152 Topological Manifold

A topological manifold is a Hausdorff space that is locally homeomorphic to Euclidean space of fixed dimension that is used to introduce local coordinates.

Definition (Topological Manifold) A topological manifold is a topological space, \(M\), that satisfies the following conditions:

  • Locally Euclidean of Dimension \(n\)
  • Hausdorff Space
  • Second Countable

152.1 Elementary Example

152.1.1 Simple

A topological manifold is locally Euclidean, Hausdorff, and second countable. A line locally looks like \(\mathbb{R}^{1}\).

\[ M = \mathbb{R} \]

\[ n = 1 \]

\[ \text{each } p \in M \text{ has a neighborhood homeomorphic to an open interval in }\mathbb{R} \]

where

  • \(M\) is the manifold.
  • \(n\) is the dimension.

152.1.2 General

The plane is a \(2\)-manifold: each point has a neighborhood homeomorphic to an open disk in \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\).

\[ M = \mathbb{R}^{2},\quad n = 2 \]

\[ U = \{ (x,y) : x^{2} + y^{2} < 1 \} \]

where

  • \(U\) is an open neighborhood of the origin.
  • \(U\) is homeomorphic to an open set in \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\).