This article has two goals. First, we hope to give an accessible introduction to persistent equivariant cohomology. Given a topological group $G$ acting on a filtered space, persistent Borel equivariant cohomology measures not only the shape of the filtration, but also attributes of the group action on the filtration, including in particular its fixed points. Second, we give an explicit description of the persistent equivariant cohomology of the circle action on the Vietoris-Rips metric thickenings of the circle, using the Serre spectral sequence and the Gysin homomorphism. Indeed, if $\frac{2πk}{2k+1} \le r < \frac{2π(k+1)}{2k+3}$, then $H^*_{S^1}(\mathrm{VR}^\mathrm{m}(S^1;r))\cong \mathbb{Z}[u]/(1\cdot3\cdot5\cdot\ldots \cdot (2k+1)\, u^{k+1})$ where $\mathrm{deg}(u)=2$.
The equivariant cohomology of a space with a group action is not only a ring but also an algebra over the cohomology ring of the classifying space of the acting group. We prove that toric manifolds (i.e. compact smooth toric varieties) are isomorphic as varieties if and only if their equivariant cohomology algebras are weakly isomorphic. We also prove that quasitoric manifolds, which can be thought of as a topological counterpart to toric manifolds, are equivariantly homeomorphic if and only if their equivariant cohomology algebras are isomorphic.
We introduce equivariant twisted cohomology of a simplicial set equipped with simplicial action of a discrete group and prove that for suitable twisting function induced from a given equivariant local coefficients, the simplicial version of Bredon-Illman cohomology with local coefficients is isomorphic to equivariant twisted cohomology. The main aim of this paper is to prove a classification theorem for equivariant simplicial cohomology with local coefficients.
On the basis of Brylinski's work, we introduce a notion of equivariant smooth Deligne cohomology group, which is a generalization of both the ordinary smooth Deligne cohomology and the ordinary equivariant cohomology. Using the cohomology group, we classify equivariant circle bundles with connection, and equivariant gerbes with connection.
For a compact Lie group acting on a smooth manifold, we define the differential cohomology of a certain quotient stack involving principal bundles with connection. This produces differential equivariant cohomology groups that map to the Cartan-Weil equivariant forms and to Borel's equivariant integral cohomology. We show the Chern-Weil homomorphism for equivariant vector bundles with connection naturally factors through differential equivariant cohomology.
For T an abelian compact Lie group, we give a description of T-equivariant K-theory with complex coefficients in terms of equivariant cohomology. In the appendix we give applications of this by extending results of Chang-Skjelbred and Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson from equivariant cohomology to equivariant K-theory.
We give Leray-Borel-type descriptions for the mod-$2$ and the rational equivariant cohomology rings of the real and the oriented flag manifolds under the canonical torus or 2-torus actions.
We construct a Thom class in complex equivariant elliptic cohomology extending the equivariant Witten genus. This gives a new proof of the rigidity of the Witten genus, which exhibits a close relationship to recent work on non-equivariant orientations of elliptic spectra.
We calculate the integral equivariant cohomology, in terms of generators and relations, of locally standard torus orbifolds whose odd degree ordinary cohomology vanishes. We begin by studying GKM-orbifolds, which are more general, before specialising to half-dimensional torus actions.
In this paper, we calculate $RO(C_2)$-graded cohomology of $C_2$-equivariant Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces $K(\underline{Z/2}, n+σ)$ for $n\geq 0$. These can be used to give the relation between equivariant lambda algebra and equivariant Adams resolution and equivariant unstable Adams spectral sequence, which are defined in author`s dissertation.
We prove the equivariant Leray-Hirsch theorem combinatorially for sufficiently good torus equivariant fiber bundles consisting of homogeneous spaces of Lie groups. We apply this theorem to determining the equivariant integral cohomology ring of the flag manifold of type $E_6$ and express it explicitly as a quotient ring of a polynomial ring.
We study the Duflot filtration on the Borel equivariant cohomology of smooth manifolds with a smooth $p$-torus action. We axiomatize the filtration and prove analog of several structural results about equivariant cohomology rings in this setting. We apply this abstract theory to study the $\mathbb{F}_p$ cohomology rings of classifying spaces of compact Lie groups, and show how to recover geometric results about the cohomology of $BG$ using equivariant cohomology. This includes some results about detection on subgroups and restrictions on associated primes that were previously only known for fi…
This paper determines the RO(G)-graded Eilenberg-MacLane cohomology of the real, infinite, equivariant Grassmannians in the case G=Z/2. Possible connections with motivic characteristic classes for quadratic bundles are briefly discussed.
