using the formula
Z Z
dxdy
.
y2
(b) Now compute the area of a triangle with one ‘vertex at infinity’ and the other two vertices on
the unit circle as shown in the figure (b). Use the same double integral as above.
(c) Now compute the area of a triangle with all three vertices in H2 , as shown in the figure (c),
using the results obtained above (without using the integral).
√ triangle shown in figure (a) with vertices at -1, 1, ∞. Show that the point i is
3. Consider the ideal
distance ln(1 + 2) from either of the
√vertical sides. Now show that every point on the side joining
-1 and 1, is distance at most ln(1 + 2) from one of the two vertical sides.
3 Geometric group theory
1. Draw the Cayley graph of a group given by the presentation is ⟨a, t|t−1 at = a2 ⟩. This group is
called the Baumslag-Solitar group BS(1, 2).
2. Show that if there exists a (K, C)-quasi-isometry f : X1 → X2 , then there exists a (K ′ , C ′ ) quasi-
isometry g : X2 → X1 and a constant D ≥ 0 such that d(f ◦ g(y), y) ≤ D and d(g ◦ f (x), x) ≤ D for
all x ∈ X2 and y ∈ X1 . Such a map g is called a quasi-inverse of f . Hint: Think of the inclusion
map from Z → R and the floor/ceiling map from R → Z.
3. Show that the composition of any two quasi-isometric embeddings is a quasi-isometry.
4. Show that a 3-regular tree (a tree where every vertex has valence 3) is quasi-isometric to a 4-regular
tree. In fact, a 3-regular tree is quasi-isometric to m-regular tree for any m > 3.
5. Show that R2 equipped with the taxi cab metric is quasi-isometric to R2 with the Euclidean metric.
The taxi cab metric is defined as follows: for X = (x1 , x2 ) and Y = (y1 , y2 ) define dT (X, Y ) =
|x1 − y1 | + |x2 − y2 |.
