This paper examines the category C^k_{d,n} whose morphisms are d-dimensional smooth manifolds that are properly embedded in the product of a k-dimensional cube with an (d+n-k)-dimensional Euclidean space. There are k directions to compose k-dimensional cubes, so C^k_{d,n} is a (strict) k-tuple category. The geometric realization of the k-dimensional multi-nerve is the classifying space BC^k_{d,n}.
At the end of the paper we construct an infinite loop map to Waldhausens K-theory. ΩBC^1_{d,n}-> A(BO(d)), We believe that the map factors through Ω^\inftyΣ^\infty(BO(d)_+) and that the composite B{Diff}(M^d)\to A(BO(d)) is homotopic to the map considered by Dwyer, Williams and Weiss.
We study a categorical construction called the cobordism category, which associates to each Waldhausen category a simplicial category of cospans. We prove that this construction is homotopy equivalent to Waldhausen's $S_{\bullet}$-construction and therefore it defines a model for Waldhausen $K$-theory. As an example, we discuss this model for $A$-theory and show that the cobordism category of homotopy finite spaces has the homotopy type of Waldhausen's $A(*)$. We also review the canonical map from the cobordism category of manifolds to $A$-theory from this viewpoint.
Bökstedt and Madsen defined an infinite loop map from the embedded $d$-dimensional cobordism category of Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann and Weiss to the algebraic $K$-theory of $BO(d)$ in the sense of Waldhausen. The purpose of this paper is to establish two results in relation to this map. The first result is that it extends the universal parametrized $A$-theory Euler characteristic of smooth bundles with compact $d$-dimensional fibers, as defined by Dwyer, Weiss and Williams. The second result is that it actually factors through the canonical unit map $Q(BO(d)_+) \to A(BO(d))$.
We consider the topological category of $h$-cobordisms between manifolds with boundary and compare its homotopy type with the standard $h$-cobordism space of a compact smooth manifold.
In this paper, we introduce a category of graded commutative rings with certain algebraic morphisms, to investigate the cobordism category of plumbed 3-manifolds. In particular, we define a non-associative distributive algebra that gives necessary conditions for an abstract morphism between the homologies of two plumbed 3-manifolds to be realized geometrically by a cobordism. Here we also consider the homology cobordism monoid, and give a necessary condition using w-invariants for the homology 3-spheres to belong to the inertia group associated to some homology 3-spheres.
It is known by results of Dyckerhoff-Kapranov and of Gálvez--Carrillo-Kock-Tonks that the output of the Waldhausen S.-construction has a unital 2-Segal structure. Here, we prove that a certain S.-functor defines an equivalence between the category of augmented stable double categories and the category of unital 2-Segal sets. The inverse equivalence is described explicitly by a path construction. We illustrate the equivalence for the known examples of partial monoids, cobordism categories with genus constraints and graph coalgebras.
For a finite group $G$, we define an equivariant cobordism category $\mathcal{C}_d^G$. Objects of the category are $(d-1)$-dimensional closed smooth $G$-manifolds and morphisms are smooth $d$-dimensional equivariant cobordisms. We identify the homotopy type of its classifying space (i.e. geometric realization of its simplicial nerve) as the fixed points of the infinite loop space of an equivariant spectrum.
In this note we show that Waldhausen's K-theory functor from Waldhausen categories to spaces has a universal property: It is the target of the "universal global Euler characteristic", in other words, the "additivization" of the functor sending a Waldhausen category C to obj(C) . We also show that a large class of functors possesses such an additivization.
