Given a suitable link map f into a manifold M, we constructed, in [10], link homotopy invariants kappa(f) and mu(f). In the present paper we study the case M=S^n x R^{m - n} in detail. Here mu(f) turns out to be the starting term of a whole sequence mu^(s)(f), s = 0, 1, ..., of higher mu-invariants which together capture all the information contained in kappa(f). We discuss the geometric significance of these new invariants. In several instances we obtain complete classification results. A central ingredient of our approach is the homotopy theory of wedges of spheres.
We introduce the (general) homotopy groups of spheres as link invariants for Brunnian-type links through the investigations on the intersection subgroup of the normal closures of the meridians of strongly nonsplittable links. The homotopy groups measure the difference between the intersection subgroup and symmetric commutator subgroup of the normal closures of the meridians and give the invariants of the links obtained in this way. Moreover the higher homotopy-group invariants can produce some links that could not be detected by the Milnor invariants. Furthermore all homotopy groups of spheres…
Koschorke introduced a map from the space of closed $n$-component links to the ordered configuration space of $n$-tuples of points in $\mathbb{R}^3$, and conjectured that this map separates homotopy links. The purpose of this paper is to construct an analogous map for string links, and to prove (1) this map in fact separates homotopy string links, and (2) Koschorke's original map factors through the map constructed here together with an analogue of Markov's closure map defined on the level of certain function spaces.
We extend Lipshitz-Sarkar's definition of a stable homotopy type associated to a link L whose cohomology recovers the Khovanov cohomology of L. Given an assignment c (called a coloring) of positive integer to each component of a link L, we define a stable homotopy type X_col(L_c) whose cohomology recovers the c-colored Khovanov cohomology of L. This goes via Rozansky's definition of a categorified Jones-Wenzl projector P_n as an infinite torus braid on n strands. We then observe that Cooper-Krushkal's explicit definition of P_2 also gives rise to stable homotopy types of colored links (using t…
In this paper, we investigate some applications of commutator subgroups to homotopy groups and geometric groups. In particular, we show that the intersection subgroups of some canonical subgroups in certain link groups modulo their symmetric commutator subgroups are isomorphic to the (higher) homotopy groups. This gives a connection between links and homotopy groups. Similar results hold for braid and surface groups.
We give a generalization of Fukaya's Morse homotopy theoretic approach for 2-loop Chern--Simons perturbation theory to 3-valent graphs with arbitrary number of loops at least 2. We construct a sequence of invariants of integral homology 3-spheres with values in a space of 3-valent graphs (Jacobi diagrams or Feynman diagrams) by counting graphs in an integral homology 3-sphere satisfying certain condition described by a set of ordinary differential equations.
Configuration space integrals have in recent years been used for studying the cohomology of spaces of (string) knots and links in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for $n>3$ since they provide a map from a certain differential algebra of diagrams to the deRham complex of differential forms on the spaces of knots and links. We refine this construction so that it now applies to the space of homotopy string links -- the space of smooth maps of some number of copies of $\mathbb{R}$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with fixed behavior outside a compact set and such that the images of the copies of $\R$ are disjoint -- even for $n=3…
In this paper, it is explained that a topological invariant for 3-manifold $M$ with $b_1(M)=1$ can be constructed by applying Fukaya's Morse homotopy theoretic approach for Chern--Simons perturbation theory to a local system on $M$ of rational functions associated to the free abelian covering of $M$. Our invariant takes values in Garoufalidis--Rozansky's space of Jacobi diagrams whose edges are colored by rational functions. It is expected that our invariant gives a lot of nontrivial finite type invariants of 3-manifolds.
K. Orr defined a Milnor-type invariant of links that lies in the third homotopy group of a certain space $K_ω.$ The problem of non-triviality of this third homotopy group has been open. We show that it is an infinitely generated group. The question of realization of its elements as links remains open.
