“Open” Cell? (Hatcher and Husemoller)

algebraic-topologycw-complexesdifferential-geometrydifferential-topologyfiber-bundles

Have $\mathbb D^n$ be some n-dimensional unit disk. Have $\partial S$ denote the boundary of some space $S$. Let infix $(-)$ denote a difference between collections of objects.

In Dale Husemoller's Fibre Bundles (and Hatcher's Algebraic Topology) an "open" cell (and perhaps by implication a "closed" cell) is mentioned without explanation (I searched through it in Hatcher and he mentioned it once in his appendix without clarifying). We can denote by $$\mathbf e^n = \mathbb D^n – \partial \, \mathbb D^n$$ an n-cell. However, what would make this cell "open"
or "closed"? I would guess that there's some topological space $(x, X)$ where $$(x – \mathbf e^n) \in X$$ implies that $\mathbf e^n$ is closed, and likewise

$$\mathbf e^n \in X$$

implies that $\mathbf e^n$ is open. This is only a guess, and even if true I would not know what base set $x$ and topology $X$ would be choice.


I would be grateful if any answers that involve topological spaces use the full $(\star , \bigstar)$ notation and avoid any ambiguity when referring to the underlying set $(\star)$ and the topology $\big( \bigstar \big)$ placed on it. Thank you in advance for your help.

Best Answer

Hatcher defines in Standard Notations on p.xii

$e^n$: an $n$-cell, homeomorphic to the open $n$-disk $D^n-\partial D^n$.

The phrase "open $n$-cell" is synonymous with "$n$-cell", but typically avoided as it can be misleading (an open $n$-cell in a topological space need not be an open subset thereof). The one instance of this phrase in Hatcher's book is presumably just a slip of the tongue. The one appearance in Husemoller's book is in the introduction, where he does not define the terminology, but redirects the reader to J.H.C. Whitehead's paper Combinatorial Homotopy. I. There, at the start of Section $4$, we find

By a cell complex, $K$, or simply a complex, we mean a Hausdorff space, which is the union of disjoint (open) cells, to be denoted by $e$, $e^n$, $e_i^n$, etc., subject to the following condition.

This informs us that "open cell" and "cell" are the same concept and the adjective "open" is considered negligible.

The term "closed cell" is ambiguous. It does not seem to appear in Husemoller's book. In Hatcher's book, there is one instance on p.535. He calls a CW-complex regular if the characteristic maps can be chosen to be embeddings. In this case, the closures of the $n$-cells of this CW-complex are homeomorphic to the (closed) disk $D^n$ and he calls them "closed cells". However, in other contexts, one might want to refer to the closure of any cell in any CW-complex (which is not always homeomorphic to a closed disk) as a "closed cell" (this is done e.g. in Bredon's Topology and Geometry).

Related Question