Introduction to Piecewise-Linear Topology [Paperback]

The first five chapters of this book form an introductory course in piece? wise-linear topology in which no assumptions are made other than basic topological notions. This course would be suitable as a second course in topology with a geometric flavour, to follow a first course in point-set topology, andi)erhaps to be given as a final year undergraduate course. The whole book gives an account of handle theory in a piecewise? linear setting and could be the basis of a first year postgraduate lecture or reading course. Some results from algebraic topology are needed for handle theory and these are collected in an appendix. In a second appen? dix are listed the properties of Whitehead torsion which are used in the s-cobordism theorem. These appendices should enable a reader with only basic knowledge to complete the book. The book is also intended to form an introduction to modern geo? metric topology as a research subject, a bibliography of research papers being included. We have omittedacknowledgements and references from the main text and have collected these in a set of historical notes to be found after the appendices.1. Polyhedra and P.L. Maps.- Basic Notation.- Joins and Cones.- Polyhedra.- Piecewise-Linear Maps.- The Standard Mistake.- P. L. Embeddings.- Manifolds.- Balls and Spheres.- The Poincar? Conjecture and the h-Cobordism Theorem..- 2. Complexes.- Simplexes.- Cells.- Cell Complexes.- Subdivisions.- Simplicial Complexes.- Simplicial Maps.- Triangulations.- Subdividing Diagrams of Maps.- Derived Subdivisions.- Abstract Isomorphism of Cell Complexes.- Pseudo-Radial Projection.- External Joins.- Collars.- Appendix to Chapter 2. On Convex Cells.- 3. Regular Neighbourhoods.- Full Subcomplexes.- Derived Neighbourhoods.- Regular Neighbourhoods.- Regular Neighbourhoods in Manifolds.- Isotopy Uniqueness of Regular Neighbourhoods.- Collapsing.- Remarks on Simple Homotopy Type.- Shelling.- Orientation.- Connected Sums.- Sch?nflies Conjecture.- 4. Pairs of Polyhedraló%