Relationship To First Homology Group
The fundamental groups of a topological space X are related to its first singular homology group, because a loop is also a singular 1-cycle. Mapping the homotopy class of each loop at a base point x0 to the homology class of the loop gives a homomorphism from the fundamental group π1(X, x0) to the homology group H1(X). If X is path-connected, then this homomorphism is surjective and its kernel is the commutator subgroup of π1(X, x0), and H1(X) is therefore isomorphic to the abelianization of π1(X, x0). This is a special case of the Hurewicz theorem of algebraic topology.
Read more about this topic: Fundamental Group
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