In this paper we study cobordism categories consisting of manifolds which are endowed with geometric structure. Examples of such geometric structures include symplectic structures, flat connections on principal bundles, and complex structures along with a holomorphic map to a target complex manifold. A general notion of "geometric structure" is defined using sheaf theoretic constructions. Our main theorem is the identification of the homotopy type of such cobordism categories in terms of certain Thom spectra. This extends work of Galatius-Madsen-Tillmann-Weiss who identify the homotopy type of cobordism categories of manifolds with fiberwise structures on their tangent bundles. Interpretations of the main theorem are discussed which have relevance to topological field theories, moduli spaces of geometric structures, and h-principles. Applications of the main theorem to various examples of interest in geometry, particularly holomorphic curves, are elaborated upon.
We prove an h-principle with boundary condition for a certain class of topological spaces valued sheaves. The techniques used in the proof come from the study of the homotopy type of the cobordism categories, and they are of simplicial and categorical nature. Applying the main result of this paper to a certain sheaf we find another proof of the Madsen-Weiss theorem, that describes the homotopy type of the classifying space of the cobordism category as the loop space of the Thom space of the complement of the tautological bundle over the Grassmannians.
The sequence 2,5,15,51,187,... with the form $(2^n+1)(2^{n-1}+1)/3$ has two interpretations in terms of the density of a language with four letters and the cardinality of the quotient of $\ZZ_2^n\times \ZZ_2^n$ under the action of the special linear group $\op{SL}(2,\ZZ)$. The last interpretation follows the rank of the fundamental group of the $\ZZ_2^n$-cobordism category in dimension 1+1. This article presents how to pass from one side to another between these two approaches.
Recently Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann and Weiss identified the homotopy type of the classifying space of the cobordism category of embedded d-dimensional manifolds [7] for each positive integer d. Their result lead to a new proof of the generalized standard Mumford conjecture. We extend the main theorem of [7] to the case of cobordism categories of embedded d-dimensional manifolds with prescribed singularities, and explain the relation of singular cobordism categories to the bordism version of the Gromov h-principle.
Let $\mathcal{A}_{g,d}$ be the (topological) cobordism category of orientable surfaces whose connected components are homeomorphic to either $S^1 \times I$ with one incoming and one outgoing boundary component or the surface $Σ_{g,d}$ of genus $g$ and $d$ boundary components that are all incoming. In this paper, we study the homotopy type of the classifying space of the cobordism categories $\mathcal{A}_{g,d}$ and the associated (ordinary) cobordism categories of their connected components $\mathbb{A}_d$. $\mathcal{A}_{0,2}$ is the cobordism category of complex annuli that was considered by Co…
We prove that the stable moduli space of $(n-1)$-connected, $n$-parallelizable, $(2n+1)$-dimensional manifolds is homology equivalent to an infinite loopspace for $n \geq 4, n \neq 7$. The main novel ingredient is a version of the cobordism category incorporating surgery data in the form of Lagrangian subspaces.
We define parametrized cobordism categories and study their formal properties as bivariant theories. Bivariant transformations to a strongly excisive bivariant theory give rise to characteristic classes of smooth bundles with strong additivity properties. In the case of cobordisms between manifolds with boundary, we prove that such a bivariant transformation is uniquely determined by its value at the universal disk bundle. This description of bivariant transformations yields a short proof of the Dwyer-Weiss-Williams family index theorem for the parametrized A-theory Euler characteristic of a s…
Cobordism categories have played an important role in classical geometry and more recently in mathematical treatments of quantum field theory. Here we will compute localisations of two-dimensional discrete cobordism categories. This allows us, up to equivalence, to determine the category of invertible two-dimensional topological field theories in the sense of Atiyah. We are able to treat the orientable, non-orientable, closed and open cases.
In this paper we introduce the models for $(\infty, n)$-categories which have been developed to date, as well as the comparisons between them that are known and conjectured. We review the role of $(\infty, n)$-categories in the proof of the Cobordism Hypothesis.
