Suspension (topology)

Suspension of a circle. The original space is in blue, and the collapsed end points are in green.

In topology, a branch of mathematics, the suspension of a topological space X is intuitively obtained by stretching X into a cylinder and then collapsing both end faces to points. One views X as "suspended" between these end points. The suspension of X is denoted by SX^[1] or susp(X).^[2]^: 76

There is a variation of the suspension for pointed space, which is called the reduced suspension and denoted by ΣX. The "usual" suspension SX is sometimes called the unreduced suspension, unbased suspension, or free suspension of X, to distinguish it from ΣX.

^ Allen Hatcher, Algebraic topology. Cambridge University Presses, Cambridge, 2002. xii+544 pp. ISBN 0-521-79160-X and ISBN 0-521-79540-0
^ Matoušek, Jiří (2007). Using the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem: Lectures on Topological Methods in Combinatorics and Geometry (2nd ed.). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-00362-5. Written in cooperation with Anders Björner and Günter M. Ziegler

[1] Allen Hatcher, Algebraic topology. Cambridge University Presses, Cambridge, 2002. xii+544 pp. ISBN 0-521-79160-X and ISBN 0-521-79540-0

[:03-2] Matoušek, Jiří (2007). Using the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem: Lectures on Topological Methods in Combinatorics and Geometry (2nd ed.). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-00362-5. Written in cooperation with Anders Björner and Günter M. Ziegler

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