ERIK HASSE

HOMEWORK 4
DIFFERENTIAL TOPOLOGY

1. Problem 1
Problem. Let N M be a compact regular submanifold of codimension one. Prove that
if N is 2-sided, then there exists H : N [1, 1] M which is a diffeomorphism onto its
image such that H0 (x) = H(x, 0) = x.
Proof. Because N is 2-sided, there exists a vector field X : N T M such that for all
p N , Xp 6 Tp N and Tp N hXp i = Tp M . Then by the fundamental theorem of ODEs,
there exists some : N (0, ) and : W M where W = {(x, t) N R : |t| < (x)}
such that (x,0) = x and

d 
= X(x,s) .
dt 
(x,s)

Then by the tube lemma, because W is open and N {0} W , there exists some  > 0
such that N (, ) W . By shrinking  a little we can assume that N [, ] W .

Define H 0 := 
: N [, ] M . We have H 0 (x, 0) = (x, 0) = x. BeN [,]

0
cause Xp 6 Tp N , H,(p,s)
has full rank. Thus by the implicit function theorem, H 0 is a
diffeomorphism.

Then by rescaling, we can define H : N [1, 1] M by H(x, t) = H 0 (x, t).

2. Problem 2
Problem. Prove that if N M is 2-sided and M is orientable, then N is orientable.
Proof. Because N is 2-sided, there exists a vector
n  field X : N 
o T M such that for all p N


Xp 6 Tp N and Tp M = Tp N hXp i. Let x1 p , . . . , xn1 p be a basis for Tp N . Then
o
n 



,
.
.
.
,
,
X
p is a basis for Tp M . Because M is orientable, there is a continuous
x1 p
x1 p
h


 i
choice of orientations for Tp M , let xi1 p , . . . , xik p , Xp , ik+1 , . . . , xin1 p be the equivx
h
 i

alence class of the ordered basis at p of the chosen orientation. Then xi1 p , . . . , xin1 p
is an orientation for Tp N . Further, this is a continuous choice of orientation because it is
the restriction of the orientation of M to N , and restrictions are continuous. Therefore N
is orientable.

3. Problem 3
Problem. Give an example of a 2-sided manifold that is not orientable.
1

Consider the Klein bottle K 2 . Let M = K 2 S 1 and N = K 2 {(1, 0)} these are
manifolds of dimension 3 and 2 respectively. Because N is diffeomorphic to K 2 , N is
certainly not orientable. However, it is 2-sided. Let {(U, x, y, )} be an atlas on M , so that
x and y are the coordinate maps on K 2 and theta is the coordinate map on S 1 . Then define
X : N T M by


.
Xp =
p

 


Then for any p M , we have Xp =

6
T
N
because
T
N
=
h
,  i. Further, this
p
p
x
p
p y p
means that
  

Tp M = h p , p , p i = Tp N h p i
x y

as desired. This means that N is 2-sided and not orientable.

4. Problem 4
Problem. Prove that if M is connected and N M is connected and 2-sided, then M \ N
has at most two components.
Intuitively this is fairly clear, but I havent really made much progress on this proof,
so heres what Im thinking: Because M is a connected manifold, its path connected. So
consider two points x0 , x1 M and a path p : [0, 1] M such that p(0) = x0 and p(1) = x1 .
If p([0, 1]) M \ N , then x0 and x1 are in the same component of M \ N .
Another thing that seems like progress is picking a point y N . Then there should be a
smooth path p from x0 to x1 that passes through p and such that the velocity of p at y is Xy ,
where X is the vector field that we get from N being two sided. Because Xy 6 Tp N , this
means that the path crosses through N , it isnt contained in N for some interval (t, t+).
However, Im not sure how to use this to show that there are at most two components of
M \ N.
Ive also tried considering three points x0 , x1 , x2 M \ N and showing that there must
be a path completely contained in M \ N joining a pair of them. In other words, if we
assume that there is no path joining x0 to x2 and there is no path joining x1 to x2 , then
there must be a path joining x0 to x1 , so that x0 and x1 are in the same component, and
x2 is in a different component. If this holds for all x0 , x1 , x2 M \ N , then there can only
be two components, because if there were three or more, we could choose x0 , x1 , and x2 to
each be in different components. Unfortunately, I cant make this work either.