The set of cochain multioperations defining Steenrod $\smile_i$-products in the bar construction is constructed in terms of surjection operad. This structure extends a Homotopy G-algebra structure which defines just the $\cup $ on the bar construction.
In 1947, N.E. Steenrod defined the Steenrod Squares, which are mod 2 cohomology operations, using explicit cochain formulae for cup-i products of cocycles. He later recast the construction in more general homological terms, using group homology and acyclic model methods, rather than explicit cochain formulae, to define mod p operations for all primes p. Steenrod's student J. Adem applied the homological point of view to prove fundamental relations, known as the Adem relations, in the algebra of cohomology operations generated by the Steenrod operations. In this paper we give a proof of the mod…
Steenrod defined in 1947 the Steenrod squares on the mod 2 cohomology of spaces using explicit cochain formulae for the cup-$i$ products; a family of coherent homotopies derived from the broken symmetry of Alexander--Whitney's chain approximation to the diagonal. He later defined his homonymous operations for all primes using the homology of symmetric groups. This approach enhanced the conceptual understanding of the operations and allowed for many advances, but lacked the concreteness of their definition at the even prime. In recent years, thanks to the development of new applications of coho…
Operations on the cohomology of spaces are important tools enhancing the descriptive power of this computable invariant. For cohomology with mod 2 coefficients, Steenrod squares are the most significant of these operations. Their effective computation relies on formulas defining a cup-$i$ construction, a structure on (co)chains which is important in its own right, having connections to lattice field theory, convex geometry and higher category theory among others. In this article we present new formulas defining a cup-$i$ construction, and use them to introduce a fast algorithm for the computat…
Motivated by the construction of Steenrod cup-$i$ products in the singular cochain algebra of a space and in the algebra of non-commutative differential forms, we define a category of binomial cup-one differential graded algebras over the integers and over prime fields of positive characteristic. The Steenrod and Hirsch identities bind the cup-product, the cup-one product, and the differential in a package that we further enhance with a binomial ring structure arising from a ring of integer-valued rational polynomials. This structure allows us to define the free binomial cup-one differential g…
We describe stable cup-i products on the cochain complex with $F^2$ coefficients of any augmented semi-simplicial object in the Burnside category. An example of such an object is the Khovanov functor of Lawson, Lipshitz and Sarkar. Thus we obtain explicit formulas for cohomology operations on the Khovanov homology of any link.
We study a naturally occurring $E_{\infty}$-subalgebra of the full $E_2$-Hochschild cochain complex arising from coherent cochains. For group rings and certain category algebras, these cochains detect $H^*(B {\cal{C}})$, the simplicial cohomology of the classifying space of the underlying group or category, $\cal{C}$. In this setting the simplicial cup product of cochains on $B{\cal{C}}$ agrees with the Gerstenhaber product and Steenrod's cup-one product of cochains agrees with the pre-Lie product. We extend the idea of coherent cochains to algebras more general than category algebras and dub …
We transport Steenrod's cup-i products from the singular cochains on the free loop space Maps(S^1, BG) to Hochschild's original cochain complex Hom (k[G]^*, k[G]) defining Hochschild cohomology. Here G is a discrete group, k an arbitrary coefficient ring, and BG the classifying space of G. For cochains supported on BG, we prove that Gerstenhaber's cup product agrees with the simplicial cup product and Gerstenhaber's pre-Lie product agrees with Steenrod's cup-one product. As a consequence, for cocycles f and g supported on BG, the Gerstenhaber bracket [f, g] = 0 in Hochschild cohomology. This i…
We present here a combinatorial method for computing cup-$i$ products and Steenrod squares of a simplicial set $X$. This method is essentially based on the determination of explicit formulae for the component morphisms of a higher diagonal approximation (i.e., a family of morphisms measuring the lack of commutativity of the cup product on the cochain level) in terms of face operators of $X$. A generalization of this method to Steenrod reduced powers is sketched. This description can be considered as a translation of the most ancient definition of Steenrod squares to the general setting of the …
We construct a Frobenius algebra structure on the Hochschild cochains of a group ring k[G] that extends the known structure of a <1, 2> topological quantum field theory on HH^0(k[G]; k[G]), k a field and G a finite group. The convolution product extends to the homotopy commutative Gerstenhaber product on cochains, the Frobenius coproduct extends to a coproduct on the chain complex for Hochschild homology, and there is a pairing on Hochschild cocahins satisfying Frobenius associativity. The pairing, however, degenerates on a certain subcomplex of Hochschild cochains. The cochain complex for gro…
Let $X$ be a simply connected space and ${\Bbb F}_p$ be a prime field. The algebra of normalized singular cochains $N^*(X; {\Bbb F}_p)$ admits a natural homotopy structure which induces natural Steenrod operations on the Hochschild homology $HH_* N^*(X;{\Bbb F}_p)$ of the space $X$. The primary purpose of this paper is to prove that the J. Jones isomorphism $HH_*N^*(X;{\Bbb F}_p) \cong H ^*(X^{S^1};{\Bbb F}_p)$ identifies theses Stenrood operations with those defined on the cohomology of the free loop space with coefficients in ${\Bbb F}_p$. The other goal of this paper is to describe a theori…
A special subcomplex of the singular chain complex for a topological space, historically called oriented singular chain complex is used here with the new name "alternative" singular chain complex. It was already known that this subcomplex and so its dual complex are chain homotopy equivalent to singular chains and cochains respectively and thus have the same homology and cohomology. Here, in addition to revisiting some aspects of this subcomplex, it is shown that alternative singular cochains (dual of alternative singular chains) with coefficients in rational or real numbers are indeed summand…
We use a vector field flow defined through a cubulation of a closed manifold to reconcile the partially defined commutative product on geometric cochains with the standard cup product on cubical cochains, which is fully defined and commutative only up to coherent homotopies. The interplay between intersection and cup product dates back to the beginnings of homology theory, but, to our knowledge, this result is the first to give an explicit cochain level comparison between these approaches.
