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 with a map to a simply connected space $X$, the resulting $Bord_1^{red}(X)$ can be thought of as a cobordism model for the topological cyclic homology $TC(\mathbb{S}[ΩX])$.
In the second part of the paper we construct an infinite loop space map $B(hBord_1^{red}) \to Q(Σ^2 \mathbb{CP}^\infty_+)$ in this model and use it to derive combinatorial formulas for rational cocycles on $Bord_1^{red}$ representing the Miller-Morita-Mumford classes $κ_i \in H^{2i+2}((B(hBord_1); \mathbb{Q})$.
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…
This note proves that, for $F = \Bbb{R,C}$ or $\Bbb{H}$, the bordism classes of all non-bounding Grassmannian manifolds $G_k(F^{n+k})$, with $k < n$ and having real dimension $d$, constitute a linearly independent set in the unoriented bordism group ${\frak{N}}_d$ regarded as a ${\Bbb{Z}}_2$-vector space.
In this article we study the bordism groups of normally nonsingular maps $f: X \to Y$ defined on pseudomanifolds $X$ and $Y$. To characterize the bordism of such maps, inspired by the formula given by Stong, we give a general definition of Stiefel-Whitney numbers defined on $X$ and $Y$ using the Wu classes defined by Goresky and Pardon and we show that in several cases the cobordism class of a normally nonsingular map $f:X \to Y$ guarantees that these numbers are zero.
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.
In this work we investigate the Swampland Cobordism Conjecture in the context of type IIB string theory geometries with non-trivial duality bundle. Quite remarkably, we find that many non-trivial bordism classes with duality bundles in Mp$(2,\mathbb{Z})$, a double cover of SL$(2,\mathbb{Z})$ related to fermions, correspond to asymptotic boundaries of well-known supersymmetric F-theory backgrounds. These include $[p,q]$-7-branes, non-Higgsable clusters, S-folds, as well as various lower-dimensional generalizations. These string theoretic objects break the global symmetries associated to the non…
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…
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 …
In this manuscript, we consider cobordism operations in the $2$-dimensional labeled open-closed topological quantum field theory for the classifying space of a connected compact Lie group in the sense of Guldberg. In particular, it is proved that the whistle cobordism operation is non-trivial in general provided the labels are in the set of maximal closed subgroups of the given Lie group. The non-triviality of cobordism operations induced by gluing the whistle with the opposite and other labeled cobordisms is also discussed.
We explicitly construct an SO(2)-action on a skeletal version of the 2-dimensional framed bordism bicategory. By the 2-dimensional Cobordism Hypothesis for framed manifolds, we obtain an SO(2)-action on the core of fully-dualizable objects of the target bicategory. This action is shown to coincide with the one given by the Serre automorphism. We give an explicit description of the bicategory of homotopy fixed points of this action, and discuss its relation to the classification of oriented 2d topological quantum field theories.
We define algebraic cobordism of classifying spaces, Ω^*(BG) and G-equivariant algebraic cobordism Ω^*_G(-) for a linear algebraic group G. We prove some properties of the coniveau filtration on algebraic cobordism, denoted F^j(Ω^*(-)), which are required for the definition to work. We show that G-equivariant cobordism satisfies the localization exact sequence. We calculate Ω^*(BG) for algebraic groups over the complex numbers corresponding to classical Lie groups GL(n), SL(n), Sp(n), O(n) and SO(2n+1). We also calculate Ω^*(BG) when G is a finite abelian group. A finite non-abelian group for …
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…
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 obtain complete geometric invariants of cobordism classes of oriented simple fold maps of (n+1)-dimensional manifolds into an n-dimensional manifold N in terms of immersions with prescribed normal bundles. We compute that this cobordism group of simple fold maps is isomorphic to the direct sum of the (n-1)th stable homotopy group of spheres and the (n-1)th stable homotopy group of the infinite dimensional projective space. By using geometric invariants defined in the author's earlier works, we also describe the natural map of the simple fold cobordism group to the fold cobordism group by na…
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.
For a 2-category 2C we associate a notion of a principal 2C-bundle. In case of the 2-category of 2-vector spaces in the sense of M.M. Kapranov and V.A. Voevodsky this gives the the 2-vector bundles of N.A. Baas, B.I. Dundas and J. Rognes. Our main result says that the geometric nerve of a good 2-category is a classifying space for the associated principal 2-bundles. In the process of proving this we develop a lot of powerful machinery which may be useful in further studies of 2-categorical topology. As a corollary we get a new proof of the classification of principal bundles. A calculation bas…
We prove a conjecture due to M. Kazarian, connecting two classifying spaces in singularity theory. These spaces are: - Kazarian's space (generalizing Vassiliev's algebraic complex and) showing which cohomology classes are represented by singularity strata. - Author's space $X_τ$ giving homotopy representation of cobordisms of singular maps with a given list of allowed singularities \cite{R--Sz}. As a consequence we obtain the ranks of cobordism groups of singular maps with a given list of allowed singularities, and also their $p$-torsion parts for big primes $p.$ Further we give complete answe…
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.
