Category of differential manifolds with cobordisms

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This article defines a category structure on manifolds (possibly with additional structure)
View other category structures on manifolds

Definition

The category of differential manifolds with cobordisms is defined as follows:

  • The objects of the category are differential manifolds
  • The morphisms of the category are smooth cobordisms i.e. the morphisms from M1 to M2 are the cobordisms from M1 to M2
  • Composition of morphisms is given as follows. Suppose M1M2N is a smooth cobordism from M1 to M2, and M2M3P is a smooth cobordism from M2 to M3. The cobordism from M1 to M3 is obtained by gluing N and P along the image of M2, and not changing the maps from M1 and M3 to the respective parts.

All the morphisms in this category are isomorphisms.

A related notion is the 2-category of differential manifolds with smooth maps and smooth cobordisms.