Characteristic classes associated to Q-bundles

Introduction. In this series of papers we will discuss homotopy invariants of differentiable maps f: M -? N in various situations within the framework of differential geometry. We shall be particularly interested in the case where f is an immersion. Our principle is simple. We use the fact that the pullbackf*W of c is a differentiable homotopy invariant where w is an arbitrary cohomology class always over the real number field, R. We note if F= M x I -1 N is a differentiable map with f=f, thenf*w belongs to the same cohomology class asfJ*w where I is the interval [0, 1] and ft is defined by ft(x)=F(x, t), x E M, t EI L There are many known examples beside various characteristic classes. To quote a few of them, letf be an immersion of the two-torus T2 into the complement of the diagonal set of the six dimensional euclidean space R6 considered as R3 x R3; f: T2 R3 x R3 A, where A is the diagonal set. The space R3 x R 3A is diffeomorphic with R4 x S2 where S2 is the two-sphere. Thus, if a) denotes the volume element of 52, a becomes a 2-dimensional cohomology class of R4 x S2 by pulling back with the projection onto S2 and gives us a homotopy invariantf*co. Consider T2 interpreted as the direct product S1 x S 1 of circles andf as the pair of two closed curves ci: SI --> R3 without intersection. Then f *w is nothing but the linking number of two closed -curves cl and c2 (up to a universal constant multiple) according to Gauss [8]. Another (but somewhat more extraneous) example, due to J. H. C. Whitehead [12], is the Hopf invariant, H(f), for a differentiable map f: S2n-1 _? Sn. Again, denoting the volume element of the n-sphere Sn by c, H(f) is given by the closed form 0 Af*w where 0 is any (n l)-form with dO =f*U. In this paperf will be an isometric immersion of a compact oriented Riemannian manifold M into a euclidean space Rn + v. Since the cohomology groups of N=Rn + v are then trivial, our principle does not apply tof directly, but we construct a manifold B from M and replace f by a certain map fB: M -? B. To do this, let us recall Hirsch's theorem [5] to the effect that the regular homotopy classes of the immersionsf: M -? Nofany manifold Minto another manifold N with dim N> dim M are in a one-to-one correspondence with the homotopy classes of the crosssections fB: M -->B of a certain bundle B over M, where a regular homotopy F= M x I -* N means one for which each ft is an immersion. Despite the triviality of the cohomology groups of N= Rn+ v in the case above, we can expect to obtain homotopy invariants fB*0 corresponding to a cohomology class 0 of B. In ?4, we

We study generalizations of the Berry phase for quantum lattice systems in arbitrary dimensions. For a smooth family of gapped ground states in d dimensions, we define a closed d + 2-form on the parameter space, which generalizes the curvature of the Berry connection. Its cohomology class is a topological invariant of the family. When the family is equivariant under the action of a compact Lie group G, topological invariants take values in the equivariant cohomology of the parameter space. These invariants unify and generalize the Hall conductance and the Thouless pump. A key role in these constructions is played by a certain differential graded Fréchet–Lie algebra attached to any quantum lattice system. As a by-product, we describe ambiguities in charge densities and conserved currents for arbitrary lattice systems with rapidly decaying interactions.

In this paper we construct Stiefel-Whitney and Euler classes in Chow cohomology for algebraic vector bundles with nondegenerate quadratic form. These classes are not in the algebra generated by the Chern classes of such bundles and are new characteristic classes in algebraic geometry. On complex varieties, they correspond to classes with the same name pulled back from the cohomology of the classifying space BSO(N,C). The classes we construct are the only new characteristic classes in algebraic geometry coming from the classical groups ([T2], [EG]). We begin by using the geometry of quadric bundles to study Chern classes of maximal isotropic subbundles. If V → X is a vector bundle with quadratic form, and if E and F are maximal isotropic subbundles of V then we prove (Theorem 1) that ci(E) and ci(F ) are equal mod 2. Moreover, if the rank of V is 2n, then cn(E) = ±cn(F ), proving a conjecture of Fulton. We define Stiefel-Whitney and Euler classes as Chow cohomology classes which pull back to Chern classes of maximal isotropic subbundles of the pullback bundle. Using the above theorem we show (Theorem 2) that these classes exist and are unique, even though V need not have a maximal isotropic subbundle. These constructions also make it possible to give “Schubert” presentations,

