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If $X$ is a $CW-$complex and we denote by $C_*^{CW}(X)$ the chain complexe given by $H_n(X_n,X_{n-1})$ in degree $n$ can we construct a weak equivalence $C^{CW}_*(X) \rightarrow C_*(X)$? I know their homologies are isomorphic but are they weakly equivalent? I'm pretty sure they are.

A weak equivalence $\phi:C_* \rightarrow D_*$ is a chain map which induces isomorphism in homology in all degrees.

This is a harder problem to solve than if $X$ was a triangulated space viewed as a $CW-$complex since we have a canonical representative of the homology class that generates $H_n(\Delta^n, \partial \Delta^n)$, namely the identity map $\Delta^n \rightarrow \Delta^n$ but there is no such canonical choice for $H_n(D^n, \partial D^n)$.

I don't know how to choose representatives of $H_n(D_e^n, \partial D_e^n)$ for all $n-$cells $D_e^n$ of $X$ for all $n$ in order to define a chain map $C_*^{CW}(X) \rightarrow C_*(X)$.

I appreciate any help with this question!

  • I'm not sure why you need a canonical choice. Besides the choice is only not canonical up to sign, which shouldn't matter here. Also confused as to why this has the model categories tag. – jgon Apr 01 '20 at 15:35
  • You don't need canonical choice but it's not obvious how we should define a map $C_^{CW}(X) \rightarrow C_(X)$ like in the case when $X$ is triangulated. As for the tag, I forgot to add tags when I first asked the question. Someone edited and added a bunch of tags which included model categories. Thank you for pointing that out! – Noel Lundström Apr 01 '20 at 15:39
  • What is a weakly equivalence in this context? – EQJ Apr 01 '20 at 15:46
  • What I'm trying to say is just pick a generator of $H_n(D_e,\partial D_e)$ for all $e$ and send it to an arbitrary singular chain mapping to it in $H_n(X_n, X_{n-1})$. That would be my guess. – jgon Apr 01 '20 at 15:46
  • @YTS I edited my post to include a definition. And jgon, I don't think that will work since you can't guarantee that that map will commute with boundaries. Many such maps that arise in that way don't commute with boundary operators since cycles don't map to cycles, if we rotate an $n-$simplex that represents a generator of $H_n(D_e^n,\partial D_e^n)$ by a small amount it will no longer line up with all of the other $n-$simplices arising from other $n-$cells i.e their sums boundary cannot possibly be zero. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? – Noel Lundström Apr 01 '20 at 16:03
  • I don't understand what's bothering you : if you fix a homeomorphism of pairs $(\Delta^n,\partial \Delta^n)\to (D^n, \partial D^n)$, you get a canonical generator $H_n(\Delta^n,\partial \Delta^n)\to H_n(D^n,\partial D^n)$ (and then you can use the characteristic map of the cell $e$ to relate that to $H_n(D^n_e,\partial D^n_e)$ – Maxime Ramzi Apr 01 '20 at 17:11
  • I understand the construction but that map is not always a chain map, take $X_1 = [0,1]$ and $X_2= X$ is attaching a sphere to $0$ and $1$ respectively. Call the $2-$cells $D^2_0$ and $D^2_1$ respectively. Then in the $CW-$homology chain complex $D^2_0 - D^2_1$ is a cycle but the singular chain given by $\phi_0 - \phi_1$ where $\phi_i : \Delta^2 \rightarrow D^2_i$ represents a generator of $H_2(D_i^2,\partial D^2_i)$ isn't a cycle since the boundary isn't zero (boundary of $\phi_i$ isn't zero and the boundaries of both $\phi_i$ don't intersect). Therefore the proposed map can't be a chain map. – Noel Lundström Apr 01 '20 at 18:10
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    Ah that's a good point. Have you tried to look up the proof that the CW-complex computes the right homology to see if it actually builds a weak equivalence ? (in any case, there's a silly reason why there is an actual homotopy equivalence : the two complexes have the same homology, and over $\mathbb Z$ this implies they're isomorphic in the derived category, but then they're complexes of free abelian groups so that isomophism is represented by an actual map, which is an actual homotopy equivalence) – Maxime Ramzi Apr 03 '20 at 08:14
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    (of course that's not a good reason, and it would be better if there was a "geometric" one - but I have to admit I don't remember the proof that $C_*^{CW}$ has the right homology so I don't remember if a map between the two complexes is built) – Maxime Ramzi Apr 03 '20 at 08:15
  • @MaximeRamzi Is that so? If you write out a self contained answer I will accept it so you can get the points and I don't clog up the system anymroe. I doubt that a "geometric" weak equivalence exists so your answer is good! – Noel Lundström Apr 07 '20 at 01:30
  • I'll do so since you say you're interested, but before I do, did you check the proof in, e.g. Hatcher ? Or maybe May ? – Maxime Ramzi Apr 07 '20 at 07:00
  • There seems to be no proof of that in Hatcher or May, but I only went through them quickly. That's quite surprising. – Maxime Ramzi Apr 07 '20 at 10:31

2 Answers2

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First of all, as you point out, if you're dealing with triangulated spaces, the whole matter becomes easier. I suppose that's because you impose that the map $\partial \Delta^n \to X_{n-1}$ respects the triangulated structure, so everything works well when you look at the complexes in question.