In this paper a geometric approach toward stable homotopy groups of spheres, based on the Pontrjagin-Thom construction is proposed. From this approach a new proof of Hopf Invariant One Theorem by J.F.Adams for all dimensions except $15,31,63,127$ is obtained. It is proved that for $n>127$ in the stable homotopy group of spheres $Π_n$ there is no elements with Hopf invariant one. The new proof is based on geometric topology methods. The Pontrjagin-Thom Theorem (in the form proposed by R.Wells) about the representation of stable homotopy groups of the real projective infinite-dimensional space (…
In previous work, the first author defined homotopy theories for stratified spaces from a simplicial and a topological perspective. In both frameworks stratified weak-equivalences are detected by suitable generalizations of homotopy links. These two frameworks are connected through a stratified version of the classical adjunction between the realization and the functor of singular simplices. Using a modified version of this adjunction, the first author showed that over a fixed poset of strata the two homotopy theories were equivalent. Building on this result we now show that the unmodified adj…
This work continues the study of a homotopy-theoretic construction of the author inspired by the Bott-Taubes integrals. Bott and Taubes constructed knot invariants by integrating differential forms along the fiber of a bundle over the space of knots. Their techniques were later used by Cattaneo et al. to construct real "Vassiliev-type" cohomology classes in spaces of knots in higher-dimensional Euclidean space. By doing this integration via a Pontrjagin-Thom construction, we constructed cohomology classes in the knot space with arbitrary coefficients. We later showed that a refinement of this …
We prove that homotopy invariants of finite degree distinguish homotopy classes of maps of a connected compact CW-complex to a nilpotent connected CW-complex with finitely generated homotopy groups.
We provide an alternative proof that Koschorke's $κ$-invariant is injective on the set of link homotopy classes of $n$-component homotopy Brunnian links $BLM(n)$. The existing proof (by Koschorke \cite{Koschorke97}) is based on the Pontryagin--Thom theory of framed cobordisms, whereas ours is closer in spirit to techniques based on Habegger and Lin's string links. We frame the result in the language of Fox's torus homotopy groups and the rational homotopy Lie algebra of the configuration space $\text{Conf}(n)$ of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^3$. It allows us to express the relevant Milnor's $μ$--…
We introduce a framework, twisted parametrized stable homotopy theory, for describing semi-infinite homotopy types. A twisted parametrized spectrum is a section of a bundle whose fibre is the category of spectra. We define these bundles in terms of modules over a stack of parametrized spectra and in terms of diagrams of simplicial categories. We present a classification of bundles of categories of spectra and of the associated twisted parametrized spectra. Though twisted parametrized spectra do not have global homotopy types and therefore do not have generalized homology invariants in the usua…
The Lipshitz-Sarkar stable homotopy link invariant defines Steenrod squares on the Khovanov cohomology of a link. Lipshitz-Sarkar constructed an algorithm for computing the first two Steenrod squares. We develop a new algorithm which implements the flow category simplification techniques previously defined by the authors and Dan Jones. We give a purely combinatorial approach to calculating the second Steenrod square and Bockstein homomorphisms in Khovanov cohomology, and flow categories in general. The new method has been implemented in a computer program by the third author and applied to lar…
We show the "non-existence" results are essential for all the previous known applications of the Bauer-Furuta stable homotopy Seiberg-Witten invariants. As an example, we present a unified proof of the adjunction inequalities. We also show that the nilpotency phenomenon explains why the Bauer-Furuta stable homotopy Seiberg-Witten invariants are not enough to prove 11/8-conjecture.
We study the spaces of string links and homotopy string links in an arbitrary manifold using multivariable manifold calculus of functors. We construct multi-cosimplicial models for both spaces and deduce certain convergence properties of the associated Bousfield-Kan homotopy and cohomology spectral sequences when the ambient manifold is a Euclidean space of dimension four or more.
By considering homotopies that preserve the stratification, one obtains a natural notion of homotopy for stratified spaces. In this short note, we introduce invariants of stratified homotopy, the stratified homotopy groups. We show that they satisify a stratified version of Whitehead's theorem. As an example, we introduce a complete knot invariant defined via the stratified homotopy groups ----- En considérant des homotopies préservant la stratification, on obtient une notion naturelle d'homotopie pour les espaces stratifiés. Dans cette note, on présente des invariants d'homotopie stratifiée, …
We define homotopy-theoretic invariants of knots in prime 3-manifolds. Fix a knot J in a prime 3-manifold M. Call a knot K in M concordant to J if it cobounds a properly embedded annulus with J in MxI, and call K J-characteristic if there is a degree-one map f:M --> M throwing K onto J and mapping M-K to M-J. These invariants are invariants of concordance and of J-characteristicness when f induces the identity on the fundamental group of M, and may be viewed as extensions of Milnor's invariants. We do not require the knots considered here to be rationally null-homologous or framed.
