For a 2-category 2C we associate a notion of a principal 2C-bundle. In case of the 2-category of 2-vector spaces in the sense of M.M. Kapranov and V.A. Voevodsky this gives the the 2-vector bundles of N.A. Baas, B.I. Dundas and J. Rognes. Our main result says that the geometric nerve of a good 2-category is a classifying space for the associated principal 2-bundles. In the process of proving this we develop a lot of powerful machinery which may be useful in further studies of 2-categorical topology. As a corollary we get a new proof of the classification of principal bundles. A calculation based on the main theorem shows that the principal 2-bundles associated to the 2-category of 2-vector spaces in the sense of J.C. Baez and A.S. Crans split, up to concordance, as two copies of ordinary vector bundles. When 2C is a cobordism type 2-category we get a new notion of cobordism-bundles which turns out to be classified by the Madsen-Weiss spaces.
Starting categorically, we give simple and precise models of equivariant classifying spaces. We need these models for work in progress in equivariant infinite loop space theory and equivariant algebraic K-theory, but the models are of independent interest in equivariant bundle theory and especially equivariant covering space theory.
We consider Γ-equivariant principal G-bundles over proper Γ-CW-complexes with prescribed family of local representations. We construct and analyze their classifying spaces for locally compact, second countable topological groups with finite covering dimension Γand G such that G is almost connected.
We study the homotopy aspects of the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules. Using Sullivan's rational homotopy theory, we realize the twisted Chern classes at the level of classifying spaces. The construction suggests a notion, which we call fractional U-structure serving as a universal framework to study the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules from the perspective of classifying spaces. Based on this, we introduce and study higher fractional structures on torsion bundle gerbe modules parallel to the higher structures on ordinary vector bundles.
Let $f:E\longrightarrow O$ be a Hurewicz fibration with a fiber space $F_{r_{o}}$ and a lifting function $L_{f}$. The \emph{$Lf-$function} $Θ_{L_{f}}$ of $f$ is defined by the restriction map of $L_{f}$ on the space $Ω(O,r_{o})\times F_{r_{o}}\times \{1\}$. The purpose of this paper is to give some results which show the role of $Lf-$functions in finding a fiber homotopically equivalent relation between two fibrations, over a common polyhedron base. Furthermore we will prove the equivalently between our results and Dold's theorem in fiber bundles, over a common suspension base of polyhedron sp…
Let $G$ be an infinite discrete group and let $\underline{E}G$ be a classifying space for proper actions of $G$. Every $G$-equivariant vector bundle over $\underline{E}G$ gives rise to a compatible collection of representations of the finite subgroups of $G$. We give the first examples of groups $G$ with a cocompact classifying space for proper actions $\underline{E}G$ admitting a compatible collection of representations of the finite subgroups of $G$ that does not come from a $G$-equivariant (virtual) vector bundle over $\underline{E}G$. This implies that the Atiyah-Hirzeburch spectral sequen…
We prove that every finite connected simplicial complex is homotopy equivalent to the quotient of a contractible manifold by proper actions of a virtually torsion-free group. As a corollary, we obtain that every finite connected simplicial complex is homotopy equivalent to the classifying space for proper bundles of some virtual Poincaré duality group.
We give a new description of Rosenthal's generalized homotopy fixed point spaces as homotopy limits over the orbit category. This is achieved using a simple categorical model for classifying spaces with respect to families of subgroups.
Let G be a discrete group for which the classifying space for proper G-actions is finite-dimensional. We find a space W such that for any such G, the classifying space PBG for proper G-bundles has the homotopy type of the W-nullification of BG. We use this to deduce some results concerning PBG and in some cases where there is a good model for PBG we obtain information about the BZ/p-nullification of BG.
In this paper we obtain a description of the Grothendieck group of complex vector bundles over the classifying space of a p-local finite group in terms of representation rings of subgroups of its Sylow. We also prove a stable elements formula for generalized cohomological invariants of p-local finite groups, which is used to show the existence of unitary embeddings of p-local finite groups. Finally, we show that the augmentation map for the cochains of the classifying space of a p-local finite group is Gorenstein in the sense of Dwyer-Greenlees-Iyengar and obtain some consequences about the co…
We describe $K(BS_4)$ and make a connection of the order of the bundle induced from the standart representation over the four dimensional skeleton of $BS_4$ with the stable homotopy group $π_3^s=Z_{24}$ explaining the reasons of this connection by pulling this bundle over lens spaces.
