Algebraic Topology II

Fall 2006
Math 518

      Welcome! This semester I am teaching Math 518, Algebraic Topology II. This is the official course website.

Course-Related Information:

This is the second course in algebraic topology. We will be building on the material from Algebraic Topology I from last semester, so obviously I will assume you know about homology, covering spaces, and homotopy groups. Some of the topics we will cover are cohomology and its properties, orientation and duality on manifolds, and spectral sequences. Hopefully at the end of the semester we'll have a little time to talk about K-theory as well.

I'm going to draw from a few different sources for the lectures, but I will mainly be following the development in Hatcher's book. A few of my favorite books on algebraic topology are

Algebraic Topology by Allen Hatcher (paperback). Note that this book is available for free as a .pdf file online at Allen Hatcher's homepage.

A Basic Course in Algebraic Topology by William Massey (hardcover)

A Concise Course in Algebraic Topology by J. P. May (paperback)

A User's Guide to Spectral Sequences by John McCleary (paperback)

The last book is a great reference for spectral sequences, and I will be using it as my main reference when we talk about them. Of course, if you want to borrow any of these books from me for a little while, I'll be happy to loan them to you.

One important note, I will be out of town the second week of classes and the seventh week of classes. I don't want to lose six classes, so hopefully we'll be having make-up classes throughout the semester. Once they dates and times are settled, I'll post them here.

The makeup classes will be on Fridays 5:30pm-7:00pm in LN2205. The schedule for the makeup classes (subject to change) is

These will make up all the time I'm away. If anyone has a conflict with any of there times, let me know as soon as possible.

Grading:

There will be some take home homework over the course of the semester, but the main thing is to show up to class and look interested. Ask questions if you don't understand something, and participate in class.

Office Hours:
     I will hold office hours:

and by appointment in my office LN2235. Please contact me by e-mail at dwyer@math.binghamton.edu or see me after class if you want to make an appointment. I will answer your email within 24 hours. I'm in my office a lot, so you could also just take a chance and stop by.

Notes and Homework: This is the most current version of the notes. There are most likely typos and I may revise them slightly as the semester progresses. I'm following Hatcher very closely at the moment, so you could just look in his book. Well here's the file


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Binghamton University  Mathematical Sciences Department