Instructor: Mladen Bestvina
Office: JWB 210
Office hours: TBD or by appointment
Meets: MWF 12:55-1:45, GC 4660
We will start with higher homotopy groups from Hatcher's book: Algebraic
Topology. We will also discuss spectral sequences and how to
use them to compute homology and cohomology. But the main topic in
the class will be characteristic classes, and I will for the most
part follow the classic book by Milnor and Stasheff. I hope to
explain Milnor's construction of an exotic 7-sphere (smooth
manifold which is homeomorphic to the 7-sphere but not
diffeomorphic to it).
Prerequisites: 6510-20
Required
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