[Math] $\Delta$-complex structure of the cone and the suspension

algebraic-topologysimplicial-complex

I am going around in circles trying to answer the following question:

Let $Y$ be a $\Delta$-complex.
Describe a $\Delta$-complex structure of

  1. its cone $CY=(Y\times[0,1])/(Y\times\{0\})$
  2. its suspension $\Sigma Y=(Y\times[0,1])/(Y\times\{0,1\})$.

I know that the suspension can be given as two cones glued together along $Y\times\{1\}$, but I'm struggling to even describe the cone's $\Delta$-complex structure.

(P.S. I know that this is a question about $\Delta$-complexes and not simplicial complexes, but we don't have a $\Delta$-complex tag.)

Edit: Drawing some pictures I've managed to half-convince myself that $C\Delta^n\cong\Delta^{n+1}$ and $\Sigma S^n\cong S^{n+1}$, but I still can't prove even these simple cases. I'm struggling to understand how to write the product of simplices, and then the quotient.

Best Answer

Here are some thoughts that could hopefully help.

First of all, trying to give the product of two simplices a simplicial (or $\Delta$-complex) structure is in general annoying. There's a reason that the relevant sections of Hatcher are rather technical (see for example the proof of Theorem 2.10 - page 112 here (PDF)).


Here's one thing that is neat about simplices (when I say simplices I mean $\Delta$-complexes but I'm being sloppy) though, and this construction actually underlies a lot of what you're doing.

Let's suppose that $\sigma = [v_0, \cdots, v_n]$ is an $n$-simplex. Then it has an $(-1)^n$-oriented codimension-1 face $\tau = [v_0, \cdots, v_{n-1}]$, and this is just an $(n-1)$-simplex.

Now let's add a point $v_{n+1}$ to everything - just put it at the end of every simplex. We boost $\sigma$ to an $(n+1)$-simplex $\tilde{\sigma} = [v_0, \cdots, v_n, v_{n+1}]$. And now it has an $(-1)^n$-oriented face $\tilde{\tau} = [v_0, \cdots, v_{n-1}, v_{n+1}]$ which is still codimension-1, and this is just an $n$-simplex.

This is actually super-neat. Let's suppose we have a description of a space $X$ realized as a collection of simplices $\{\sigma_i\}$. Then a simplicial description of $CX$ is given by $\{\sigma_i, [c], \tilde{\sigma}_i\}$, where $\tilde{\sigma}_i$ just denotes adding $c$ to the end of the list of vertices of $\sigma_i$.

If you want to see some poorly-drawn examples, here you go: A $\Delta$-complex structure on $C(\Delta^0)$.

A $\Delta$-complex structure on $C(\Delta^1)$.

Hopefully these convince you that $C(\Delta^n) = \Delta^{n+1}$.


For the suspension, there's a really important point that your notation makes it unclear whether you get it. So I'll say it, and you may well already know it. You identify $Y \times \{0\}$ to one point, and $Y \times \{1\}$ to a different point. Otherwise the equality $\Sigma S^n = S^{n+1}$ wouldn't be true.

Perhaps it's better to think about the suspension as two cones smushed together. Given a space $X$ we can form cones $C_+X$ and $C_-X$, and these come with canonical inclusions $X \to C_{\pm}X$. Then the suspension is just the union of $C_+X$ and $C_-X$ with the two copies of $X$ identified. In the case of the sphere, these correspond to the north and south hemispheres.

In particular, if we start off with $S^0$ as two points (0-simplices), then $S^1 = \Sigma S^0$ is four 1-simplices, one for each quadrant in the standard embedding $S^1 \to \mathbb R^2$, $S^2 = \Sigma S^1$ is eight 2-simplices, one for each octant in $\mathbb R^3$, and so on and so forth.

If you want another poorly-drawn picture, here you go:

A $\Delta$-complex structure on $\Sigma S^0 = S^1$.