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    • CommentRowNumber1.
    • CommentAuthorUrs
    • CommentTimeMay 3rd 2016

    I have briefly fixed the clause for topological spaces at contractible space, making manifest the distinction between contractible and weakly contractible.

    • CommentRowNumber2.
    • CommentAuthorDavid_Corfield
    • CommentTimeMay 3rd 2016

    Is it worth an example of a weakly contractible but not contractible space, such as the double comb space?

    • CommentRowNumber3.
    • CommentAuthorUrs
    • CommentTimeMay 3rd 2016

    I don’t have time for it, but if you do, it would sure be worth it.

    • CommentRowNumber4.
    • CommentAuthorDavid_Corfield
    • CommentTimeMay 3rd 2016

    Ok. I rearranged things as the same thing was being said in two different places.

    • CommentRowNumber5.
    • CommentAuthorUrs
    • CommentTimeMay 3rd 2016

    Thanks!

  1. adding section on contractibility of cohesive infinity groupoids.

    Anonymous

    diff, v17, current

  2. added an example to the cohesive infinity groupoid section

    Anonymous

    diff, v17, current

    • CommentRowNumber8.
    • CommentAuthorUrs
    • CommentTimeJun 18th 2022
    • CommentRowNumber9.
    • CommentAuthorDavidRoberts
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2025

    Added examples:

    Examples

    • A(n inhabited) convex subset of a topological vector space over (or ) is contractible.

    • The unit sphere in a separable infinite-dimensional Hilbert space is contractible, unlike the case of finite-dimensional spheres

    • By Kuiper’s theorem the unitary group of such a Hilbert space is contractible, where the topology can be either of the two main topologies (norm topology, or strong operator topology).

    • The total space of any universal principal bundle is contractible.

    diff, v20, current

    • CommentRowNumber10.
    • CommentAuthorUrs
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2025
    • (edited Aug 11th 2025)
    • CommentRowNumber11.
    • CommentAuthorDavidRoberts
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2025

    Ta. I was in an airport and pressed for time before boarding.

    • CommentRowNumber12.
    • CommentAuthorDavidRoberts
    • CommentTimeAug 14th 2025
    • (edited Aug 14th 2025)

    In fact Illusie proved in

    • Luc Illusie, Contractibilité du groupe linéaire des espaces de Hilbert de dimension infinie, Séminaire Bourbaki 1964, Exp. No. 284.

    that the group of bounded operators of any Hilbert space is (weakly) homotopy equivalent to a point. I’m not sure if Palais’ theorem that is used for the separable Hilbert space case that gets actual contractibility applies here.

    In any case Illusie seems to be making the stronger claim about contractibility outright. And also has the statement about U(H). All in the norm topology (this reference is noted at Kuiper’s theorem, I now see, though Wikipedia claims that Kuiper only stated his theorem for the case of separable H, and Illusie’s paper shows it for arbitrary H)

    • CommentRowNumber13.
    • CommentAuthorDavidRoberts
    • CommentTimeAug 14th 2025

    Also this should be added (when I have time) as a citation for a strengthening of the current claim about unit spheres in Hilbert spaces:

    • C. Bessaga, Every infinite-dimensional Hilbert space is diffeomorphic with its unit sphere. Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci. Sér. Sci. Math. 14 (1966), 2731.
    • CommentRowNumber14.
    • CommentAuthorDavidRoberts
    • CommentTimeAug 14th 2025

    I see infinite-dimensional sphere only makes the weaker statement that the unit sphere in a normed space is weakly contractible. The article in the previous comment should go there too, when I have time.

    • CommentRowNumber15.
    • CommentAuthorTodd_Trimble
    • CommentTimeAug 14th 2025

    Re #12: I’m confused. Off the bat, the only group structure I see on the space of bounded operators B(H) is the addition structure, and there contractibility is obvious. Did you mean to say that or something else like “invertible” replacing “bounded”?

    • CommentRowNumber16.
    • CommentAuthorDavidRoberts
    • CommentTimeAug 15th 2025

    Sorry! It was very late at the time, and I may have gotten the wrong idea from the French… Re-reading the slightly non-trivial sentence (with subordinate clauses and so on) in the theorem in the light of day, I see he means the topological group of invertible operators with the norm topology (inherited from the space bounded operators).