We describe various approaches to understanding Fukaya categories of cotangent bundles. All of the approaches rely on introducing a suitable class of noncompact Lagrangian submanifolds. We review the work of Nadler-Zaslow (math/0604379, math/0612399) and the authors (math/0701783), before discussing a new approach using family Floer cohomology and the ``wrapped Fukaya category''. The latter, inspired by Viterbo's symplectic homology, emphasises the connection to loop spaces, hence seems particularly suitable when trying to extend the existing theory beyond the simply-connected case.
A gauge group is the topological group of automorphisms of a principal bundle. We compute the integral cohomology ring of the classifying spaces of gauge groups of principal U(n)-bundles over the 2-sphere by generalizing the operation for free loop spaces, called the free double suspension.
For any topological bicategory B, the Duskin nerve NB of B is a simplicial space. We introduce the classifying topos BB of B as the Deligne topos of sheaves Sh(NB) on the simplicial space NB. It is shown that the category of geometric morphisms Hom(Sh(X),BB) from the topos of sheaves Sh(X) on a topological space X to the Deligne classifying topos is naturally equivalent to the category of principal B-bundles. As a simple consequence, the geometric realization |NB| of the nerve NB of a locally contractible topological bicategory B is the classifying space of principal B-bundles, giving a varian…
Categorifying the concept of topological group, one obtains the notion of a 'topological 2-group'. This in turn allows a theory of 'principal 2-bundles' generalizing the usual theory of principal bundles. It is well-known that under mild conditions on a topological group G and a space M, principal G-bundles over M are classified by either the first Cech cohomology of M with coefficients in G, or the set of homotopy classes [M,BG], where BG is the classifying space of G. Here we review work by Bartels, Jurco, Baas-Bokstedt-Kro, and others generalizing this result to topological 2-groups and eve…
The talk was done at the International Conference "Analysis, Topology and Applications", Harbin, China, 23.08.2011. Transitive Lie algebroids have specific properties that allow to look at the transitive Lie algebroid as an element of the object of a homotopy functor. Roughly speaking each transitive Lie algebroids can be described as a vector bundle over the tangent bundle of the manifold which is endowed with additional structures. Therefore transitive Lie algebroids admits a construction of inverse image generated by a smooth mapping of smooth manifolds. The intention of my talk is to use a…
We give an explicit decription for univeral principal U(r)-bundles with periodic map by means of equivariant Stiefel manifolds. We then show that the associated equivariant vector bundle is equivalent to the canonical one given by G. Segal. Finally, we investigate some ideals involved in the equivariant K-theory of this classifying space.
Every principal G-bundle is classified up to equivalence by a homotopy class of maps into the classifying space of G. On the other hand, for every nice topological space Milnor constructed a strict model of loop space, that is a group. Moreover the morphisms of topological groups defined on the loop space of X generate all the bundles over X up to equivalence. In this paper, we show that the relationship between Milnor's loop space and the classifying space functor is, in a precise sense, an adjoint pair between based spaces and topological groups in a homotopical context. This proof leads to …
We develop a generalization of the theory of Thom spectra using the language of infinity categories. This treatment exposes the conceptual underpinnings of the Thom spectrum functor: we use a new model of parametrized spectra, and our definition is motivated by the geometric definition of Thom spectra of May-Sigurdsson. For an associative ring spectrum $R$, we associate a Thom spectrum to a map of infinity categories from the infinity groupoid of a space $X$ to the infinity category of free rank one $R$-modules, which we show is a model for $BGL_1 R$; we show that $BGL_1 R$ classifies homotopy…
In the present paper we study bundles equipped with extra homotopy conditions, in particular so-called simplicial $n$-bundles. It is shown that (under some condition) the classifying space of 1-bundles is the double coset space of some finite dimensional Lie group. We also establish some relation between our bundles and C*-algebras.
