Differentiable Manifolds        Math 6520         Fall 2014

Textbook: There is no official textbook, but some books you might consult are:

• John Lee, Introduction to Smooth Manifolds. (Free download from the library, for Cornell students)
• John Milnor, Topology from the Differentiable Viewpoint. (An excellent book, fairly elementary, but short -- doesn't cover a lot of material)
• John Milnor, Differential Topology, unpublished lecture notes available online here.
• Antoni Kosinski, Differential Manifolds. (A little more advanced than this course. Now available as an inexpensive Dover paperback.)
• Morris Hirsch, Differential Topology. (Maybe a little more advanced also)

Office Hours: Monday 1:30-3:30 in my office, 553 Malott

TA: Pok Wai (Victor) Fong. Office Hours: Tuesday 10:30-11:30 and 3-4 in room 218.

Grades for the course will be based on problem sets due each week or two, plus a final exam which will probably be a take-home exam, with the final counting more than the problem sets. The problem sets will be due on Wednesdays. As usual in math department courses, students are allowed to work together on the homework, or get help from the instructor or the TA, but the papers handed in should be written by the individual student, showing that they understand the solution (and certainly not just copying someone else's solution verbatim).

Problem Set 1 due Wednesday Sept. 17.

Problem Set 2 due Wednesday Oct. 1.

Problem Set 3 due Wednesday Oct. 22.

Problem Set 4 due Friday Nov. 7.

Problem Set 5 due Friday Nov. 21.

Here is the complete Final Exam (with a correction to the original statement of problem 1). Your solutions will be due by noon on Wednesday December 17, in my office. (If you need extra time for some special reason, let me know.) The rules for taking the exam are explained at the top of the exam itself. I will be having office hours Monday and Tuesday, 1:30-3:00. You can also email me with questions.