Given a finite quandle, we introduce a quandle homotopy invariant of knotted surfaces in the 4-sphere, modifying that of classical links. This invariant is valued in the third homotopy group of the quandle space, and is universal among the (generalized) quandle cocycle invariants. We compute the second and third homotopy groups, with respect to "regular Alexander quandles". As a corollary, any quandle cocycle invariant using the dihedral quandle of prime order is a scalar multiple of the Mochizuki 3-cocycle invariant. As another result, we determine the third quandle homology group of the dihe…
With any (open or closed) cover of a space T we associate certain homotopy classes of maps T into n-spheres. These homotopy invariants can be considered as obstructions for extensions of covers of a subspace A to a space X. We using these obstructions for generalizations of the classic KKM (Knaster-Kuratowski-Mazurkiewicz) and Sperner lemmas. In particular, we show that in the case when A is a k-sphere and X is a (k+1)-disk there exist KKM type lemmas for covers by n+2 sets if and only if the k-homotopy group of n-sphere is not zero.
Given a link map f into a manifold of the form Q = N \times \Bbb R, when can it be deformed to an unlinked position (in some sense, e.g. where its components map to disjoint \Bbb R-levels) ? Using the language of normal bordism theory as well as the path space approach of Hatcher and Quinn we define obstructions \widetildeω_ε(f), ε= + or ε= -, which often answer this question completely and which, in addition, turn out to distinguish a great number of different link homotopy classes. In certain cases they even allow a complete link homotopy classification. Our development parallels recent adva…
We present a counterexample to the conjecture on the homotopy invariance of configuration spaces. More precisely, we consider the lens spaces $L_{7,1}$ and $L_{7,2}$, and prove that their configuration spaces are not homotopy equivalent by showing that their universal coverings have different Massey products.
We study configuration space integral formulas for Milnor's homotopy link invariants, showing that they are in correspondence with certain linear combinations of trivalent trees. Our proof is essentially a combinatorial analysis of a certain space of trivalent "homotopy link diagrams" which corresponds to all finite type homotopy link invariants via configuration space integrals. An important ingredient is the fact that configuration space integrals take the shuffle product of diagrams to the product of invariants. We ultimately deduce a partial recipe for writing explicit integral formulas fo…
We define inductively a sequence of purely algebraic invariants - namely, classes in the Quillen cohomology of the Pi-algebra π_* X - for distinguishing between different homotopy types of spaces. Another sequence of such cohomology classes allows one to decide whether a given abstract Pi-algebra can be realized as the homotopy Pi-algebra of a space in the first place. The paper is written for a relatively general "resolution model category", so it also applies, for example, to rational homotopy types.
We prove a nilpotency theorem for the Bauer-Furuta stable homotopy Seiberg-Witten invariants for smooth closed 4-manifolds with trivial first Betti number.
We give a new solution of the "homotopy periods" problem, as highlighted by Sullivan, which places explicit geometrically meaningful formulae first dating back to Whitehead in the context of Quillen's formalism for rational homotopy theory and Koszul-Moore duality. Geometrically, we show that homotopy groups are rationally given by "generalized linking/intersection invariants" of cochain data. Moreover, we give a method for determining when two maps from $S^n$ to $X$ are homotopic after allowing for multiplication by some integer. For applications, we investigate wedges of spheres and homogene…
The purpose of this note is to point out that simplicial methods and the well-known Dold-Kan construction in simplicial homotopy theory can be fruitfully applied to convert link homology theories into homotopy theories. Dold and Kan prove that there is a functor from the category of chain complexes over a commutative ring with unit to the category of simplicial objects over that ring such that chain homotopic maps go to homotopic maps in the simplicial category. Furthermore, this is an equivalence of categories. In this way, given a link homology theory, we construct a mapping taking link diag…
We discuss the relationship between the m-th homotopy group of the one-point union of r copies of the two-dimensional sphere and the m-th homotopy group of the one-point union of r+1 copies of the Thom space of the oriented two-dimensional universal vector bundle. Using a suitably choosen isomorphism between them a forgetful homomorphism is computed by evaluating on factors of the Hilton splitting.
For a pointed topological space $X$, we use an inductive construction of a simplicial resolution of $X$ by wedges of spheres to construct a "higher homotopy structure" for $X$ (in terms of chain complexes of spaces). This structure is then used to define a collection of higher homotopy invariants which suffice to recover $X$ up to weak equivalence. It can also be used to distinguish between different maps $f$ from $X$ to $Y$ which induce the same morphism on homotopy groups $f_*$ from $π_* X$ to $π_* Y$.