We calculate the ku-homology of the groups Z/p^n X Z/p and Z/p^2 X Z/p^2. We prove that for this kind of groups the ku-homology contains all the complex bordism information. We construct a set of generators of the annihilator of the ku-toral class. These elements also generates the annihilator of the BP-toral class.
We study the problem of classifying projectivizations of rank-two vector bundles over ${\mathbb P}^2$ up to various notions of equivalence that arise naturally in ${\mathbb A}^1$-homotopy theory, namely ${\mathbb A}^1$-weak equivalence and ${\mathbb A}^1$-$h$-cobordism. First, we classify such varieties up to ${\mathbb A}^1$-weak equivalence: over algebraically closed fields having characteristic unequal to two the classification can be given in terms of characteristic classes of the underlying vector bundle. When the base field is ${\mathbb C}$, this classification result can be compared to a…
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.
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.
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 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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
We compute generators for the Chow ring of the classifying space of PGL_3 (over the complex numbers) as defined by Totaro. We also find enough relations after inverting 3. We show that this ring is not generated by Chern classes (this is the first example of this kind among classical groups) and prove that Totaro's refined cycle class map to a quotient of complex cobordism of BPGL_3 is surjective
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{D…
A $d$-dimensional invertible topological field theory is a functor from the symmetric monoidal $(\infty,n)$-category of $d$-bordisms (embedded into $\mathbb{R}^\infty$ and equipped with a tangential $(X,ξ)$-structure) which lands in the Picard subcategory of the target symmetric monoidal $(\infty,n)$-category. We classify these field theories in terms of the cohomology of the $(n-d)$-connective cover of the Madsen-Tillmann spectrum. This is accomplished by identifying the classifying space of the $(\infty,n)$-category of bordisms with $Ω^{\infty-n}MTξ$ as an $E_\infty$-spaces. This generalizes…
We study categories of d-dimensional cobordisms from the perspective of Tillmann and Galatius-Madsen-Tillmann-Weiss. There is a category $C_θ$ of closed smooth (d-1)-manifolds and smooth d-dimensional cobordisms, equipped with generalised orientations specified by a fibration $θ: X \to BO(d)$. The main result of GMTW is a determination of the homotopy type of the classifying space $BC_θ$. The goal of the present paper is a systematic investigation of subcategories $D$ of $C_θ$ having classifying space homotopy equivalent to that of $C_θ$, the smaller such $D$ the better. We prove that in most …
The circle-equivariant spectrum MString_C is the equivariant analogue of the cobordism spectrum MU<6> of stably almost complex manifolds with c_1=c_2=0. Given a rational elliptic curve C, the second author has defined a ring T-spectrum EC representing the associated T-equivariant elliptic cohomology. The core of the present paper is the construction, when C is a complex elliptic curve, of a map of ring T-spectra MString_C --> EC which is the rational equivariant analogue of the sigma orientation of Ando-Hopkins-Strickland. We support this by a theory of characteristic classes for calculation, …
We systematically study Lorentz symmetry extensions in quantum field theories (QFTs) and their 't Hooft anomalies via cobordism. The total symmetry $G'$ can be expressed in terms of the extension of Lorentz symmetry $G_L$ by an internal global symmetry $G$ as $1 \to G \to G' \to G_L \to 1$. By enumerating all possible $G_L$ and symmetry extensions, other than the familiar SO/Spin/O/Pin$^{\pm}$ groups, we introduce a new EPin group (in contrast to DPin), and provide natural physical interpretations to exotic groups E($d$), EPin($d$), (SU(2)$\times$E(d))/$\mathbb{Z}_2$, (SU(2)$\times$EPin(d))/$\…
The main result of this paper is a new classification theorem for links (smooth embeddings in codimension 2). The classifying space is the rack space (defined in [Trunks and classifying spaces, Applied Categorical Structures, 3 (1995) 321--356]) and the classifying bundle is the first James bundle (defined in "James bundles" math.AT/0301354). We investigate the algebraic topology of this classifying space and report on calculations given elsewhere. Apart from defining many new knot and link invariants (including generalised James--Hopf invariants), the classification theorem has some unexpecte…
We classify and characterize all invertible anomalies and all allowed topological terms related to various Standard Models (SM), Grand Unified Theories (GUT), and Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics. By all anomalies, we mean the inclusion of (1) perturbative/local anomalies captured by perturbative Feynman diagram loop calculations, classified by $\mathbb{Z}$ free classes, and (2) non-perturbative/global anomalies, classified by finite group $\mathbb{Z}_N$ torsion classes. Our work built from [arXiv:1812.11967] fuses the math tools of Adams spectral sequence, Thom-Madsen-Tillmann spectra, and…