We prove a conjecture raised by M. Goresky and W. Pardon, concerning the range of validity of the perverse degree of Steenrod squares in intersection cohomology. This answer turns out of importance for the definition of characteristic classes in the framework of intersection cohomology. For this purpose, we present a construction of ${\rm cup}_{i}$-products on the cochain complex, built on the blow-up of some singular simplices and introduced in a previous work. We extend to this setting the classical properties of the associated Steenrod squares, including Adem and Cartan relations, for any g…
We introduce a new algebraic concept of an algebra which is "almost" commutative (more precisely "quasi-commutative differential graded algebra" or ADGQ, in French). We associate to any simplicial set X an ADGQ - called D(X) - and show how we can recover the homotopy type of the topological realization of X from this algebraic structure (assuming some finiteness conditions). The theory is sufficiently general to include also ringed spaces X. The construction is by itself interesting since it uses the difference calculus (instead of the differential calculus of Sullivan's theory) and a new type…
The d.g. operad C of cellular chains on the operad of spineless cacti is isomorphic to the Gerstenhaber-Voronov operad codifying the cup product and brace operations on the Hochschild cochains of an associative algebra, and to the suboperad F_2X of the surjection operad. Its homology is the Gerstenhaber operad G. We construct an operad map psi from A-infinity to C such that psi(m_2) is commutative and the homology of psi is the canonical map A \to Com \to G. This formalises the idea that, since the cup product is commutative in homology, its symmetrisation is a homotopy associative operation. …
We provide a geometric interpretation of the formulas for Steenrod's $\cup_i$ products, giving an explicit construction for a conjecture of Thorngren. We construct from a simplex and a branching structure a special frame of vector fields inside each simplex that allow us to interpret cochain-level formulas for the $\cup_i$ as a generalized intersection product on the dual cellular decomposition. It can be thought of as measuring the intersection between a collection of dual cells and thickened, shifted version of another collection, where the vector field frame determines the thickening and sh…
We construct a natural bijective correspondence between equivalence classes of Pin$^-$ structures on a compact simplicial $n$-manifold $M^n$, possibly with boundary, and $\mathbb{Z}/4$-valued 'quadratic functions' $Q$ defined on degree $n-1$ relative $\mathbb{Z}/2$ cocycles, $Q \colon Z^{n-1}(M^n, \partial M^n ; \mathbb{Z} /2) \to \mathbb{Z}/4$. The 'quadratic' property of $Q(p+q)$ and the values $Q(dc)$ on coboundaries are expressed in terms of higher $\cup_i$ products of Steenrod. For $n = 2$ the results extend old results relating Pin$^-$ structures on closed surfaces to quadratic refinemen…
We calculate the mod-two cohomology of all alternating groups together, with both cup and transfer product structures, which in particular determines the additive structure and ring structure of the cohomology of individual groups. We show that there are no nilpotent elements in the cohomology rings of individual alternating groups. We calculate the action of the Steenrod algebra and discuss individual component rings. A range of techniques is needed: an almost Hopf ring structure associated to the embeddings of products of alternating groups, the Gysin sequence relating the cohomology of alte…
Cups and Gates II: Operads, twists, and addressable intra-code gates
University of Bristol(布里斯托大学);California Institute of Technology(加州理工学院);Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz(美因茨约翰内斯古腾堡大学);Stony Brook University(石溪大学)
Let $M$ be a closed, oriented manifold of dimension $d$. Let $LM$ be the space of smooth loops in $M$. Chas and Sullivan recently defined a product on the homology $H_*(LM)$ of degree $-d$. They then investigated other structure that this product induces, including a Batalin -Vilkovisky structure, and a Lie algebra structure on the $S^1$ equivariant homology $H_*^{S^1}(LM)$. These algebraic structures, as well as others, came under the general heading of the "string topology" of $M$. In this paper we will describe a realization of the Chas - Sullivan loop product in terms of a ring spectrum st…