Arone and the second author showed that when the dimensions are in the stable range, the rational homology and homotopy of the high dimensional anologues of spaces of long knots can be calculated as the homology of a direct sum of finite graph-complexes that they described explicitly. They also showed that these homology and homotopy groups can be interpreted as the higher order Hochschild homology also called Hochschild-Pirashvili homology. In this paper, we generalize all these results to high dimensional analogues of spaces of string links. The methods of our paper are applicable in the ran…
This paper explores the relation between the structure of fibre bundles akin to those associated to a closed almost nonnegatively sectionally curved manifold and rational homotopy theory.
Let $X$ and $Y$ be spaces and $M$ be an abelian group. A homotopy invariant $f\colon [X,Y]\to M$ is called straight if there exists a homomorphism $F\colon L(X,Y)\to M$ such that $f([a])=F(\langle a\rangle)$ for all $a\in C(X,Y)$. Here $\langle a\rangle\colon\langle X\rangle\to\langle Y\rangle$ is the homomorphism induced by $a$ between the abelian groups freely generated by $X$ and $Y$ and $L(X,Y)$ is a certain group of `admissible' homomorphisms. We show that all straight invariants can be expressed through a `universal' straight invariant of homological nature.
A geometric approach to the stable homotopy groups of spheres is developed in this paper, based on the Pontryagin-Thom construction. The task of this approach is to obtain an alternative proof of the Hill-Hopkins-Ravenel theorem [H-H-R] on Kervaire invariants in all dimensions, except, possibly, a finite number of dimensions. In the framework of this approach, the Adams theorem on the Hopf invariant is studied, for all dimensions with the exception of 15, 31, 63, 127. The new approach is based on the methods of geometric topology.
We describe generators of universal Lefschetz groups consisting of self-maps of equivariant 1-spheres. This allows to formulate a normalization axiom which, together with the usual axioms, determines an equivariant Lefschetz number uniquely. We apply this technique to identify the fixed orbit detecting equivariant Lefschetz number of Chorny with the fixed orbit index of Dzedzej.
Let X and Y be CW-complexes, U be an abelian group, and f:[X,Y]->U be a map (a homotopy invariant). We say that f has order at most r if the characteristic function of the r'th Cartesian power of the graph of a continuous map a:X->Y Z-linearly determines f([a]). Suppose that the CW-complex X is finite and we are in the stable case: dim X<2n-1 and Y is (n-1)-connected. We prove that then the order of f equals its degree with respect to the Curtis filtration of the group [X,Y].
We use the Hopf fibration to explicitly compute generators of the second homotopy group of the flag manifolds of a compact Lie group. We show that these $2$-spheres have nice geometrical properties such as being totally geodesic surfaces with respect to any invariant metric on the flag manifold. We characterize when the generators with the same invariant geometry are in the same homotopy class. This is done by exploring the action of Weyl group on the irreducible components of isotropy representation of the flag manifold.
This paper defines an invariant associated to Whitehead's certain exact sequence of a simply connected CW-complex which is much more elementary - and less powerful - than the boundary invariant of Baues. Nevertheless, in good cases, it classifies the homotopy types of CW-complexes.
In this note we prove that, for any integer n, there exist a smooth 4-manifold, homotopic to a K3 surface, defined by applying the link surgery method of Fintushel-Stern to a certain 2-component graph link, which admits n inequivalent symplectic structures Keywords: Symplectic topology of 4-manifolds; Seiberg-Witten theory
We construct a stable homotopy refinement of quantum annular homology, a link homology theory introduced by Beliakova, Putyra and Wehrli. For each $r\geq 2$ we associate to an annular link $L$ a naive $\mathbb{Z}/r\mathbb{Z}$-equivariant spectrum whose cohomology is isomorphic to the quantum annular homology of $L$ as modules over $\mathbb{Z}[\mathbb{Z}/r\mathbb{Z}]$. The construction relies on an equivariant version of the Burnside category approach of Lawson, Lipshitz and Sarkar. The quotient under the cyclic group action is shown to recover the stable homotopy refinement of annular Khovanov…
A solution to the Kervaire invariant problem is presented. We introduce the concepts of abelian structure on skew-framed immersions, bicyclic structure on $\Z/2^{[3]}$--framed immersions, and quaternionic-cyclic structure on $\Z/2^{[4]}$--framed immersions. Using these concepts, we prove that for sufficiently large $n$, $n=2^{\ell}-2$, an arbitrary skew-framed immersion in Euclidean $n$-space $\R^n$ has zero Kervaire invariant. Additionally, for $\ell \ge 12$ (i.e., for $n \ge 4094$) an arbitrary skew-framed immersion in Euclidean $n$-space $\R^n$ has zero Kervaire invariant if this skew-frame…
We show that the unnormalised Khovanov homology of an oriented link can be identified with the derived functors of the inverse limit. This leads to a homotopy theoretic interpretation of Khovanov homology.
