After we have given a survey on the Burnside ring of a finite group, we discuss and analyze various extensions of this notion to infinite (discrete) groups. The first three are the finite-G-set-version, the inverse-limit-version and the covariant Burnside group. The most sophisticated one is the fourth definition as the equivariant zero-th cohomotopy of the classifying space for proper actions. In order to make sense of this definition we define equivariant cohomotopy groups of finite proper equivariant CW-complexes in terms of maps between the sphere bundles associated to equivariant vector bundles. We show that this yields an equivariant cohomology theory with a multiplicative structure. We formulate a version of the Segal Conjecture for infinite groups. All this is analogous and related to the question what are the possible extensions of the notion of the representation ring of a finite group to an infinite group. Here possible candidates are projective class groups, Swan groups and the equivariant topological K-theory of the classifying space for proper actions.
In this article we extend the classical definitions of equivariant cohomotopy theory to the setting of proper actions of Lie groups. We combine methods originally developed in the analysis of nonlinear differential equations, mainly in connection with Leray-Schauder theory, and on the other hand from developments of equivariant $K$-Theory by N.C. Phillips. We prove the correspondence with a previous construction of W. Lück by constructing an index. As an illustration of these methods, we introduce a Burnside ring defined in analytical terms. With this definition, we extend a weak version of th…
We give minimal presentations for the $RO(C_2)$-graded Bredon cohomology of the equivariant classifying spaces $B_{C_2}U(n), B_{C_2}SO(n)$ and $B_{C_2}Sp(n)$ with coefficients in the rational Burnside Green functor $A_{\mathbf Q}$. This results in an efficient description of rational $C_2$ equivariant Chern, Pontryagin and symplectic characteristic classes. These classes are then related to each other using the inclusions of maximal tori.
There are fundamental open problems in the precise global nature of RR-field tadpole cancellation conditions in string theory. Moreover, the non-perturbative lift as M5/MO5-anomaly cancellation in M-theory had been based on indirect plausibility arguments,lacking a microscopic underpinning in M-brane charge quantization. We provide a framework for answering these questions, crucial not only for mathematical consistency but also for phenomenological accuracy of string theory, by formulating the M-theory C-field on flat M-orientifolds in the generalized cohomology theory called Equivariant Cohom…
The monopole map defines an element in an equivariant stable cohomotopy group refining the Seiberg-Witten invariant. This first of two articles presents the details of the definition of the stable cohomotopy invariant and discusses its relation to the integer valued Seiberg-Witten invariant.
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…
The lift of K-theoretic D-brane charge to M-theory was recently hypothesized to land in Cohomotopy cohomology theory. To further check this "Hypothesis H", here we explicitly compute the constraints on fractional D-brane charges at ADE-orientifold singularities imposed by the existence of lifts from equivariant K-theory to equivariant Cohomotopy theory, through Boardman's comparison homomorphism. We check the relevant cases and find that this condition singles out precisely those fractional D-brane charges which do not take irrational values, in any twisted sector. Given that the possibility o…
The main theorem describes the behaviour of the stable cohomotopy invariant defined in the first article (joint with M. Furuta) in this series of two under the operation of taking connected sums of four-manifolds: The invariant of a connected sum is the smash product (in the sense of equivariant spectra) of the invariants of the respective summands. This provides nonvanishing results even in cases in which both the integer valued Seiberg-Witten invariants and Donaldson invariants have to vanish. As a consequence, one gets new results on diffeomorphism types of decomposable four-manifolds.
For a compact Lie group G, we use G-equivariant Poincaré duality for ordinary RO(G)-graded homology to define an equivariant intersection product, the dual of the equivariant cup product. Using this, we give a homological construction of the equivariant Lefschetz number and a simple proof of the equivariant Lefschetz fixed point theorem. With similar techniques, an equivariant Fuller index with values in the rationalized Burnside ring is constructed.
We provide a complete characterization of the equivariant commutative ring structures of all the factors in the idempotent splitting of the G-equivariant sphere spectrum, including their Hill-Hopkins-Ravenel norms, where G is any finite group. Our results describe explicitly how these structures depend on the subgroup lattice and conjugation in G. Algebraically, our analysis characterizes the multiplicative transfers on the localization of the Burnside ring of G at any idempotent element, which is of independent interest to group theorists. As an application, we obtain an explicit description …
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.
In this paper we discuss some enlargements of the category of sets with semigroup actions and equivariant functions. We show that these enlarged categories possess two idempotent endofunctors. In the case of groups these enlarged categories are equivalent to the usual category of group actions and equivariant functions, and these idempotent endofunctors reverse a given action. For a general semigroup we show that these enlarged categories admit homotopical category structures defined by using these endofunctors and show that up to homotopy these categories are equivalent to the usual category …
We develop model categories of rational equivariant spectra whose homotopy categories are equivalent to the category of rational equivariant cohomology theories. We prove that given an orthogonal decomposition of the unit in the rational Burnside ring, the model category of rational equivariant spectra decomposes into a product of localisations. We use this result to reprove the classification of rational equivariant cohomology theories for finite groups and to study such cohomology theories for the group O(2). We then concentrate on a split piece of the O(2) case and relate it to rational SO(…
For any finite group G, we show that the 2-local G-equivariant stable homotopy category, indexed on a complete G-universe, has a unique equivariant model in the sense of Quillen model categories. This means that the suspension functor, homotopy cofiber sequences and the stable Burnside category determine all "higher order structure" of the 2-local G-equivariant stable homotopy category, such as the equivariant homotopy types of function G-spaces. The theorem can be seen as an equivariant version of Schwede's rigidity theorem at the prime 2.