The classifying space of the embedded cobordism category has been identified in by Galatius, Tillmann, Madsen, and Weiss as the infinite loop space of a certain Thom spectrum. This identifies the set of path components with the classical cobordism group. In this paper, we give a geometric interpretation of the higher homotopy groups as certain cobordism groups where all manifolds are now equipped with a set of orthonormal sections in the tangent bundle. We also give a description of the fundamental group as a free group with a set of geometrically intuitive relations.
The Madsen-Tillmann spectra defined by categories of three- and four-dimensional Spin manifolds have a very rich algebraic structure, whose surface is scratched here.
The circle transfer $QΣ(LX_{hS^1})_+ \to QLX_+$ has appeared in several contexts in topology. In this note we observe that this map admits a geometric re-interpretation as a morphism of cobordism categories of 0-manifolds and 1-cobordisms. Let $C_1(X)$ denote the 1-dimensional cobordism category and let $Circ(X) \subset C_1(X)$ denote the subcategory whose objects are disjoint unions of unparametrised circles in $\mathbb{R}^\infty$. Multiplication in $S^1$ induces a functor $Circ(X) \to Circ(LX)$, and the composition of this functor with the inclusion of $Circ(LX)$ into $C_1(LX)$ is homotopic …
For a given list of closed manifolds $Σ_k=(P_1,...,P_k)$, we construct a cobordism category $\mathbf{Cob}_{d}^{Σ_{k}}$ of embedded manifolds with Baas-Sullivan singularities of type $Σ_k$. Our main results identify the homotopy type of the classifying spaces $B\mathbf{Cob}_{d}^{Σ_{k}}$ of these cobordism categories with that of the infinite loop-space of a certain spectrum, $\mathsf{MT}_{Σ_{k}}(d)$. Our results generalize of the work of Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann, and Weiss from arXiv:math/0605249. It also generalizes the work of Genauer on the cobordism categories of manifolds with corners fr…
Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann and Weiss have identified the homotopy type of the classifying space of the cobordism category with objects (d-1)-dimensional manifolds embedded in R^\infty. In this paper we apply the techniques of spaces of manifolds, as developed by the author and Galatius, to identify the homotopy type of the cobordism category with objects (d-1)-dimensional submanifolds of a fixed background manifold M. There is a description in terms of a space of sections of a bundle over M associated to its tangent bundle. This can be interpreted as a form of Poincare duality, relating a spac…
On Fredholm Index, Transversal Approximations and Quillen's Geometric Complex Cobordism of Hilbert Manifolds with some Applications to Flag Varieties of Loop Groups
In this paper, we introduce geometric technique of working with skew-framed manifolds. It allows us to study stable homotopy groups of some Thom spaces by geometric means. We schematically describe how our results (which are also of independent interest) can be applied to obtain a proof of the Baum-Browder theorem stating non-immersibility of $\RP^{10}$ to $\R^{15}$.
We develop a theory of parametrized geometric cobordism by introducing smooth Thom stacks. This requires identifying and constructing a smooth representative of the Thom functor acting on vector bundles equipped with extra geometric data, leading to a geometric refinement of the the Pontrjagin-Thom construction in stacks. We demonstrate that the resulting theory generalizes the parametrized cobordism of Galatius-Madsen-Tillman-Weiss. The theory has the feature of being both versatile and general, allowing for the inclusion of families of various geometric data, such as metrics on manifolds and…
We compute the geometric part of algebraic cobordism over Dedekind domains of mixed characteristic after inverting the positive residue characteristics and prove cases of a Conjecture of Voevodsky relating this geometric part to the Lazard ring for regular local bases. The method is by analyzing the slice tower of algebraic cobordism, relying on the Hopkins-Morel isomorphism from the quotient of the algebraic cobordism spectrum by the generators of the Lazard ring to the motivic Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum, again after inverting the positive residue characteristics.
