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Alexis Meyer

Alexis Meyer

Answered question

2022-05-14

While proving that the quotient space B ¯ n / S n 1 is homeomorphic to S n , I needed to construct a continuous function p : B ¯ n S n . I figured that by fixing two points R = ( 0 , 0 , , r ) and L = ( 0 , 0 , , r ) in the closed n-ball B ¯ n of radius r, I could then use the function
p ( x ) = { ( x 1 , , x n , r 2 | | x | | 2 ) : ( x n r ) 2 ( x n + r ) 2   ( x 1 , , x n , r 2 | | x | | 2 ) : ( x n + r ) 2 < ( x n r ) 2
(where | | x | | is the standard norm in R n ) to determine the sign of the ( n + 1 )th component of the image of x B ¯ n . However, knowing that the closed unit interval can be mapped to the circle by the parametrization x ( cos ( 2 π x ) , sin ( 2 π x ) ), I can't help but to wonder whether some similar construction could be made from B ¯ n to S n ?

That is, do you happen to know some nice/comfortable continuous mappings from a general closed n-ball to n-sphere, similar to the parametrization of a unit circle by a unit interval?

Answer & Explanation

recajossikpfmq

recajossikpfmq

Beginner2022-05-15Added 19 answers

There is no map that "wraps" the Cartesian space around a sphere analogous to the covering of the unit circle by a line (because the sphere is simply-connected in dimension greater than 1), but there is the map defined by
x ( sin ( | x | ) x | x | , cos ( | x | ) ) ,
which sends the open ball of radius π about the origin diffeomorphically to the unit sphere with the "south pole" ( 0 , , 0 , 1 ) removed, and which collapses the boundary of the ball to the south pole. (This map is closely related to the Riemannian exponential map of a round sphere.)

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