Instructor: Francis Bonahon, DRB 264, (213) 740-2390, fbonahon@math.usc.edu.

Web page: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~fbonahon/Teaching/540/M540_S08.html

    This is the offical web site of the course. I will post here the homework assignments, as well as an outline of the topics covered (definitions, examples, main theorems, usually no proofs) as the semester progresses. Please check this page on a regular basis.

Content: The course covers the basics of algebraic topology. This includes:

• the fundamental group
  
• the Seifert-van Kampen Theorem
• the theory of covering spaces
• singular homology: invariance under homotopy, basic exact sequences in homology, excision, homology of manifolds
• cohomology and Poincaré duality.

    I will not be closely following any textbook. However, I highly recommend as a reference: Allen Hatcher, Algebraic Topology, Cambridge University Press.
    The book is actually available for free on-line from Hatcher's web page, but I would recommend that you buy it: it's easier to physically handle, it's reasonably priced, and it's a good reference book which you may still find useful later in your mathematical life.

Grading: There will be a midterm (at a date specified later in the semester), a final exam, and regularly assigned homework. The grade for the course will be computed as follows: 30% from the midterm grade, 30% from the final grade and 40% from the homework grade.

Office hours: I have official office hours which are posted on the department's web page. However,  I also have an open door policy, in particular with graduate students, and I am often around DRB. You are encouraged to stop by my office at any time.

Location: The class meets MWF at 11 in KAP 141.