We relate the existence of Noether global conserved currents associated with locally variational field equations to the existence of global solutions for a local variational problem generating global equations. Both can be characterized as the vanishing of certain cohomology classes. In the case of a 3-dimensional Chern–Simons gauge theory, the variationally featured cohomological obstruction to the existence of global solutions is sharp and equivalent to the usual obstruction in terms of the Chern characteristic class for the flatness of a principal connection. We suggest a parallelism between the geometric interpretation of characteristic classes as obstruction to the existence of flat principal connections and the interpretation of certain de Rham cohomology classes to be the obstruction to the existence of global extremals for a local variational principle.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the linear independence of certain cohomology classes in the Haefliger classifying space BF(q, , q2) for subfoliations of codimension (q1, q2). The classes considered are of secondary type, not belonging to the subalgebra of H(B1T(q, q2), R) generated by the union of the universal characteristic classes for foliations of codimension q1 and q2 respectively, and are elements of the kernel of the canonical homomorphism H(BF(q ,q2), R) H(BFqj x B1d, R) with d = q2q > 0.

We present a number of findings concerning groupoid dynamical systems and groupoid crossed products. The primary result is an identification of the spectrum of the groupoid crossed product when the groupoid has continuously varying abelian stabilizers and a well behaved orbit space. In this case, the spectrum of the crossed product is homeomorphic, via an induction map, to a quotient of the spectrum of the crossed product by the stabilizer group bundle. The main theorem is also generalized in the groupoid algebra case to an identification of the primitive ideal space. This generalization replaces the assumption that the orbit space is well behaved with an amenability hypothesis. We then use induction to show that the primitive ideal space of the groupoid algebra is homeomorphic to a quotient of the dual of the stabilizer group bundle. In both cases the identification is topological. We then apply these theorems in a number of examples, and examine when a groupoid algebra has Hausdorff spectrum. As a separate result, we also develop a theory of principal groupoid group bundles and locally unitary groupoid actions. We prove that such actions are characterized, up to exterior equivalence, by a cohomology class which arises from a principal bundle. Furthermore, we also demonstrate how to construct a locally unitary action from a given principal bundle. This last result uses a duality theorem for abelian group bundles which is also included as part of this thesis.

This note is dedicated to the second author’s teacher, Professor Atsuo Komatsu, in celebration of his seventieth birthday.It is well known [4], [7] that the theory of characteristic classes in general cohomology is essentially based upon one theorem, the Leray-Hirsch Theorem. We further claim [8] that the entire theory could be developed merely from the Künneth Formula if under suitable conditions a truly relative version of the Meyer-Vietoris sequence exists in the general cohomology theory. In his lectures delivered at Aarhus in 1968, Dold [6] set up the necessary machinery including the Leray-Hirsch Theorem to define Chern Classes with values in general cohomology. However, he then stated [6, p. 47] that he “found a difficulty here in choosing adequate orientations (Thorn Classes) for the bundles involved”, and proceeded differently, discarding the “classical” approach used in both ordinary cohomology [9] and K-theory [3]. Later, he [7] published a more categorical work, although the approach to Chern Classes was basically unchanged from his previous work. Consequently, the possibility of the classical direct approach to the theory has remained open.

We consider the rational dynamical quantum group [Formula: see text] and introduce an [Formula: see text]-module structure on [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the equivariant cohomology algebra [Formula: see text] of the cotangent bundle of the Grassmannian [Formula: see text] with coefficients extended by a suitable ring of rational functions in an additional variable [Formula: see text]. We consider the dynamical Gelfand–Zetlin algebra which is a commutative algebra of difference operators in [Formula: see text]. We show that the action of the Gelfand–Zetlin algebra on [Formula: see text] is the natural action of the algebra [Formula: see text] on [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the shift operator. The [Formula: see text]-module structure on [Formula: see text] is introduced with the help of dynamical stable envelope maps which are dynamical analogs of the stable envelope maps introduced by Maulik and Okounkov [Quantum Groups and quantum cohomology, preprint (2012) 1–276, arXiv:1211.1287]. The dynamical stable envelope maps are defined in terms of the rational dynamical weight functions introduced in [G. Felder, V. Tarasov and A. Varchenko, Solutions of the elliptic QKZB equations and Bethe ansatz I, in Topics in Singularity Theory V. I. Arnold’s 60th Anniversary Collection, Advances in the Mathematical Sciences, AMS Translations, Series 2, Vol. 180 (AMS, 1997), pp. 45–76.] to construct q-hypergeometric solutions of rational qKZB equations. The cohomology classes in [Formula: see text] induced by the weight functions are dynamical variants of Chern–Schwartz–MacPherson classes of Schubert cells.

