Fibre Bundles


Book Description

The notion of a fibre bundle first arose out of questions posed in the 1930s on the topology and geometry of manifolds. By the year 1950 the defini tion of fibre bundle had been clearly formulated, the homotopy classifica tion of fibre bundles achieved, and the theory of characteristic classes of fibre bundles developed by several mathematicians, Chern, Pontrjagin, Stiefel, and Whitney. Steenrod's book, which appeared in 1950, gave a coherent treatment of the subject up to that time. About 1955 Milnor gave a construction of a universal fibre bundle for any topological group. This construction is also included in Part I along with an elementary proof that the bundle is universal. During the five years from 1950 to 1955, Hirzebruch clarified the notion of characteristic class and used it to prove a general Riemann-Roch theorem for algebraic varieties. This was published in his Ergebnisse Monograph. A systematic development of characteristic classes and their applications to manifolds is given in Part III and is based on the approach of Hirze bruch as modified by Grothendieck.




Fiber Bundles and Homotopy


Book Description

This book is an introduction to fiber bundles and fibrations. But the ultimate goal is to make the reader feel comfortable with basic ideas in homotopy theory. The author found that the classification of principal fiber bundles is an ideal motivation for this purpose. The notion of homotopy appears naturally in the classification. Basic tools in homotopy theory such as homotopy groups and their long exact sequence need to be introduced. Furthermore, the notion of fibrations, which is one of three important classes of maps in homotopy theory, can be obtained by extracting the most essential properties of fiber bundles. The book begins with elementary examples and then gradually introduces abstract definitions when necessary. The reader is assumed to be familiar with point-set topology, but it is the only requirement for this book.










Lecture Notes on Elementary Topology and Geometry


Book Description

At the present time, the average undergraduate mathematics major finds mathematics heavily compartmentalized. After the calculus, he takes a course in analysis and a course in algebra. Depending upon his interests (or those of his department), he takes courses in special topics. Ifhe is exposed to topology, it is usually straightforward point set topology; if he is exposed to geom etry, it is usually classical differential geometry. The exciting revelations that there is some unity in mathematics, that fields overlap, that techniques of one field have applications in another, are denied the undergraduate. He must wait until he is well into graduate work to see interconnections, presumably because earlier he doesn't know enough. These notes are an attempt to break up this compartmentalization, at least in topology-geometry. What the student has learned in algebra and advanced calculus are used to prove some fairly deep results relating geometry, topol ogy, and group theory. (De Rham's theorem, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for surfaces, the functorial relation of fundamental group to covering space, and surfaces of constant curvature as homogeneous spaces are the most note worthy examples.) In the first two chapters the bare essentials of elementary point set topology are set forth with some hint ofthe subject's application to functional analysis.




The Topology of Fibre Bundles


Book Description

Fibre bundles, now an integral part of differential geometry, are also of great importance in modern physics--such as in gauge theory. This book, a succinct introduction to the subject by renown mathematician Norman Steenrod, was the first to present the subject systematically. It begins with a general introduction to bundles, including such topics as differentiable manifolds and covering spaces. The author then provides brief surveys of advanced topics, such as homotopy theory and cohomology theory, before using them to study further properties of fibre bundles. The result is a classic and timeless work of great utility that will appeal to serious mathematicians and theoretical physicists alike.




The Fiber Bundle Model


Book Description

Gathering research from physics, mechanical engineering, and statistics in a single resource for the first time, this text presents the background to the model, its theoretical basis, and applications ranging from materials science to earth science. The authors start by explaining why disorder is important for fracture and then go on to introduce the fiber bundle model, backed by various different applications. Appendices present the necessary mathematical, computational and statistical background required. The structure of the book allows the reader to skip some material that is too specialized, making this topic accessible to the engineering, mechanics and materials science communities, in addition to providing further reading for graduate students in statistical physics.







Characteristic Classes


Book Description

The theory of characteristic classes provides a meeting ground for the various disciplines of differential topology, differential and algebraic geometry, cohomology, and fiber bundle theory. As such, it is a fundamental and an essential tool in the study of differentiable manifolds. In this volume, the authors provide a thorough introduction to characteristic classes, with detailed studies of Stiefel-Whitney classes, Chern classes, Pontrjagin classes, and the Euler class. Three appendices cover the basics of cohomology theory and the differential forms approach to characteristic classes, and provide an account of Bernoulli numbers. Based on lecture notes of John Milnor, which first appeared at Princeton University in 1957 and have been widely studied by graduate students of topology ever since, this published version has been completely revised and corrected.




Vector Bundles on Complex Projective Spaces


Book Description

These lecture notes are intended as an introduction to the methods of classi?cation of holomorphic vector bundles over projective algebraic manifolds X. To be as concrete as possible we have mostly restricted ourselves to the case X = P . According to Serre (GAGA) the class- n cation of holomorphic vector bundles is equivalent to the classi?cation of algebraic vector bundles. Here we have used almost exclusively the language of analytic geometry. The book is intended for students who have a basic knowledge of analytic and (or) algebraic geometry. Some fundamental results from these ?elds are summarized at the beginning. One of the authors gave a survey in the S ́eminaire Bourbaki 1978 on the current state of the classi?cation of holomorphic vector bundles over P . This lecture then served as the basis for a course of lectures n in G ̈ottingen in the Winter Semester 78/79. The present work is an extended and up-dated exposition of that course. Because of the - troductory nature of this book we have had to leave out some di?cult topics such as the restriction theorem of Barth. As compensation we have appended to each section a paragraph in which historical remarks are made, further results indicated and unsolved problems presented. The book is divided into two chapters. Each chapter is subdivided into several sections which in turn are made up of a number of pa- graphs. Each section is preceded by a short description of its contents.