Characteristic classes of oriented vector bundles can be identified with cohomology classes of the disjoint union of classifying spaces BSO_n of special orthogonal groups SO_n with n=0,1,... A characteristic class is stable if it extends to a cohomology class of a homotopy colimit BSO of classifying spaces BSO_n. Similarly, characteristic classes of smooth oriented manifold bundles with fibers given by oriented closed smooth manifolds of a fixed dimension d\ge 0 can be identified with cohomology classes of the disjoint union of classifying spaces BDiff M of orientation preserving diffeomorphis…
We formulate and prove a new variant of the Segal Conjecture describing the group of homotopy classes of stable maps from the p-completed classifying space of a finite group G to the classifying space of a compact Lie group K as the p-adic completion of the Grothendieck group of finite principal (G,K)-bundles whose isotropy groups are p-groups. Collecting the result for different primes p, we get a new and simple description of the group of homotopy classes of stable maps between (uncompleted) classifying spaces of groups. This description allows us to determine the kernel of the map from the …
Given a fiber bundle, we construct a differential graded Lie algebra model for the classifying space of the monoid of homotopy equivalences of the base covered by a fiberwise isomorphism of the total space.
We compare two notions of $G$-fiber bundles and $G$-principal bundles in the literature, with an aim to clarify early results in equivariant bundle theory that are needed in current work of equivariant algebraic topology. We also give proofs of some equivariant generalizations of well-known non-equivariant results involving the classifying space.
In this paper we study the classifying theory of principal bundles in the parametrized setting, motivated by recent interest in higher gauge theory. Using simplicial techniques, we construct a product-preserving classifying space functor for groups in the category of spaces over a fixed space B. Additionally, we prove that the fiberwise geometric realization functor sends a large class of simplicial parametrized principal bundles to ordinary parametrized principal bundles. As an application we show that the fiberwise geometric realization of the universal simplicial principal bundle for a simp…
In this article we consider a space B_{com}G assembled from commuting elements in a Lie group G first defined in [Adem, Cohen, Torres-Giese 2012]. We describe homotopy-theoretic properties of these spaces using homotopy colimits, and their role as a classifying space for transitionally commutative bundles. We prove that ZxB_{com}U is a loop space and define a notion of commutative K-theory for bundles over a finite complex X which is isomorphic to [X,ZxB_{com}U]. We compute the rational cohomology of B_{com}G for G equal to any of the classical groups U(n), SU(n) and Sp(n), and exhibit the rat…
The main result of this paper is a new classification theorem for links (smooth embeddings in codimension 2). The classifying space is the rack space (defined in [Trunks and classifying spaces, Applied Categorical Structures, 3 (1995) 321--356]) and the classifying bundle is the first James bundle (defined in "James bundles" math.AT/0301354). We investigate the algebraic topology of this classifying space and report on calculations given elsewhere. Apart from defining many new knot and link invariants (including generalised James--Hopf invariants), the classification theorem has some unexpecte…
This work contributes to clarifying several relationships between certain higher categorical structures and the homotopy type of their classifying spaces. Bicategories (in particular monoidal categories) have well understood simple geometric realizations, and we here deal with homotopy types represented by lax diagrams of bicategories, that is, lax functors to the tricategory of bicategories. In this paper, it is proven that, when a certain bicategorical Grothendieck construction is performed on a lax diagram of bicategories, then the classifying space of the resulting bicategory can be though…
We describe the moduli space of extensions in the model category of simplicial presheaves. This article can be seen as a generalization of Blomgren-Chacholski results in the case of simplicial sets. Our description of the moduli space of extensions treat the equivariant and the nonequivariant case in the same setting. As a new result, we describe the moduli space of M-bundles over a fixed space X, when M is a simplicial monoid. Moreover, the moduli space of M-bundles is classified by the classifying space of the simplicial submonoid generated by homotopy invertible elements of M. We give a gen…
We classify SO(n)-equivariant principal bundles over $S^n$ in terms of their isotropy representations over the north and south poles. This is an example of a general result classifying equivariant $(Π, G)$-bundles over cohomogeneity one manifolds.
