Category Archives: Book

About this site

Posted on December 12, 2017 by John Roe

  In 1996 I was the Ulam Visiting Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. While I was there I gave a series of graduate lectures on high-dimensional manifold theory, which I whimsically titled Surgery for Amateurs. The title was … Continue reading →

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Some TeXnicalities

Posted on September 11, 2013 by John Roe

Some of my students in Math 497C wanted me to divide my lecture notes into individual printouts, one for each lecture.  It is obviously a good idea to do that, but I had never tried it before because there is … Continue reading →

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Manifolds = Bundles + Handles

Posted on August 24, 2013 by John Roe

The slogan in the title is one that I came up with for the book (or at least I think I did, though of course I may have stolen it from somewhere that I have now forgotten).  In my opinion … Continue reading →

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Characteristic Classes

Posted on July 19, 2013 by John Roe

The next section of the book, available here, gives a very quick introduction to what the Pontrjagin classes are.  This is really just a refresher – I am sure it is too terse for someone who has never seen characteristic … Continue reading →

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What Surgery Is About: Manifolds

Posted on July 6, 2013 by John Roe

Now I’ll begin to post material from the book proper.  Here is the first section of Chapter I.  I’m going to try to post stuff in bite-size pieces like this, rather than a whole chapter at a time. Of course, … Continue reading →

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Book Preface

Posted on June 26, 2013 by John Roe

To get started, I am posting the preface to Surgery for Amateurs as I drafted it last time I wrote, in about 2005. Here is the link. Comments are welcome!  

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