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…
There are two categorifications of the Jones polynomial: "even" discovered by M.Khovanov in 1999 and "odd" dicovered by P.Ozsvath, J.Rasmussen and Z.Szabo in 2007. The first one can be fully constructed in the category of cobordisms (strictly: in the additive closure of that category), where we can build a complex for a given tangle and show its invariance under Reidemeister moves. The even link homology is given by a monoidal functor from cobordisms into modules. However, odd link homology cannot be obtained in this way. In this paper I fill this gap. I enrich cobordisms with chronologies (pr…
Let $X$ be a simplicial set. We construct a novel adjunction between the categories of retractive spaces over $X$ and of $X_{+}$-comodules, then apply recent work on left-induced model category structures (arXiv:1401.3651v2 [math.AT],arXiv:1509.08154 [math.AT]) to establish the existence of a left proper, simplicial model category structure on the category of $X_+$-comodules, with respect to which the adjunction is a Quillen equivalence after localization with respect to some generalized homology theory. We show moreover that this model category structure stabilizes, giving rise to a model cat…
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 give an explicit point-set construction of the Dennis trace map from the $K$-theory of endomorphisms $K\mathrm{End}(\mathcal{C})$ to topological Hochschild homology $\mathrm{THH}(\mathcal{C})$ for any spectral Waldhausen category $\mathcal{C}$. We describe the necessary technical foundations, most notably a well-behaved model for the spectral category of diagrams in $\mathcal{C}$ indexed by an ordinary category via the Moore end. This is applied to define a version of Waldhausen's $S_{\bullet}$-construction for spectral Waldhausen categories, which is central to this account of the Dennis t…
In this paper we study the topology of the cobordism category of open and closed strings. This is a 2-category in which the objects are compact one-manifolds whose boundary components are labeled by an indexing set (the set of "D-branes"), the 1-morphisms are cobordisms of manifolds with boundary, and the 2-morphisms are diffeomorphisms of the surface cobordisms. Our methods and techniques are direct generalizations of those used by U. Tillmann in her study of the category of closed strings. We input the striking theorem of Madsen and Weiss regarding the topology of the stable mapping class gr…
In this paper we introduce an open-closed cobordism category with maps to a background space. We identify the classifying space of this category for certain classes of background space. The key ingredient is the homology stability of mapping class groups with twisted coefficients.
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…
We show an equivalence of infinite loop spaces between the classify- ing space of the cobordism category, with infinite loop space structure induced by taking disjoint union of manifolds, and the infinite loop space associated to the Madsen-Tillmann spectrum.
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 …
The embedded cobordism category under study in this paper generalizes the category of conformal surfaces, introduced by G. Segal in order to formalize the concept of field theories. Our main result identifies the homotopy type of the classifying space of the embedded d-dimensional cobordism category for all d. For d=2, our results lead to a new proof of the generalized Mumford conjecture, somewhat different in spirit from the original one.
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…
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.
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 show that a complete hereditary cotorsion pair $(\C,\C^\bot)$ in an exact category $\E$, together with a subcategory $\Z\subseteq\E$ containing $\C^\bot$, determines a Waldhausen category structure on the exact category $\C$, in which $\Z$ is the class of acyclic objects. This allows us to prove a new version of Quillen's Localization Theorem, relating the $K$-theory of exact categories $\A\subseteq\B$ to that of a cofiber. The novel idea in our approach is that, instead of looking for an exact quotient category that serves as the cofiber, we produce a Waldhausen category, constructed throu…
We prove that a pairing between the Fukaya category and the oo-category of Lagrangian cobordisms respects mapping cones. This is another step toward constructing a lift of Fukaya categories to the level of spectra (in the sense of stable homotopy theory). As corollaries, we show that the map in our previous work from cobordism groups to Floer cohomology lifts to the level of spectra, and one also recovers some results of Biran and Cornea for what we call "vertically collared" cobordisms.
In this extended note we give a precise definition of fully extended topological field theories à la Lurie. Using complete $n$-fold Segal spaces as a model, we construct an $(\infty,n)$-category of $n$-dimensional cobordisms, possibly with tangential structure. We endow it with a symmetric monoidal structure and show that we can recover the usual category of cobordisms $n\operatorname{Cob}$ and the cobordism bicategory $n\operatorname{Cob}^{ext}$ from it.