For "plain" CW-complexes, as we saw in the comments, I'm not sure there's a geometric proof. However, here's an algebraic proof that the two are weakly equivalent, in fact, they're homotopy equivalent. The proof is "stupid" in that it only relies on the fact that they're complexes of free abelian groups and have the same homology; and the map you get is not natural in $X$ in any reasonable sense (even with respect to cellular maps, while you could hope that it would be)

The proof is as follows: $C_*^{CW}(X)$ (resp. $C_*(X)$) are complexes of abelian groups, so they are weakly equivalent (in the sense of a zigzag of morphisms) to their homology (look for instance at the accepted answer here) ,therefore they are weakly equivalent to one another.

This means they are isomorphic in the derived category $D_{\geq 0}(\mathbf{Ab})$. However, they are both chain complexes of free modules, so $\hom_{D_{\geq 0}(\mathbf{Ab})}(C_*^{CW}(X),C_*(X))$ is just the quotient of $\hom_{Ch_{\geq 0}(\mathbf{Ab})}(C^{CW}_*(X), C_*(X))$ by the homotopy relation, and similarly in the other direction. It follows that they are homotopy equivalent.

Here's a possible geometric approach, to yield naturality : the category we will consider is a slight modification on CW-complexes : we will want to record how cells are attached, and morphisms will have to respect this (note that I'm not entirely sure that what I'm writing is correct, you should especially double check this bit - I'm writing it and correcting it at the same time as thinking about it. Also, at the end, I don't get an actual conclusion, just a wild guess)

So an object in our category $C$ will be a CW-complex $X$ together with its "history" of construction, that is, for each $n$, a set $I_n$ and a family $\phi_i : S^n\to X^{(n)}$ of attaching maps. So essentially : a CW-complex, together with its CW-structure

A morphism between two such things will be in particular a cellular map, but actually the requirement will be stronger : a map $f: X\to Y$ will be a cellular map such that for all $n$, the map $X^{(n+1)}\to Y^{(n+1)}$ is induced by the map $X^{(n)}\to Y^{(n)}$ and a map $I_n\times D^{n+1}\to Y^{(n+1)}$ such that the composite with $Y^{(n+1)}\to Y^{(n+1)}/Y^{(n)}\cong \bigvee_{j\in J_n}S^{n+1}$ is, for each $i\in I_n$, just the quotient map $D^{n+1}\to S^{n+1} $ followed by the inclusion $S^{n+1}\to \bigvee_{j\in J_n}S^{n+1}$, for exactly one $j\in J_n$; and also such that $I_n\times D^{n+1}\to Y^{(n+1)}$ restricts to $I_n\times S^n\to J_n\times S^n$ with the induced map $I_n\to J_n$ and the identity $S^n\to S^n$

The goal is then to use the acylic models theorem. For notation, I will be following this statement . Our functor $F$ is $C_*^{CW}$, I think its definition is pretty clear (given that the maps are cellular but in fact send cells to cells, it's easy to see how it is defined on morphisms). Now I claim that $C_k^{W}$ is free on $\{D^k\}$, with the usual cell-decomposition : one $0$-cell, one $k-1$-cell to produce a $k-1$-sphere, and then one $k$-cell to fill it.

Indeed, what is a map $D^k\to X$ in $C$ ? I claim that is the same data as a $k$-cell in $X$. Well clearly such a map determines a $k$-cell in $X$ : indeed look in degree $k$, you have, by definition of $C$, that $D^k\to X^{(k)}/X^{(k-1)}$ corresponds to picking precisely one $k$-cell (and since we required that this map is the quotient map, there is no additional data). Conversely, a $k$-cell of $X$ determines (obviously) a map $D^k\to X$.

One may check that these two applications are inverse to one another (I think this uses the last requirement in my definition of $C$, that is, that a map $D^k\to X$ must respect the boundary : it clearly preserves the interior, because of the condition on quotient maps; and so to make sure we don't lose information one must impose that it preserves the boundary).

In any case $C_k^{CW}$ is free on $\{D^k\}$ (with the given cell-decomposition)

Then we put $V= C_*$, which is defined in the obvious way. We need to check that it is $k$ and $k+1$-acyclic at these models, which means that $H_k^{sing}(D^k),H_{k+1}^{sing}(D^k), H_k^{sing}(D^{k+1}), H_{k+1}^{sing}(D^{k+1})$ must be $0$ for $k>0$. Well this is just a classical fact about singular homology, and contractibility of $D^k$.

It then follows that any natural transformation $H_0\circ C^{CW}_* \to H_0\circ C_*$ extends (uniquely up to homotopy) to a natural chain map $C_*^{CW}\to C_*$. It mustn't be hard to show that the isomorphism $H_0^{CW}(X)\to H_0(X)$ is natural, so we get our unique chain map that does this.

My guess is that this chain map is a weak equivalence, but I'm not quite sure how to prove that. Note that this would provide some amount of naturality (although in a sense restricted : the maps of $C$ are quite restrictive)

Maxime Ramzi
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At the request of Maxime Ramzi, I've copied my answer from a similar question:

Here is a nice zig-zag of quasi isomorphisms. Let $Sing(X)$ denote the realization of the singular set of X. Let $Song(X)$ denote the realization of the simplicial set of singular simplices that are cellular maps.

We have a chain of maps $X \leftarrow Song(X) \rightarrow Sing(X)$, where it is standard that these are weak equivalences and by design are cellular (where the latter spaces are CW complexes since they are realizations of simplicial sets). Hence, on CW chains these are quasi isomorphisms.

It is easy to see that CW and simplicial homology on the realization of a simplicial set coincide, so after taking CW chains we can extend to the right by an isomorphism of chain complexes getting us the simplicial chains of $Sing(X)$. Simplicial chains on $Sing(X)$ is exactly singular chains on X, so we are done.

Connor Malin
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