Fix a tangential structure $θ: B \longrightarrow BO(d+1)$ and an integer $k < d/2$. In this paper we determine the homotopy type of a cobordism category $\mathbf{Cob}^{\text{mf}, k}_θ$, where morphisms are given by $θ$-cobordisms $W: P \rightsquigarrow Q$ equipped with a choice of proper Morse function $h_{W}: W \longrightarrow [0, 1]$, with the property that all critical points $c \in W$ of $h_{W}$ satisfy the condition: $k < \text{index}(c) < d-k+1$. In particular, we prove that there is a weak homotopy equivalence $B\mathbf{Cob}^{\text{mf}, k}_θ \simeqΩ^{\infty}\mathbf{hW}^{k}_θ$, where $\m…
Framed flow categories were introduced by Cohen-Jones-Segal as a way of encoding the flow data associated to a Floer functional. A framed flow category gives rise to a CW-complex with one cell for each object of the category. The idea is that the Floer invariant should take the form of the stable homotopy type of the resulting complex, recovering the Floer cohomology as its singular cohomology. Such a framed flow category was produced, for example, by Lipshitz-Sarkar from the input of a knot diagram, resulting in a stable homotopy type generalizing Khovanov cohomology. In this paper we give mo…
This posting is INVALID and has been WITHDRAWN. Please see N. Kitchloo and JM, Spin cobordism categories in low dimensions, arXiv:0908.3114, for a replacement and revision.
We calculate the cobordism ring $Ω^{C_2}_*$ of stably almost complex manifolds with involution, and investigate the $C_2$-spectrum $Ω_{C_2}$ which represents it. We introduce the notion of a geometrically oriented $C_2$-spectrum, which extends the notion of a complex oriented $C_2$-spectrum, and of which $Ω_{C_2}$ is the universal example. Examples, in addition to $Ω_{C_2}$, include the Eilenberg-Maclane spectrum $H \underline{\mathbb{Z}}_{C_2}$ and the connective cover $k_{C_2}$ of $C_2$-equivariant $K$-theory. On the algebraic side, we define and study filtered $C_2$-equivariant formal group…
For a fixed closed manifold $P$, we construct a cobordism category of embedded manifolds with a single Baas-Sullivan singularity of type $P$. Our main theorem identifies the homotopy type of the classifying space of this cobordism category with that of the infinite loop-space of a certain spectrum related to the spectrum $\text{MT}(d)$ introduced in [arXiv:math/0605249]. We obtain an analogue of the Bockstein-Sullivan exact couple that arises between the classical bordism theories $MO$ and $MO_{P}$ on the level of cobordism categories.
We prove a generalization of the cobordism hypothesis of Baez--Dolan and Hopkins--Lurie for bordisms with arbitrary geometric structures, such as Riemannian metrics, complex and symplectic structures, principal bundles with connections, or geometric string structures. Our methods rely on the locality property for fully extended functorial field theories established in arXiv:2011.01208, reducing the problem to the special case of geometrically framed bordism categories. As an application, we upgrade the classification of invertible fully extended topological field theories by Bökstedt--Madsen a…
By the classical result of Milnor and Novikov, the unitary cobordism ring is isomorphic to a graded polynomial ring with countably many generators: $Ω^U_*\simeq \mathbb Z[a_1,a_2,\dots]$, ${\rm deg}(a_i)=2i$. In this paper we solve a well-known problem of constructing geometric representatives for $a_i$ among smooth projective toric varieties, $a_n=[X^{n}], \dim_\mathbb C X^{n}=n$. Our proof uses a family of equivariant modifications (birational isomorphisms) $B_k(X)\to X$ of an arbitrary smooth complex manifold $X$ of (complex) dimension $n$ ($n\geq 2$, $k=0,\dots,n-2$). The key fact is that …
Inspired by Lurie's theory of quasi-unital algebras we prove an analogous result for $\infty$-categories. In particular, we show that the unital structure of an $\infty$-category can be uniquely recovered from the underlying non-unital structure once suitable candidates for units have been identified. The main result of this paper can be used to produce a proof for the 1-dimensional cobordism hypothesis, as described in a forthcoming paper.