We define a $K$-theory for pointed right derivators and show that it agrees with Waldhausen $K$-theory in the case where the derivator arises from a good Waldhausen category. This $K$-theory is not invariant under general equivalences of derivators, but only under a stronger notion of equivalence that is defined by considering a simplicial enrichment of the category of derivators. We show that derivator $K$-theory, as originally defined, is the best approximation to Waldhausen $K$-theory by a functor that is invariant under equivalences of derivators.
Fix a suitably convex, exact symplectic manifold M. We consider the stable oo-category Lag(M) of non-compact Lagrangians whose (higher) morphisms are (higher) Lagrangian cobordisms between them. We show that this oo-category pairs with the Fukaya category Fuk(M) of compact branes. In fact, we also show that there is a subcategory of Lag(M) which pairs with the wrapped Fukaya category of M. This is a first step in a project to enrich wrapped Fukaya categories over cobordism spectra. As a corollary, we show that cobordant compact branes are equivalent in the Fukaya category. We will also mention…
For a finite group $G$, we define the $G$-cobordism category in dimension two. We show there is a one-to-one correspondence between the connected components of its classifying space and the abelianization of $G$. Also, we find an isomorphism of its fundamental group onto the direct sum $\mathbb{Z}\oplus Ω_2^{SO}(BG)$, where $Ω_2^{SO}(BG)$ is the free oriented $G$-bordism group in dimension two, and we study the classifying space of some important subcategories. We obtain the classifying space has the homotopy type of the product $G/[G,G]\times S^1\times X^G$, where $π_1(X^G)=Ω_2^{SO}(BG)$. Fin…
Nested cobordisms, Cyl-objects and Temperley-Lieb algebras
University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学）；Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹自由大学）；Providence College（普罗维登斯学院）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）；Loyola University Chicago（芝加哥洛约拉大学）；Santa Clara University（圣克拉拉大学）
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.
It is now well known that the K-theory of a Waldhausen category depends on more than just its (triangulated) homotopy category (see [Schlichting]). The purpose of this note is to show that the K-theory spectrum of a (good) Waldhausen category is completely determined by its Dwyer-Kan simplicial localization, without any additional structure. As the simplicial localization is a refined version of the homotopy category which also determines the triangulated structure, our result is a possible answer to the general question: ``To which extent $K$-theory is not an invariant of triangulated derived…
The goal of this work is to describe a categorical formalism for (Extended) Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFTs) and present them as functors from a suitable category of cobordisms with corners to a linear category, generalizing 2d open-closed TQFTs to higher dimensions. The approach is based on the notion of an n-fold category by C. Ehresmann, weakened in the spirit of monoidal categories (associators, interchangers, Mac Lane's pentagons and hexagons), in contrast with the simplicial (weak Kan and complete Segal) approach of Jacob Lurie. We show how different Topological Quantum Field T…
In this paper we study the topology of cobordism categories of manifolds with corners. Specifically, if {Cob}_{d,<k>} is the category whose objets are a fixed dimension d, with corners of codimension less than or equal to k, then we identify the homotopy type of the classifying space B{Cob}_{d,<k>} as the zero space of a homotopy colimit of certain diagram of Thom spectra. We also identify the homotopy type of the corresponding cobordism category when extra tangential structure is assumed on the manifolds. These results generalize the results of Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann and Weiss, and the pr…
A well-known question by Gromov asks whether the vanishing of the simplicial volume of oriented closed connected aspherical manifolds implies the vanishing of the Euler characteristic. We study various versions of Gromov's question and collect strategies towards affirmative answers and strategies towards negative answers to this problem. Moreover, we put Gromov's question into context with other open problems in low- and high-dimensional topology. A special emphasis is put on a comparative analysis of the additivity properties of the simplicial volume and the Euler characteristic for manifolds…
We give a new construction of the equivariant $K$-theory of group actions (cf. Barwick et al.), producing an infinite loop $G$-space for each Waldhausen category with $G$-action, for a finite group $G$. On the category $R(X)$ of retractive spaces over a $G$-space $X$, this produces an equivariant lift of Waldhausen's functor $A(X)$, and we show that the $H$-fixed points are the bivariant $A$-theory of the fibration $X_{hH}\to BH$. We then use the framework of spectral Mackey functors to produce a second equivariant refinement $A_G(X)$ whose fixed points have tom Dieck type splittings. We expec…
We show the $\TT^2$-cobordism group of the category of 4-dimensional quasitoric manifolds is generated by the $\TT^2$-cobordism classes of $\CP^2$. We construct nice oriented $\TT^2$ manifolds with boundary where the boundary is the Hirzebruch surfaces. The main tool is the theory of quasitoric manifolds.
