fundamental group of punctuated plane

242 Views Asked by At

Let $X$ be the plane punctuated at the origin. Let $C$ be the unit circle, with each point being identified by an angle between $0$ and $2\pi$.

$f$ is a function $[0,1] \rightarrow C$ so that $f(t)=2\pi t$ and $g$ is a function $[0,1] \rightarrow C$ so that $g(t)=4\pi t$.

Let $h$ be the function $[0,1]\times[0,1] \rightarrow C$ so that $f(x,t)=(1-t) f(x)+t g(x)$. This function is continuous, and for every $x$, $h(x,0)=f(x)$ and $h(x,1)=1$, so $h$ conforms to the homotopy definition at http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Homotopy.html . Since $f(0)=g(0)=0$, both $f$ and $g$ are loops with the same endpoints.

I know that the fundamental group of the punctuated space is $\mathbb{Z}$, so I would like to know what is flawed in my construction, which implies that all loops are homotopic and that the fundamental group is trivial.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

3
On BEST ANSWER

For the fundamental group, one considers homotopies with fixed end-points, or at least homotopies of closed curves (continuous maps $h \colon S^1\times [0,\,1] \to X$ leave less room for mistakes).

That means in your homotopy you'd need $h(0,t) = h(1,t)$ for all $t \in [0,\,1]$.

Since $f$ winds around the origin only once, and $g$ twice, that condition cannot be satisfied, and for your $h$, you have $h(0,t) = h(1,t)$ only for $t = 0$ and $t = 1$.