Topology Second Edition

This textbook on algebraic topology updates a popular textbook from the golden era of the Moscow school of I. M. Gelfand. The first English translation, done many decades ago, remains very much in demand, although it has been long out-of-print and is difficult to obtain. Therefore, this updated English edition will be much welcomed by the mathematical community. Distinctive features of this book include: a concise but fully rigorous presentation, supplemented by a plethora of illustrations of a high technical and artistic caliber; a huge number of nontrivial examples and computations done in detail; a deeper and broader treatment of topics in comparison to most beginning books on algebraic topology; an extensive, and very concrete, treatment of the machinery of spectral sequences. The second edition contains an entirely new chapter on K-theory and the Riemann-Roch theorem (after Hirzebruch and Grothendieck).

This book presents the first concepts of the topics in algebraic topology such as the general simplicial complexes, simplicial homology theory, fundamental groups, covering spaces and singular homology theory in greater detail. Originally published in 2003, this book has become one of the seminal books. Now, in the completely revised and enlarged edition, the book discusses the rapidly developing field of algebraic topology. Targeted to undergraduate and graduate students of mathematics, the prerequisite for this book is minimal knowledge of linear algebra, group theory and topological spaces.