We present a complete classification, at the classical level, of the observables of topological Yang-Mills theories with an extended shift supersymmetry of N generators, in any space-time dimension. The observables are defined as the Yang-Mills BRST cohomology classes of shift supersymmetry invariants. These cohomology classes turn out to be solutions of an N-extension of Witten's equivariant cohomology. This work generalizes results known in the case of shift supersymmetry with a single generator.

Equivariant characteristic forms on the bundle of connections

Transitive local Lie algebras of vector fields can be easily constructed from dilations of $\mathbb{R}^n$ associating with coordinates positive weights (give me a sequence of $n$ positive integers and I will give you a transitive nilpotent Lie algebra of vector fields on $\mathbb{R}^n$). It is interesting that all transitive nilpotent local Lie algebra of vector fields can be obtained as subalgebras of nilpotent algebras of this kind. Starting with a graded nilpotent Lie algebra one constructs graded parts of its Tanaka prolongations inductively as `derivations of degree 0, 1, etc. Of course, vector fields of weight $k$ with respect to the dilation define automatically derivations of weight $k$, so the Tanaka prolongation is in this case never finite. Are they all such derivations given by vector fields or there are additional `strange'ones? We answer this question. Except for special cases, derivations of degree 0 are given by vector fields of degree 0 and the Tanaka prolongation recovers the whole algebra of polynomial vectors defined by the dilation. However, in some particular cases of dilations we can find `strange' derivations which we describe in detail

Let k be an algebraic number field (of finite degree) and K/k be a (finite) Galois extension with Galois group R. In connection with the class field theory, Weil [101 derived a certain canonical factor set a(o, r) of 9 in the idele-class group (K of K, which is uniquely determined by K/k in the sense of equivalence. For instance, a (mod R') -?f t r(o, A) (Ek k, essentially) (mod NK/k( RK)) is the Artin reciprocity law isomoprhism of 9/9' and Sk/NK/k( SK), where 9' is the commutator subgroup of R. A different approach to this (idele-class) factor set was given in [6]. Let, for each pair o, r, a(o, r) be a representative idele of a(o, r). Then (3a)(p, o, r) = a(o, r)a(po, r)-'a(p, o-r)a(p, oY)is, for each triple p, a, r, a principal idele, i.e. a non-zero element of K. We obtain thus a 3-cochain a(p, a, r) = (6a)(p, a, r) of 9 in the principal idele group PK of K, which is in fact a 3-cocycle. We saw, in [6], that this 3-cycocle a, or more precisely its cohomology class, attached in invariant fashion to the Galois extension K/k, has the order m/m', where m = (K: k) and m' is the least common multiple of the p-degrees of K/k, p running over all primes in k. It was shown further, in a joint paper [4] by Hochschild and the writer, that the cyclic group, of order m/m', generated by this 3-cohomology class is exactly the group of all 3-cohomology classes of 9 in PK with ceiling. This last group is in turn, according to EilenbergMacLane [1], nothing but the group of all Teichmtiller 3-cohomology classes for K/k, belonging to central simple algebras over K to which every element of ft can be extended (as automorphism). Now arises the problem to determine the exact algebra-class (though not unique) which possesses our a, attached to K/k, as its Teichmiiller-class. The present work is devoted to this problem and our solution is given in our Theorem in ?3. If a central simple algebra A over K, to which every automorphism of K/k can be extended, is given in a crossed-product form for instance, we can obtain its Teichmiiller-cocycle in a more or less explicit process involving the HilbertSpeiser theorem. On the other hand, in order to obtain our 3-cocycle a, we repeat the construction of the canonical idele-class factor set a given in [6], which is nothing but the global analogy of the local construction in Hochschild [3]1 and makes use of the idele interpretation of the principal genus theorem of Noether, but with more detailed analysis. Namely, we carry out all the processes in terms of ideles, rather than of idele-classes, preserving thus all principal idele factors which were discarded in [6]. This construction, involving the theorem of everywhere splitting algebras, the Hilbert-Speiser theorem and its idble analogy, leads to a. Though fairly explicit, these constructions of a and the Teichmfiller-

