Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 3 / 20G / Solution

Write a point of the band $X$ as $(u,t)$ with $u\in S^2$, $|t|\le 1/2$, after rescaling the radius of the first three coordinates. The antipodal identification isThe homotopy $(u,t)\mapsto (u,(1-s)t)$ is equivariant under this identification, so it descends to a deformation retraction of $Y$ onto the central sliceThusThe two boundary spheres of $X$ are exchanged by the antipodal map, so $\partial Y\cong S^2$. This is the mapping-cylinder model of punctured real projective three-space.

The standard cellular chain complex for ${\mathbb{RP}}^3$, with one cell in each dimension zero through three, has boundary maps alternating between multiplication by two and zero:Therefore the integral homology of real projective three-space isIn particular,

Apply the Mayer-Vietoris theorem toThe relevant pieces of the long exact sequence areandThe last map is injective, so

Since $\partial Y\cong S^2$ is simply connected and ${\pi }_1(Y)\cong {\pi }_1({\mathbb{RP}}^2)\cong \mathbb{Z}/2$, the Seifert-van Kampen theorem givesthe infinite dihedral group. Topologically, $Z$ is the double of punctured real projective three-space, namely ${\mathbb{RP}}^3\#{\mathbb{RP}}^3$.

The universal cover of each copy of $Y$ is $S^3$ with two disjoint open balls removed, homeomorphic to $S^2\times [0,1]$. The universal cover of the double strings infinitely many such cylinders together according to the Cayley line of $D_{\infty }$. Hence the familiar covering space is

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.