What is "algebraic topology"

n. That branch of topology that associates objects from abstract algebra to topological spaces.

Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify up to homotopy equivalence.

Although algebraic topology primarily uses algebra to study topological problems, using topology to solve algebraic problems is sometimes also possible. Algebraic topology, for example, allows for a convenient proof that any subgroup of a free group is again a free group.

In mathematics, the algebraic topology on the set of group representations from G to a topological group H is the topology of pointwise convergence, i.e. p converges to p if the limit of p(g) = p(g) for every g in G.

This terminology is often used in the case of the algebraic topology on the set of discrete, faithful representations of a Kleinian group into PSL(2,C). Another topology, the geometric topology (also called the Chabauty topology), can be put on the set of images of the representations, and its closure can include extra Kleinian groups that are not images of points in the closure in the algebraic topology. This fundamental distinction is behind the phenomenon of hyperbolic Dehn surgery and plays an important role in the general theory of hyperbolic 3-manifolds.