The homotopy category of the bordism category $hBord_d$ has as objects closed oriented $(d-1)$-manifolds and as morphisms diffeomorphism classes of $d$-dimensional bordisms. Using a new fiber sequence for bordism categories, we compute the classifying space of $hBord_d$ for $d = 1$, exhibiting it as a circle bundle over $\mathbb{CP}^\infty_{-1}$. As part of our proof we construct a quotient $Bord_1^{red}$ of the cobordism category where circles are deleted. We show that this category has classifying space $Ω^{\infty-2}\mathbb{CP}^\infty_{-1}$ and moreover that, if one equips these bordisms wit…
An algebraic version of a theorem due to Quillen is proved. More precisely, for a ground field k we consider the motivic stable homotopy category SH(k) of P^1-spectra equipped with the symmetric monoidal structure described in arXiv:0709.3905v1 [math.AG]. The algebraic cobordism P^1-spectrum MGL is considered as a commutative monoid equipped with a canonical orientation. For a commutative monoid E in the category SH(k) we identify the set of monoid homomorphisms from MGL to E in the motivic stable homotopy category with the set of all orientations of E. This result was stated originally in a s…
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…
We define Homotopy quantum field theories (HQFT) as Topological quantum field theories (TQFT) for manifolds endowed with extra structure in the form of a map into some background space X. We also build the category of homotopy cobordisms HCobord(n,X) such that an HQFT is a functor from this category into a category of linear spaces. We then derive some very general properties of HCobord}(n,X), including the fact that it only depends on the (n+1)-homotopy type of X. We also prove that an HQFT with target space X and in dimension n+1 implies the existence of geometrical structures in X; in parti…
After two papers on weak cubical categories and {\it collarable} cospans, respectively, we put things together and construct a {\it weak} cubical category of cubical {\it collared} cospans of topological spaces. We also build a second structure, called a {\it quasi} cubical category, formed of arbitrary cubical cospans concatenated by homotopy pushouts. This structure, simpler but weaker, has {\it lax} identities. It contains a similar framework for cobordisms of manifolds with corners and could therefore be the basis to extend the study of TQFT's of Part II to higher cubical degree.
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.
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 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.
We study a special sort of 2-dimensional extended Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFTs) which we call open-closed TQFTs. These are defined on open-closed cobordisms by which we mean smooth compact oriented 2-manifolds with corners that have a particular global structure in order to model the smooth topology of open and closed string worldsheets. We show that the category of open-closed TQFTs is equivalent to the category of knowledgeable Frobenius algebras. A knowledgeable Frobenius algebra (A,C,i,i^*) consists of a symmetric Frobenius algebra A, a commutative Frobenius algebra C, and an …
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.
This paper contains a construction of generators and partial relations for $K_1$ of a simplicial Waldhausen category where cofiber sequences split up to weak equivalence. The main application of these generators and relations is to produce generators for $K_1$ of a (simplicial) assembler.
In this paper we identify the ``nil-terms'' for Waldhausen's algebraic K-theory of spaces functor as the reduced K-theory of a category of equivariant spaces equipped with a homotopically nilpotent endomorphism.