We analyse in detail the language of partially non-abelian Deligne cohomology and of twisted differential K-theory, in order to describe the geometry of type II superstring backgrounds with D-branes. This description will also provide the opportunity to show some mathematical results of independent interest. In particular, we begin classifying the possible gauge theories on a D-brane or on a stack of D-branes using the intrinsic tool of long exact sequences. Afterwards, we recall how to construct two relevant models of differential twisted K-theory, paying particular attention to the dependence on the twisting cocycle within its cohomology class. In this way we will be able to define twisted K-homology and twisted Cheeger-Simons K-characters in the category of simply-connected manifolds, eliminating any unnatural dependence on the cocycle. The ambiguity left for non simply-connected manifolds will naturally correspond to the ambiguity in the gauge theory, following the previous classification. This picture will allow for a complete characterization of D-brane world-volumes, the Wess-Zumino action and topological D-brane charges within the K-theoretical framework, that can be compared step by step to the old cohomological classification. This has already been done for backgrounds with vanishing B-field; here we remove this hypothesis.

We make explicit computations in the formal symplectic geometry of Kontsevich and determine the Euler characteristics of the three cases, namely commutative, Lie and associative ones, up to certain weights. From these, we obtain some non-triviality results in each case. In particular, we determine the integral Euler characteristics of the outer automorphism groups \mathrm{Out}\, F_n of free groups for all n\leq 10 and prove the existence of plenty of rational cohomology classes of odd degrees. We also clarify the relationship of the commutative graph homology with finite type invariants of homology 3-spheres as well as the leaf cohomology classes for transversely symplectic foliations. Furthermore we prove the existence of several new non-trivalent graph homology classes of odd degrees. Based on these computations, we propose a few conjectures and problems on the graph homology and the characteristic classes of the moduli spaces of graphs as well as curves.

Introduction. In the theory of differentiable fibre bundles, with a Lie group as structure group, the notion of a connection plays an important role. In this paper we shall consider complex analytic connections in complex analytic fibre bundles. The situation is then radically different from that in the differentiable case. In the differentiable case connections always exist, but may not be integrable; in the complex analytic case connections may not exist at all. In both cases we are led therefore to certain obstructions, an obstruction to the integrability of a connection in the differentiable case, an obstruction to the existence of a connection in the complex analytic case. It is a basic theorem that, if the structure group is compact, the obstruction in the differentiable case (the curvature) generates the characteristic cohomology ring of the bundle (with real coefficients). What we shall show is that, in a large class of important cases, the obstruction in the complex analytic case also generates the characteristic cohomology ring. Using this fact we can then give a purely cohomological definition of the characteristic ring. This has a number of advantages over the differentiable approach: in the first place the definition is a canonical one, not depending on an arbitrary choice of connection; secondly we remain throughout in the complex analytic domain, our characteristic classes being expressed as elements of cohomology groups with coefficients in certain analytic sheaves; finally the procedure can be carried through without change for algebraic fibre bundles. The ideas outlined above are developed in considerable detail, and they are applied in particular to a problem first studied by Weil [17], namely the problem of characterizing those fibre bundles which arise from a representation of the fundamental group. We show how Weil's main result fits into the general picture, and we discuss various aspects of the problem. As no complete exposition of the theory of complex analytic fibre bundles has as yet been published, this paper should start with a basic exposition of this nature. However this would be a major undertaking in itself, and instead we shall simply summarize in ?1 the terminology and results on vector bundles which we require, and for the rest we refer to Grothendieck [8], Serre [12], and Hirzebruch [9].