We describe the Cartan and Weil models of twisted equivariant cohomology together with the Cartan homomorphism among the two, and we extend the Chern-Weil homomorphism to the twisted equivariant cohomology. We clarify that in order to have a cohomology theory, the coefficients of the twisted equivariant cohomology must be taken in the completed polynomial algebra over the dual Lie algebra of $G$. We recall the relation between the equivariant cohomology of exact Courant algebroids and the twisted equivariant cohomology, and we show how to endow with a generalized complex structure the finite d…
Equivariant elliptic cohomology with complex coefficients was defined axiomatically by Ginzburg, Kapranov and Vasserot and constructed by Grojnowski. We give an invariant definition of S^1-equivariant elliptic cohomology, and use it to give an entirely cohomological proof of the rigidity theorem of Witten for the elliptic genus. We also state and prove a rigidity theorem for families of elliptic genera.
We describe the equivariant cohomology ring of rationally smooth projective embeddings of reductive groups. These embeddings are the projectivizations of reductive monoids. Our main result describes their equivariant cohomology in terms of roots, idempotents, and underlying monoid data. Also, we characterize those embeddings whose equivariant cohomology ring is obtained via restriction to the associated toric variety. Such characterization is given in terms of the closed orbits.
In this paper we consider a class of connected closed $G$-manifolds with a non-empty finite fixed point set, each $M$ of which is totally non-homologous to zero in $M_G$ (or $G$-equivariantly formal), where $G={\Bbb Z}_2$. With the help of the equivariant index, we give an explicit description of the equivariant cohomology of such a $G$-manifold in terms of algebra, so that we can obtain analytic descriptions of ring isomorphisms among equivariant cohomology rings of such $G$-manifolds, and a necessary and sufficient condition that the equivariant cohomology rings of such two $G$-manifolds are…
This is a survey on the equivariant cohomology of Lie group actions on manifolds, from the point of view of de Rham theory. Emphasis is put on the notion of equivariant formality, as well as on applications to ordinary cohomology and to fixed points.
We determine the $T$-equivariant integral cohomology of $F_4/T$ combinatorially by the GKM theory, where T is a maximal torus of the exceptional Lie group $F_4$ and acts on $F_4/T$ by the left multiplication.
We extend the work of Allday-Franz-Puppe on syzygies in equivariant cohomology from tori to arbitrary compact connected Lie groups G. In particular, we show that for a compact orientable G-manifold X the analogue of the Chang-Skjelbred sequence is exact if and only if the equivariant cohomology of X is reflexive, if and only if the equivariant Poincare pairing for X is perfect. Along the way we establish that the equivariant cohomology modules arising from the orbit filtration of X are Cohen-Macaulay. We allow singular spaces and introduce a Cartan model for their equivariant cohomology. We al…
The chiral equivariant cohomology contains and generalizes the classical equivariant cohomology of a manifold M with an action of a compact Lie group G. For any simple G, there exist compact manifolds with the same classical equivariant cohomology, which can be distinguished by this invariant. When M is a point, this cohomology is an interesting conformal vertex algebra whose structure is still mysterious. In this paper, we scratch the surface of this object in the case G=SU(2).
We construct and analyse models of equivariant cohomology for differentiable stacks with Lie group actions extending classical results for smooth manifolds due to Borel, Cartan and Getzler. We also derive various spectral sequences for the equivariant cohomology of a differentiable stack generalising among others Bott's spectral sequence which converges to the cohomology of the classifying space of a Lie group.
The Springer variety of type $A$ associated to a nilpotent operator on $\mathbb{C}^n$ in Jordan canonical form admits a natural action of the $\ell$-dimensional torus $T^{\ell}$ where $\ell$ is the number of the Jordan blocks. We give a presentation of the $T^{\ell}$-equivariant cohomology ring of the Springer variety through an explicit construction of an action of the $n$-th symmetric group on the $T^{\ell}$-equivariant cohomology group. The $T^{\ell}$-equivariant analogue of so called Tanisaki's ideal will appear in the presentation.
