In this note we clarify the relevance of ``connections up to homotopy'' to the theory of characteristic classes. We have already remarked \cite{Crai} that such connections up to homotopy can be used to compute the classical Chern characters. Here we present a slightly different argument for this, and then proceed with the discussion of the flat (secondary) characteristic classes. As an application, we clarify the relation between the two different approaches to characteristic classes of algebroids (and of Poisson manifolds in particular): we explain that the intrinsic characteristic classes are precisely the secondary classes of the adjoint representation.
The aim of this note is to point out that Chern characters can be computed using curvatures o ``super-connections up to homotopy'. We also present an application to the vanishing theorem for Lie algebroids which is at the origin of new secondary classes of algebroids (Fernandes), hence, in particular, of Poisson manifolds.
We describe a construction of the modular class associated to a representation up to homotopy of a Lie groupoid. In the case of the adjoint representation up to homotopy, this class is the obstruction to the existence of a volume form, in the sense of Weinstein's "The volume of a differentiable stack".
We show that the prequantum line bundle on the moduli space of flat $SU(2)$ connections on a closed Riemann surface of positive genus has degree 1. It then follows from work of Lawton and the second author that the classifying map for this line bundle induces a homotopy equivalence between the stable moduli space of flat $SU(N)$ connections, in the limit as $N$ tends to infinity, and $\mathbb{C}P^\infty$. Applications to the stable moduli space of flat unitary connections are also discussed.
We study the notion of $p$-quasihomotopy in Newtonian classes of mappings and link it to questions concerning lifts of Newtonian maps, under the assumption that the target space is nonpositively curved. Using this connection we prove that every $p$-quasihomotopy class of Newtonian maps contains a minimizer of the $p$-energy if the target has hyperbolic fundamental group.
Globally hyperbolic spacetimes admitting infinitely many causal (and timelike) homotopy classes of curves joining two prescribed points, are exhibited and discussed.
For a smooth spacetime $X$, based on the timelike homotopy classes of its timelike paths, we define a topology on $X$ that refines the Alexandrov topology and always coincides with the manifold topology. The space of timelike or causal homotopy classes forms a semicategory or a category, respectively. We show that either of these algebraic structures encodes enough information to reconstruct the topology and conformal structure of $X$. Furthermore, the space of timelike homotopy classes carries a natural topology that we prove to be locally euclidean but, in general, not Hausdorff. The present…
We show that the set of harmonic maps from the 2-dimensional stratified spheres with uniformly bounded energies contains only finitely many homotopy classes. We apply this result to construct infinitely many harmonic map flows and mean curvature flows of 2-sphere in the connected sum of two closed 3-dimensional manifolds $M_1\not=S^3$ and $M_2\not=S^3,\R¶^3$, which must develop finite time singularity.
We introduce and study a notion of relative 1-homotopy type for Sobolev maps from a surface to a metric space spanning a given collection of Jordan curves. We use this to establish the existence and local Hölder regularity of area minimizing surfaces in a given relative 1-homotopy class in proper geodesic metric spaces admitting a local quadratic isoperimetric inequality. If the underlying space has trivial second homotopy group then relatively 1-homotopic maps are relatively homotopic. We also obtain an analog for closed surfaces in a given 1-homotopy class. Our theorems generalize and streng…
The subject of this paper is strongly homotopy (SH) Lie algebras, also known as $L_\infty$-algebras. We extract an intrinsic character, the Atiyah class, which measures the nontriviality of an (SH) Lie algebra $A$ when it is extended to $L$. In fact, given such an SH Lie pair $(L, A)$, and any $A$-module $E$, there associates a canonical cohomology class, the Atiyah class $[α^E]$, which generalizes earlier known Atiyah classes out of Lie algebra pairs. We show that the Atiyah class $[α^{L/A}]$ induces a graded Lie algebra structure on $\operatorname{H}^\bullet_{\mathrm{CE}}(A,L/A[-2])$, and th…
We prove that the space of gauge equivalence classes of U(1)-invariant connections on some SU(2)-principle bundles over the 4-sphere S^4 is weakly homotopy equivalent to a component of the second loop space of the 2-sphere S^2.
The paper is devoted to study the Dirichelet energy of moving frames on 2-dimensional tori immersed in the euclidean $3\leq m$-dimensional space. This functional, called Frame energy, is naturally linked to the Willmore energy of the immersion and on the conformal structure of the abstract underlying surface. As first result, a Willmore-conjecture type lower bound is established : namely for every torus immersed in $\R^m$, $m\geq 3$, and any moving frame on it, the frame energy is at least $2π^2$ and equalty holds if and only if $m\geq 4$, the immersion is the standard Clifford torus (up to ro…
A celebrated theorem of Kapranov states that the Atiyah class of the tangent bundle of a complex manifold $X$ makes $T_X[-1]$ into a Lie algebra object in $D^+(X)$, the bounded below derived category of coherent sheaves on $X$. Furthermore Kapranov proved that, for a Kähler manifold $X$, the Dolbeault resolution $Ω^{\bullet-1}(T_X^{1,0})$ of $T_X[-1]$ is an $L_\infty$ algebra. In this paper, we prove that Kapranov's theorem holds in much wider generality for vector bundles over Lie pairs. Given a Lie pair $(L,A)$, i.e. a Lie algebroid $L$ together with a Lie subalgebroid $A$, we define the Ati…
The purpose of these notes is to show that the methods introduced by Bauer and Furuta in order to refine the Seiberg-Witten invariants of smooth 4-dimensional manifolds can also be used to obtain stable homotopy classes from Riemann surfaces, using the vortex equations on the latter.
For a smooth manifold $M$, possibly with boundary and corners, and a Lie group $G$, we consider a suitable description of gauge fields in terms of parallel transport, as groupoid homomorphisms from a certain path groupoid in $M$ to $G$. Using a cotriangulation $\mathscr{C}$ of $M$, and collections of finite-dimensional families of paths relative to $\mathscr{C}$, we define a homotopical equivalence relation of parallel transport maps, leading to the concept of an extended lattice gauge (ELG) field. A lattice gauge field, as used in Lattice Gauge Theory, is part of the data contained in an ELG …
Using the concept of a cohesive module defined by Block, we use the theory of superconnections in the sense of Quillen to construct natural superconnections on Hermitian cohesive modules. By the Chern-Weil construction, we obtain characteristic classes with values in Bott-Chern cohomology which refines the usual deRham cohomology. The main result of this paper shows that such characteristic classes are independent of the Hermitian metric and only dependent on the homotopy class of the cohesive module in the homotopy category. This extends the Bott-Chern cohomology to the bounded derived catego…