We construct a map from the suspension $G$-spectrum $Σ_G^\infty M$ of a smooth compact $G$-manifold to the equivariant $A$-theory spectrum $A_G(M)$, and we show that its fiber is, on fixed points, a wedge of stable $h$-cobordism spectra. This map is constructed as a map of spectral Mackey functors, which is compatible with tom Dieck style splitting formulas on fixed points. In order to synthesize different definitions of the suspension $G$-spectrum as a spectral Mackey functor, we present a new perspective on spectral Mackey functors, viewing them as multifunctors on indexing categories for "r…
Four lectures on invertible field theories at the Park City Mathematics Institute 2019. Cobordism categories are introduced both as plain categories and topologically enriched. We then discuss localization of categories and its relationship to classifying spaces, and state the main theorem of classification of invertible field theories in these terms. We also discuss symmetric monoidal structures and their relationship to actions of the little disk operads. In the final lecture we discuss an application of cobordism categories to characteristic classes of surface bundles. Emphasis will be on s…
We prove that Lagrangian cocores and Lagrangian linking disks of a stopped Weinstein manifold generate the Lagrangian cobordism infinity-category. As a geometric consequence, we see that any brane (after stabilization) admits a Lagrangian cobordism to a disjoint union of some standard collection of branes (cocores, linking disks, and a zero object). For example, when our stopped Weinstein manifold is a point stopped by itself, we find that any exact brane in Euclidean space admits a Lagrangian cobordism to a disjoint union of cotangent fibers and a zero object. (This is a stronger statement th…
We introduce an equivariant Pontrjagin-Thom construction which identifies equivariant cohomotopy classes with certain fixed point bordism classes. This provides a concrete geometric model for equivariant cohomotopy which works for any compact Lie group G. In the special case when G is finite or a torus, we show that our construction recovers the construction of Wasserman, providing a new perspective on equivariant bordism. We connect the results with bordisms of global quotient orbifolds, utilizing the machinery of Gepner-Henriques to describe bordisms of framed orbifolds in terms of equivaria…
We introduce relative noncommutative Calabi-Yau structures defined on functors of differential graded categories. Examples arise in various contexts such as topology, algebraic geometry, and representation theory. Our main result is a composition law for Calabi-Yau cospans generalizing the classical composition of cobordisms of oriented manifolds. As an application, we construct Calabi-Yau structures on topological Fukaya categories of framed punctured Riemann surfaces.
We introduce a new way to encode semicyclic structures using a stack of broken cycles. (We also prove an analogue for paracyclic structures.) This was motivated not only by higher algebra but also by Fukaya-categorical considerations. We also openly speculate about some Fukaya-categorical implications. For example, this stack sees moduli of stopped Liouville disks, and hence yields another platform for gluing together Fukaya categories. We also see that Lagrangian cobordisms with multiple ends may not only serve to detect $K_0$ groups of Fukaya categories, but higher $K$-theory groups as well.…
This paper shows that the integral equivariant cohomology Chern numbers completely determine the equivariant geometric unitary bordism classes of closed unitary $G$-manifolds, which gives an affirmative answer to the conjecture posed by Guillemin--Ginzburg--Karshon in [20, Remark H.5, $\S3$, Appendix H], where $G$ is a torus. As a further application, we also obtain a satisfactory solution of [20, Question (A), $\S1.1$, Appendix H] on unitary Hamiltonian $G$-manifolds. Our key ingredients in the proof are the universal toric genus defined by Buchstaber--Panov--Ray and the Kronecker pairing of …
Smooth and proper dg-algebras have an Euler class valued in the Hochschild homology of the algebra. This Euler class is worthy of this name since it satisfies many familiar properties including compatibility with the familiar pairing on the Hochschild homology of the algebra and that of its opposite. This compatibility is the Riemann-Roch theorems of Shklyarov and Petit. In this paper we prove a broad generalization of these Riemann-Roch theorems. We generalize from the bicategory of dg-algebras and their bimodules to monoidal bicategories and from Euler class to traces of non identity maps. O…
We show that the conditions in Steimle's 'additivity theorem for cobordism categories' can be weakened to only require \emph{locally} (co)Cartesian fibrations, making it applicable to a larger class of functors. As an application we compute the difference in classifying spaces between the infinity category of cospans of finite sets and its homotopy category.