In this article we study the equivariant elliptic cohomology of complex toric varieties. We prove a partial reconstruction theorem showing that equivariant elliptic cohomology encodes considerable non-trivial information on the equivariant 1-skeleton of a toric variety X (although it stops short of being a complete invariant of its GKM graphs). Elliptic cohomology is supposed to encode higher categorical geometric data, and proposals have been made linking elliptic cocycles to categorified bundles. In particular, contrary to ordinary cohomology and K-theory, elliptic cohomology is expected not…
This paper provides an introduction to equivariant cohomology and homology using the approach of Goresky, Kottwitz, and MacPherson. When a group G acts suitably on a variety X, the equivariant cohomology of X can be computed using the combinatorial data of a skeleton of G-orbits on X. We give both a geometric definition and the traditional definition of equivariant cohomology. We include a discussion of the moment map and an algorithm for finding a set of generators for the equivariant cohomology of X. Many examples and explicit calculations are provided.
Local cohomology techniques in equivariant homotopy theory, introduced by John Greenlees, may be applied to understand homology of classifying spaces through other equivariant data. In this paper we relate the local cohomology filtration to the families filtration. By doing so, we may identify geometry codified by the local cohomology filtration in the setting of equivariant bordism. The constructions which arise are naturally analyzed by localized K-theory machinery due to Atiyah and Segal, which we review.
We introduce a Bredon motivic cohomology theory for smooth schemes defined over a field and equipped with an action by a finite group. These cohomology groups are defined for finite dimensional representations as the hypercohomology of complexes of equivariant correspondences in the equivariant Nisnevich topology. We generalize the theory of presheaves with transfers to the equivariant setting and prove a Cancellation Theorem.
We sketch a quick and dirty geometric approach to the Tate-Swan cohomology of equivariant spectra, illustrating it with conjectural applications to Atiyah-Segal $K$-theory of circle actions, and a possible geometric model for the topological cyclic homology of the sphere spectrum.
The equivariant cohomology for actions of compact connected abelian groups and elementary abelian p-groups have been widely studied in the last decades. We study some of these results on actions of finite cyclic groups over a field of positive characteristic. In particular, we study the module structure of the equivariant cohomology over the cohomology of the classifying space and we provide a criterion for freeness over this ring and the polynomial subring of it. We apply these results to canonical actions of finite cyclic groups on polyhedral products arising from the boundary of a polygo
We consider closed manifolds, which occur as intersections of products of spheres of the same dimension with certain hyperplanes. Among those are the so called (big) polygon- and chain spaces. The equivariant cohomology with respect to natural actions of 2-tori is calculated and related to the notion of syzygy. It turns out that the equivariant cohomology module of these manifolds is often torsion free, but not free over the cohomology of the group. Coefficients are taken in the field with two elements.
Let T be a torus. We show that Koszul duality can be used to compute the equivariant cohomology of topological T-spaces as well as the cohomology of pull backs of the universal T-bundle. The new features are that no further assumptions about the spaces are made and that the coefficient ring may be arbitrary. This gives in particular a Cartan-type model for the equivariant cohomology of a T-space with arbitrary coefficients. Our method works for intersection homology as well.
In this paper, we calculate the $RO(G)$-graded coefficients of $H\underline{\mathbb{Z}}$, the Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum of constant Mackey functor for quaternion group $Q_8$.
We provide and study an equivariant theory of group (co)homology of a group G with coefficients in a gamma-equivariant G-module A, when a separate group "gamma" acts on G and A, generalizing the classical Eilenberg-MacLane (co)homology of groups. Relationship with equivariant cohomology of topological spaces is established and application to algebraic K-theory is given.
In this paper, we prove that the orbit space B and the Euler class of an action of the circle S^1 on X determine both the equivariant intersection cohomology of the pseudomanifold X and its localization. We also construct a spectral sequence converging to the equivariant intersection cohomology of X whose third term is described in terms of the intersection cohomology of B.
The main result of the paper is a Borel type description of the $Sp(1)^n$-equivariant cohomology ring of the manifold $Fl_n(\mathbb{H})$ of all complete flags in $\mathbb{H}^n$. To prove this, we obtain a Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson type description of that ring.
Let $C_2$ denote the cyclic group of order two. Given a manifold with a $C_2$-action, we can consider its equivariant Bredon $RO(C_2)$-graded cohomology. In this paper, we develop a theory of fundamental classes for equivariant submanifolds in $RO(C_2)$-graded cohomology in constant $\mathbb{Z}/2$ coefficients. We show the cohomology of any $C_2$-surface is generated by fundamental classes, and these classes can be used to easily compute the ring structure. To define fundamental classes we are led to study the cohomology of Thom spaces of equivariant vector bundles. In general the cohomology o…
In this paper, we prove some computational results about equivariant cohomology over the cyclic group $C_{p^n}$ of prime power order. We show that there is an inductive formula when the dimension of the $C_p$-fixed points of the grading is large. Among other calculations, we also show the existence of non-trivial extensions when $n\geq 3$.
