Let $S$ be de pseudo circle (see for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocircle).
How can I compute its higher homotopy groups?
The question came up while trying construct a weak homotopy equivalence $X\to Y$ that does not admit an inverse. Taking $X=S^1$, $Y=S$ and $f$ as in the wikipedia page should work, but I was not able to work out a "simple" way of calculating $\pi_n(S)$ for $n>1$. By "simple" I mean that it should not invoke a generalization of that I am trying to prove.
Best Answer
The most elementary way I know of is to construct its universal cover. First, some preliminaries. We consider any preordered set as a topological space where the open sets are the downward closed sets; a map between two preordered sets is then continuous iff it is order-preserving. The following Lemma is very convenient for thinking about homotopies of such maps:
Let's now turn to the pseudocircle $S$. We write $S=\{a,b,c,d\}$ with $a,b\leq c,d$.
The universal cover can then be described as $S\times\mathbb{Z}$, with the order given by $(a,n)\leq (d,n-1),(c,n)$ and $(b,n)\leq (c,n),(d,n)$. (Draw a picture of this poset! It should look like a zigzag path with $a$'s and $b$'s alternating on bottom and $c$'s and $d$'s alternating on top.) The covering map $p:S\times\mathbb{Z}\to S$ is then just the projection; it is easy to verify that it is indeed a covering map.
I now claim that $S\times\mathbb{Z}$ is weakly contractible, so that the higher homotopy groups of $S$ are trivial. Every compact subset of $S\times\mathbb{Z}$ is finite, so it suffices to show that $S$ is covered by an increasing sequence of contractible finite subsets. To prove this, note first that $\{(a,0),(c,0)\}$ deformation-retracts to $\{(a,0)\}$ by the Corollary since $(a,0)\leq (c,0)$. Similarly $\{(a,0),(c,0),(b,0)\}$ deformation-retracts to $\{(a,0)(c,0)\}$ since $(b,0)\leq (c,0)$ and $(b,0)$ is not comparable to $(a,0)$. In the same way $\{(a,0),(c,0),(b,0),(d,0)\}$ deformation-retracts to $\{(a,0),(c,0),(b,0)\}$ since $(d,0)$ is only comparable to $(b,0)$. We can continue adding points one-by-one in this way: $(a,1)$ is only comparable to $(d,0)$, then $(c,1)$ is only comparable to $(a,1)$, and so on. We can also add points "in the other direction": $(d,-1)$ is only comparable to $(a,0)$, and then $(b,-1)$ is only comparable to $(d,-1)$, and so on. So, we can add on all of the points of $S\times\mathbb{Z}$ one by one, maintaining a contractible space at each step.
(In fact, with a bit more work, you can show it's possible to glue together all these deformations in sequence continuously to show that $S\times\mathbb{Z}$ is contractible, not just weakly contractible.)
Alternatively, using a bit of heavier machinery from homotopy theory, you can show quickly and directly that there is a weak homotopy equivalence $f:S^1\to S$. Specifically, pick two points $p,q\in S^1$ and let $f$ map $p$ to $c$, $q$ to $d$, and the two open arcs between $p$ and $q$ to $a$ and $b$ respectively. Note that $S$ is covered by the open sets $U=\{a,b,c\}$ and $V=\{a,b,d\}$ which are both contractible (they deformation-retract onto $\{c\}$ and $\{d\}$ respectively, either using the Corollary twice or directly using the Lemma). Also, $f^{-1}(U)=S^1\setminus\{q\}$ and $f^{-1}(V)=S^1\setminus\{p\}$ are contractible, so $f$ restricts to homotopy equivalences $f^{-1}(U)\to U$ and $f^{-1}(V)\to V$. Moreover, $f$ also restricts to a homotopy equivalence $f^{-1}(U\cap V)\to U\cap V$, since $U\cap V=\{a,b\}$ is discrete and $U\cap V$ is a disjoint union of two arcs, one mapping to each of $a$ and $b$. It follows by the theorem below that $f:S^1\to S$ is a weak homotopy equivalence.
You can find a proof of (a slight strengthening of) this theorem as Theorem 6.7.11 in tom Dieck's Algebraic Topology, for instance.