Basic examples show that coincidence theory is intimately related to central subjects of differential topology and homotopy theory such as Kervaire invariants and divisibility properties of Whitehead products and of Hopf invariants. We recall some recent results and ask a few questions which seems to be important for a more comprehensive understanding.
In [math.AT/9907138] we proved that strongly homotopy algebras are homotopy invariant concepts in the category of chain complexes. Our arguments were based on the fact that strongly homotopy algebras are algebras over minimal cofibrant operads and on the principle that algebras over cofibrant operads are homotopy invariant. In our approach, algebraic models for colored operads describing diagrams of homomorphisms played an important role. The aim of this paper is to give an explicit description of these models. A possible application is an appropriate formulation of the `ideal' homological per…
Given a link diagram L we construct spectra X^j(L) so that the Khovanov homology Kh^{i,j}(L) is isomorphic to the (reduced) singular cohomology H^i(X^j(L)). The construction of X^j(L) is combinatorial and explicit. We prove that the homotopy type of X^j(L) depends only on the isotopy class of the corresponding link.
These notes illustrates the power of formulating ideas of commutative algebra in a homotopy invariant form. They can then be applied to derived categories of rings or ring spectra. These ideas are powerful in classical algebra, in representation theory of groups, in classical algebraic topology and elsewhere. The notes grew out of a series of lectures given during the `Interactions between Representation Theory, Algebraic Topology and Commutative Algebra' (IRTATCA) at the CRM (Barcelona) in Spring 2015.
We consider the $D$-dimensional Euclidean space, $\mathbb{R}^D$, with certain $(D-N)$-dimensional compact, closed and orientable sub-manifolds (which we call \emph{singularity manifolds} and represent by $\widetilde{\mathcal{S}}$) removed from it. We define and investigate the problem of finding a homotopy-like class invariant ($χ$-homotopy) for certain $(N-1)$-dimensional compact, closed and orientable sub-manifolds (which we call \emph{candidate manifolds} and represent by $ω$) of $\mathbb{R}^D \setminus \widetilde{\mathcal{S}}$, with special emphasis on computational aspects of the problem.…
In this note we prove some structural properties of all the A1-homotopy invariants of corner skew Laurent polynomial algebras. As an application, we compute de mod-l algebraic K-theory of Leavitt path algebras using solely the kernel/cokernel of the incidence matrix. This leads naturally to some vanishing and divisibility properties of the algebraic K-theory of these algebras.
In this paper we explore new relations between Algebraic Topology and the theory of Hopf Algebras. For an arbitrary topological space $X$, the loop space homology $H_*(ΩΣX; \coefZ)$ is a Hopf algebra. We introduce a new homotopy invariant of a topological space $X$ taking for its value the isomorphism class (over the integers) of the Hopf algebra $H_*(ΩΣX; \coefZ)$. This invariant is trivial if and only if the Hopf algebra $H_*(ΩΣX; \coefZ)$ is isomorphic to a Lie-Hopf algebra, that is, to a primitively generated Hopf algebra. We show that for a given $X$ these invariants are obstructions to t…
Let E(n) and T(m) for nonnegative integers n and m denote the Johnson-Wilson and the Ravenel spectra, respectively. Given a spectrum whose E(n)_*-homology is E(n)_*(T(m))/(v_1,...,v_{n-1}), then each homotopy group of it estimates the order of each homotopy group of L_nT(m). We here study the E(n)-based Adams E_2-term of it and present that the determination of the E_2-term is unexpectedly complex for odd prime case. At the prime two, we determine the E_{infty}-term for pi_*(L_2T(1)/(v_1)), whose computation is easier than that of pi_*(L_2T(1)) as we expect.
