MAT 239 Syllabus

Textbook:
Differential Topology by Guillemin and Pollack.
Prerequisites:
MAT 201A; or Consent of Instructor.
Suggested Schedule:
Lectures Sections (from Guillemin and Pollack's book)
Week 1
§ 1.1+2 Definitions, Derivatives and Tangents
§ 1.3 The Inverse Function Theorem and Immersions
§ 1.4 Submersions
Week 2
§ 1.5 Transversality
§ 1.6 Homotopy and Stability
Quiz I
Week 3 § 1.7 Sard's Theorem and Morse functions
§ 2.1 Manifolds with boundary
§ 2.2 One-manifolds and some consequences
Week 4 § 2.3 Transversality
§ 2.4 Intersection theory mod 2
Quiz II
Week 5 § 3.1+2 Motivation, Orientation
§ 3.3 Oriented intersection theory
§ 3.4 Lefshetz fixed-point theory
Week 6 § 3.5 Vector fields and the Poincare-Hopf Theorem
§ 3.7 Euler characteristic and triangulations
Quiz III
Week 7 § 4.1 Introduction
§ 4.2 Exterior Algebra
§ 4.3 Differential forms
Week 8 § 4.4 Integration on manifolds
§ 4.5 Exterior derivative
Quiz IV
Week 9 § 4.6 Cohomology with forms
§ 4.7 Stokes Theorem
§ 4.8 Integration and mappings
Further topics as time permits
Additional Notes:
Other references:
  • An Introduction to Manifolds, by Loring Tu.
  • Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, by Jack Lee.
  • Notes on Manifolds, by Dmitry Fuchs.