MAGIC002: Differential topology and Morse theory

Course details

A specialist MAGIC course

Semester

Autumn 2024
Monday, October 7th to Friday, December 13th

Hours

Live lecture hours
10
Recorded lecture hours
0
Total advised study hours
40

Timetable

Mondays
10:05 - 10:55 (UK)

Course forum

Visit the https://maths-magic.ac.uk/forums/magic002-differential-topology-and-morse-theory

Description

The course will give an introduction to Morse Theory.

This theory studies the topology of smooth manifolds through real-valued smooth functions whose critical points satisfy a certain non-degeneracy condition.

We will investigate how the homotopy type is related to critical points and how the homology of a manifold can be calculated through Morse functions. 

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of Differentiable Manifolds and Algebraic Topology is necessary.

This can be obtained through the Core Courses MAGIC063 and MAGIC064. 

Syllabus

  • Smooth functions, non-degenerate critical points, Morse functions. 
  • Morse Lemma. 
  • Morse functions on spheres, projective spaces, orthogonal groups, configuration spaces of linkages. 
  • Homotopy type, cell decompositions of manifolds. 
  • Existence of Morse functions, cobordisms. 
  • Gradient flows, stable and unstable manifolds. 
  • Resonant Morse functions, ordered Morse functions. 
  • Morse homology, Morse inequalities. 
  • Calculations for projective spaces. 
  • Introduction to the h-cobordism theorem. 

Lecturer

  • DS

    Dr Dirk Schuetz

    University
    Durham University

Bibliography

No bibliography has been specified for this course.

Assessment

The assessment for this course will be released on Monday 13th January 2025 at 00:00 and is due in before Friday 24th January 2025 at 11:00.

Assessment for all MAGIC courses is via take-home exam which will be made available at the release date (the start of the exam period).

You will need to upload a PDF file with your own attempted solutions by the due date (the end of the exam period).

If you have kept up-to-date with the course, the expectation is it should take at most 3 hours’ work to attain the pass mark, which is 50%.

Please note that you are not registered for assessment on this course.

Files

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Lectures

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