We formulate and prove a version of the Segal Conjecture for infinite groups. For finite groups it reduces to the original version. The condition that G is finite is replaced in our setting by the assumption that there exists a finite model for the classifying space underline{E}G for proper actions. This assumption is satisfied for instance for word hyperbolic groups or cocompact discrete subgroups of Lie groups with finitely many path components. As a consequence we get for such groups G that the zero-th stable cohomotopy of the classifying space BG is isomorphic to the I-adic completion of t…
Let $V, W$ be finite-dimensional orthogonal representations of a finite group $G$. The equivariant degree with values in the Burnside ring of $G$ has been studied extensively by many authors. We present a short proof of the degree product formula for local equivariant maps on $V$ and $W$.
We classify the primitive idempotents of the $p$-local complex representation ring of a finite group $G$ in terms of the cyclic subgroups of order prime to $p$ and show that they all come from idempotents of the Burnside ring. Our results hold without adjoining roots of unity or inverting the order of $G$, thus extending classical structure theorems. We then derive explicit group-theoretic obstructions for tensor induction to be compatible with the resulting idempotent splitting of the representation ring Mackey functor. Our main motivation is an application in homotopy theory: we conclude tha…
In this short note, we compute the rational $C_{2^n}$-equivariant stable stems and give minimal presentations for the $RO(C_{2^n})$-graded Bredon cohomology of the equivariant classifying spaces $B_{C_{2^n}}S^1$ and $B_{C_{2^n}}Σ_2$ over the rational Burnside functor $A_{\mathbf Q}$. We also examine for which compact Lie groups $L$ the maximal torus inclusion $T\to L$ induces an isomorphism from $H^*_{C_{2^n}}(B_{C_{2^n}}L;A_{\mathbf Q})$ onto the fixed points of $H^*_{C_{2^n}}(B_{C_{2^n}}T;A_{\mathbf Q})$ under the Weyl group action. We prove that this holds for $L=U(m)$ and any $n,m\ge 1$ bu…
For a finite group $G$, there is a map $RO(G) \to {\rm Pic}(Sp^G)$ from the real representation ring of $G$ to the Picard group of $G$-spectra. This map is not known to be surjective in general, but we prove that when $G$ is cyclic this map is indeed surjective and in that case we describe ${\rm Pic}(Sp^G)$ explicitly. We also show that for an arbitrary finite group $G$ homology and cohomology with coefficients in a cohomological Mackey functor do not see the part of ${\rm Pic}(Sp^G)$ coming from the Picard group of the Burnside ring. Hence these homology and cohomology calculations can be gra…
The filtration on the infinite symmetric product of spheres by the number of factors provides a sequence of spectra between the sphere spectrum and the integral Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum. This filtration has received a lot of attention and the subquotients are interesting stable homotopy types. While the symmetric product filtration has been a major focus of research since the 1980s, essentially nothing was known when one adds group actions into the picture. We investigate the equivariant stable homotopy types, for compact Lie groups, obtained from this filtration of infinite symmetric produ…
This paper is a fundamental study of the Real $2$-representation theory of $2$-groups. It also contains many new results in the ordinary (non-Real) case. Our framework relies on a $2$-equivariant Morita bicategory, where a novel construction of induction is introduced. We identify the Grothendieck ring of Real $2$-representations as a Real variant of the Burnside ring of the fundamental group of the $2$-group and study the Real categorical character theory. This paper unifies two previous lines of inquiry, the approach to $2$-representation theory via Morita theory and Burnside rings, initiate…
Arone and Lesh constructed and studied spectrum level filtrations that interpolate between connective (topological or algebraic) K-theory and the Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum for the integers. In this paper we consider (global) equivariant generalizations of these filtrations and of another closely related class of filtrations, the modified rank filtrations of the K-theory spectra themselves. We lift Arone and Lesh's description of the filtration subquotients to the equivariant context and apply it to compute algebraic filtrations on representation rings that arise on equivariant homotopy groups…
We define a genuine $\mathbb{Z}/2$-equivariant real algebraic $K$-theory spectrum $KR(A)$, for every genuine $\mathbb{Z}/2$-equivariant spectrum $A$ equipped with a compatible multiplicative structure. This construction extends the real $K$-theory of Hesselholt-Madsen for discrete rings and the Hermitian $K$-theory of Burghelea-Fiedorowicz for simplicial rings. We construct a natural trace map of $\mathbb{Z}/2$-spectra $tr\colon KR(A)\to THR(A)$ to the real topological Hochschild homology spectrum, which extends the $K$-theoretic trace of Bökstedt-Hsiang-Madsen. The trace provides a splitting …
The concept of orbifolds should unify differential geometry with equivariant homotopy theory, so that orbifold cohomology should unify differential cohomology with proper equivariant cohomology theory. Despite the prominent role that orbifolds have come to play in mathematics and mathematical physics, especially in string theory, the formulation of a general theory of orbifolds reflecting this unification has remained an open problem. Here we present a natural theory argued to achieve this. We give both a general abstract axiomatization in higher topos theory, as well as concrete models for or…
We prove structural theorems for computing the completion of a G-spectrum at the augmentation ideal of the Burnside ring of a finite group G. First we show that a G-spectrum can be replaced by a spectrum obtained by allowing only isotropy groups of prime power order without changing the homotopy type of the completion. We then show that this completion can be computed as a homotopy colimit of completions of spectra obtained by further restricting isotropy to one prime at a time, and that these completions can be computed in terms of completion at a prime. As an application, we show that the sp…
