About subdivision in homology (demonstration in Lee Introduction to Topological Manifolds, proposition 13.19)

127 Views Asked by At

My question has to do with the following assetion given in J.M. Lee: Introduction to Topological Manifolds, page 364, in the context of demonstrating there exists a chain homotopy $h$ between the subdivision operator $s$ and $\mathcal{i}_p$, the identity in $\Delta_p$, defined by

$$h\sigma=\sigma_\#b_p*(\mathcal{i_p}-s\mathcal{i}_p-h\partial s\mathcal{i_p})$$

Observe also that if $\sigma$ is a $\mathcal{U}$-small simplex, then $h\sigma$ is a $\mathcal{U}$-small chain, so $h$ maps $C_p^\mathcal{U}(X)$ to $C_{p+1}^\mathcal{U}(X)$

How can we actually be sure that is the case? I searched for an answer in Glen E. Bredon: Topology and Geometry, but I found nothing.

It would be interesting if anyone could give more insight to what $h$ actually does $-$geometrically speaking$-$, since the definition by recurrence doesn't offer any intuition at all

Thanks in advance for your help.