Category Archives: earring group

The earring group is not free (Part II)

This post is Part II in an explanation of why the fundamental group of the earring space is not a free group. I’ll be referencing the notation and results that we worked through in Part I. Recall that the earring group  is … Continue reading

Posted in earring group, earring space, Free groups, Fundamental group, Group homomorphisms | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The earring group is not free (Part I)

The main goal of this two-part post will be to study the homomorphisms out of the earring group. Click here to get to Part II. In particular, we’ll end up concluding that the set of homomorphisms to the additive group … Continue reading

Posted in earring group, earring space, Free groups, Fundamental group, Group homomorphisms | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The fundamental group of the earring space

Here is one of my favorite spaces: The earring space, i.e. the “shrinking wedge of circles.” This space is the first step into the world of “wild” topological spaces. This post is meant to be an introduction into how one … Continue reading

Posted in Algebraic Topology, earring group, earring space, Fundamental group, Homotopy theory | Tagged , , , , , , | 21 Comments