Homotopy of Paths

For this post we will explain what is a homotopy of paths.

The book above is a nice introductory book on Topology, which includes a section of introductory Algebraic Topology.

Definition: If f and f’ are continuous maps of the space X into the space Y, we say that f is homotopic to f’ if there is a continuous F: X x I -> Y such that

F(x, 0)=f(x) and F(x,1) = f'(x)

for each x. The map F is called a homotopy between f and f’. If f is homotopic to f’, we write $f \simeq f'$ .

If f and f’ are two paths in X, there is a stronger relation, called path homotopy, which requires that the end points of the path remain fixed during the deformation. We write $f \simeq_p f'$ if f and f’ are path homotopic.

Next, we will prove that the relations $\simeq$ and $\simeq_p$ are equivalence relations.

If f is a path, we shall denote its path-homotopy equivalence class by [f].

Proof: We shall verify the properties of an equivalence relation, namely reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity.

Reflexivity:

Given f, it is rather easy to see that $f \simeq f$ . The map F(x,t) is the required homotopy.

F(x,0)=f(x) and F(x,1)=f(x) is clearly satisfied.

If f is a path, then F is certainly a path homotopy, since f and f itself has the same initial point and final point.

Symmetry:

Next we shall show that given $f \simeq f'$ , we have $f' \simeq f$ . Let F be a homotopy between f and f’. We can then verify that G(x,t) = F(x, 1-t) is a homotopy between f’ and f.

G(x,0) = F(x, 1)=f’ (x)

G(x,1) = F(x, 0) = f(x)

Furthermore, if F is a path homotopy, so is G.

G(0,t)=F(0, 1-t) = $x_0$

G(1,t)=F(1,1-t) = $x_1$

Transitivity:

Next, suppose that $f \simeq f'$ and $f' \simeq f''$ , we show that $f \simeq f''$ . Let F be a homotopy between f and f’, and let F’ be a homotopy between f’ and f”. This time, we need to define a slightly more complicated homotopy G: X x I -> Y by the equation