Closed, orientable edit

When M is a connected orientable closed manifold of dimension n, the top homology group is infinite cyclic: ${\displaystyle H_{n}(M;\mathbf {Z} )\cong \mathbf {Z} }$ , and an orientation is a choice of generator, a choice of isomorphism ${\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} \to H_{n}(M;\mathbf {Z} )}$ . The generator is called the fundamental class.

If M is disconnected (but still orientable), a fundamental class is the direct sum of the fundamental classes for each connected component (corresponding to an orientation for each component).

In relation with de Rham cohomology it represents integration over M; namely for M a smooth manifold, an n-form ω can be paired with the fundamental class as

${\displaystyle \langle \omega ,[M]\rangle =\int _{M}\omega \ ,}$ 

which is the integral of ω over M, and depends only on the cohomology class of ω.

Stiefel-Whitney class edit

If M is not orientable, ${\displaystyle H_{n}(M;\mathbf {Z} )\ncong \mathbf {Z} }$ , and so one cannot define a fundamental class M living inside the integers. However, every closed manifold is ${\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} _{2}}$ -orientable, and ${\displaystyle H_{n}(M;\mathbf {Z} _{2})=\mathbf {Z} _{2}}$  (for M connected). Thus, every closed manifold is ${\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} _{2}}$ -oriented (not just orientable: there is no ambiguity in choice of orientation), and has a ${\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} _{2}}$ -fundamental class.

This ${\displaystyle \mathbf {Z} _{2}}$ -fundamental class is used in defining Stiefel–Whitney class.

With boundary edit

If M is a compact orientable manifold with boundary, then the top relative homology group is again infinite cyclic ${\displaystyle H_{n}(M,\partial M)\cong \mathbf {Z} }$ , and so the notion of the fundamental class can be extended to the manifold with boundary case.

The Poincaré duality theorem relates the homology and cohomology groups of n-dimensional oriented closed manifolds: if R is a commutative ring and M is an n-dimensional R-orientable closed manifold with fundamental class [M], then for all k, the map

${\displaystyle H^{k}(M;R)\to H_{n-k}(M;R)}$ 

given by

${\displaystyle \alpha \mapsto [M]\frown \alpha }$ 

is an isomorphism.^[1]

Using the notion of fundamental class for manifolds with boundary, we can extend Poincaré duality to that case too (see Lefschetz duality). In fact, the cap product with a fundamental class gives a stronger duality result saying that we have isomorphisms ${\displaystyle H^{q}(M,A;R)\cong H_{n-q}(M,B;R)}$ , assuming we have that ${\displaystyle A,B}$  are ${\displaystyle (n-1)}$ -dimensional manifolds with ${\displaystyle \partial A=\partial B=A\cap B}$  and ${\displaystyle \partial M=A\cup B}$ .^[1]

See also Twisted Poincaré duality

In the Bruhat decomposition of the flag variety of a Lie group, the fundamental class corresponds to the top-dimension Schubert cell, or equivalently the longest element of a Coxeter group.

• Longest element of a Coxeter group
• Poincaré duality

• Hatcher, Allen (2002). Algebraic Topology (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521795401. MR 1867354.

• Fundamental class at the Manifold Atlas.
• The Encyclopedia of Mathematics article on the fundamental class.