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5 - Transversality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2026

Gereon Quick
Affiliation:
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
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Summary

This chapter introduces transversality, a key concept in differential topology that describes how a smooth map interacts locally with a given submanifold. The characterisation is made precise using tangent spaces and derivatives. We generalise the Preimage Theorem to transverse intersections and then specialise to intersections of submanifolds. Several examples are explored, including Brieskorn manifolds. As an application, we prove Sard’s Theorem on the existence of regular values, a fundamental result in differential topology. Building on Sard’s Theorem, we study Morse functions and establish Morse’s Theorem on the existence of such functions on smooth manifolds.

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  • Transversality
  • Gereon Quick, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
  • Book: Differential Topology
  • Online publication: 08 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009759847.007
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  • Transversality
  • Gereon Quick, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
  • Book: Differential Topology
  • Online publication: 08 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009759847.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Transversality
  • Gereon Quick, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
  • Book: Differential Topology
  • Online publication: 08 August 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009759847.007
Available formats
×