Let X be a "nice" space with an action of a torus T. We consider the Atiyah-Bredon sequence of equivariant cohomology modules arising from the filtration of X by orbit dimension. We show that a front piece of this sequence is exact if and only if the H^*(BT)-module H_T^*(X) is a certain syzygy. Moreover, we express the cohomology of that sequence as an Ext module involving a suitably defined equivariant homology of X. One consequence is that the GKM method for computing equivariant cohomology applies to a Poincare duality space if and only if the equivariant Poincare pairing is perfect.
We construct a deformed Morse complex computing the equivariant cohomology of a manifold M endowed with a smooth S^1-action. The deformation of the coboundary operator is given by counting gradient flow lines of a Morse function f that are allowed to "jump" along orbits of the S^1-action for finite time intervalls.
The construction of characteristic classes via the curvature form of a connection is one motivation for the refinement of integral cohomology by de Rham cocycles -- known as differential cohomology. We will discuss the analog in the case of a group action on the manifold: The definition of equivariant characteristic forms in the Cartan model due to Nicole Berline and Michèle Vergne motivates a refinement of equivariant integral cohomology by all Cartan cocycles. In view of this, we will also review previous definitions critically, in particular the one given by Kiyonori Gomi.
We show the compatibility of the differential geometric and the topological construction of equivariant characteristic classes for compact Lie groups. Our analysis motivates a differential geometric construction for equivariant characteristic classes in the non-compact case. This compatibility is generally assumed and used in various cases, but there is only a proof for compact connected Lie groups in the literature, see the work of Raoul Bott and Loring Tu. Our proof applies and generalizes ideas of Johan Dupont and Ezra Getzler.
When a torus acts on a compact oriented manifold with isolated fixed points, the equivariant localization formula of Atiyah--Bott--Berline--Vergne converts the integral of an equivariantly closed form to a finite sum over the fixed points, providing a powerful tool for computing integrals on a manifold. This article seeks to give an accessible exposition of the equivariant localization formula.
We develop a theory of syzygies in equivariant cohomology for tori as well as $p$-tori and coefficients in $\mathbb{F}_p$. A noteworthy feature is a new algebraic approach to the partial exactness of the Atiyah-Bredon sequence, which also covers all instances considered so far.
In this article we introduce flag Bott manifolds of general Lie type as the total spaces of iterated flag bundles. They generalize the notion of flag Bott manifolds and generalized Bott manifolds, and admit nice torus actions. We calculate the torus equivariant cohomology rings of flag Bott manifolds of general Lie type.
We define the category of manifolds with extended tangent bundles, we study their symmetries and we consider the analogue of equivariant cohomology for actions of Lie groups in this category. We show that when the action preserves the splitting of the extended tangent bundle, our definition of extended equivariant cohomology agrees with the twisted equivariant de Rham model of Cartan, and for this case we show that there is localization at the fixed point set, à la Atiyah-Bott.
We study the $S_n$-equivariant log-concavity of the cohomology of flag varieties, also known as the coinvariant ring of $S_n$. Using the theory of representation stability, we give computer-assisted proofs of the equivariant log-concavity in low degrees and high degrees and conjecture that it holds for all degrees. Furthermore, we make a stronger unimodal conjecture which implies the equivariant log-concavity.
We completely calculate the $RO(G)$-graded coefficients of ordinary equivariant cohomology where $G$ is the dihedral group of order $2p$ for a prime $p>2$ both with constant and Burnside ring coefficients. The authors first proved it for $p=3$ and then the second author generalized it to arbitrary $p$. These are the first such calculations for a non-abelian group.
A refined form of the `Folk Theorem' that a smooth action by a compact Lie group can be (canonically) resolved, by iterated blow up, to have unique isotropy type was established by the authors in the context of manifolds with corners; the canonical construction induces fibrations on the boundary faces of the resolution resulting in an `equivariant resolution structure'. Here, equivariant K-theory and the Cartan model for equivariant cohomology are tracked under the resolution procedure as is the delocalized equivariant cohomology of Baum, Brylinski and MacPherson. This leads to resolved models…
The main result of this note gives an explicit presentation of the $S^1$-equivariant cohomology ring of the $(n-k,k)$ Springer variety (in type $A$) as a quotient of a polynomial ring by an ideal $I$, in the spirit of the well-known Borel presentation of the cohomology of the flag variety.