Let $\mathbf{B}PU_{n}$ be the classifying space of $PU_n$, the projective unitary group of order $n$, for $n>1$. We use the Serre spectral sequence associated to a fiber sequence $\mathbf{B}U_n\rightarrow\mathbf{B}PU_n\rightarrow K(\mathbb{Z},3)$ to determine the ring structure of $H^{*}(\mathbf{B}PU_{n}; \mathbb{Z})$ up to degree $10$, as well as a family of distinguished elements of $H^{2p+2}(\mathbf{B}PU_{n}; \mathbb{Z})$, for each prime divisor $p$ of $n$. We also study the primitive elements of $H^*(\mathbf{B}U_n;\mathbb{Z})$ as a comodule over $H^*(K(\mathbb{Z},2);\mathbb{Z})$, where the…
The homotopy theory of higher categorical structures has become a relevant part of the machinery of algebraic topology and algebraic K-theory, and this paper contains contributions to the study of the relationship between Bénabou's bicategories and the homotopy types of their classifying spaces. Mainly, we state and prove an extension of Quillen's Theorem B by showing, under reasonable necessary conditions, a bicategory-theoretical interpretation of the homotopy-fibre product of the continuous maps induced on classifying spaces by a diagram of bicategories $\mathcal{A}\to\mathcal{B}\leftarrow …
Let $G$ be a simply-connected, simple compact Lie group of type $\{n_{1},\ldots,n_{\ell}\}$, where $n_{1}\le\cdots \le n_{\ell}$. Let $\mathcal{G}_k$ be the gauge group of the principal $G$-bundle (namedright{P}{}{S^{4}}) whose isomorphism class is determined by the the second Chern class having value $k\in\mathbb{Z}$. We calculate the mod-$p$ homology of the classifying space $B\mathcal{G}_k$ provided that $n_{\ell}<p-1$ and $p$ does not divide $k$.
In this paper we describe a classifying theory for families of simplicial topological groups. If $B$ is a topological space and $G$ is a simplicial topological group, then we can consider the non-abelian cohomology $H(B,G)$ of $B$ with coefficients in $G$. If $G$ is a topological group, thought of as a constant simplicial group, then the set $H(B,G)$ is the set of isomorphism classes of principal $G$ bundles, or $G$ torsors, on $B$. For more general simplicial groups $G$, the set $H(B,G)$ parametrizes the set of equivalence classes of higher $G$ torsors on $B$. In this paper we consider a more…
We compute the Chow-Witt rings of the classifying spaces for the symplectic and special linear groups. In the structural description we give, contributions from real and complex realization are clearly visible. In particular, the computation of cohomology with $\mathbf{I}^j$-coefficients is done closely along the lines of Brown's computation of integral cohomology for special orthogonal groups. The computations for the symplectic groups show that Chow-Witt groups are a symplectically oriented ring cohomology theory. Using our computations for special linear groups, we also discuss the question…
For $G$ a topological group, existence theorems by Milnor (1956), Gelfand-Fuks (1968), and Segal (1975) of classifying spaces for principal $G$-bundles are generalized to $G$-spaces with torsion. Namely, any $G$-space approximately covered by tubes (a generalization of local trivialization) is the pullback of a universal space indexed by the orbit types of tubes and cardinality of the cover. For $G$ a Lie group, via a metric model we generalize the corresponding uniqueness theorem by Palais (1960) and Bredon (1972) for compact $G$. Namely, the $G$-homeomorphism types of proper $G$-spaces over …
This paper studies the homotopy theory of parameterized spectrum objects in a model category from a global point of view. More precisely, for a model category $\mathcal{M}$ satisfying suitable conditions, we construct a relative model category $\mathcal{TM} \to \mathcal{M}$, called the tangent bundle, whose fibers are models for spectra in the various over-categories of $\mathcal{M}$, and which presents the $\infty$-categorical tangent bundle. Moreover, the tangent bundle $\mathcal{TM}$ inherits an enriched model structure when such a structure exists on $\mathcal{M}$. This additional structur…
We define the orbit category for transitive topological groupoids and their equivariant CW-complexes. By using these constructions we define equivariant Bredon homology and cohomology for actions of transitive topological groupoids. We show how these theories can be obtained by looking at the action of a single isotropy group on a fiber of the anchor map, extending equivariant results for compact group actions. We also show how this extension from a single isotropy group to the entire groupoid action can be applied to the structure of principal bundles and classifying spaces.
We study the problem of classifying projectivizations of rank-two vector bundles over ${\mathbb P}^2$ up to various notions of equivalence that arise naturally in ${\mathbb A}^1$-homotopy theory, namely ${\mathbb A}^1$-weak equivalence and ${\mathbb A}^1$-$h$-cobordism. First, we classify such varieties up to ${\mathbb A}^1$-weak equivalence: over algebraically closed fields having characteristic unequal to two the classification can be given in terms of characteristic classes of the underlying vector bundle. When the base field is ${\mathbb C}$, this classification result can be compared to a…
Hurwitz spaces are homotopy quotients of the braid group action on the moduli space of principal bundles over a punctured plane. By considering a certain model for this homotopy quotient we build an aspherical topological operad that we call the little bundles operad. As our main result, we describe this operad as a groupoid-valued operad in terms of generators and relations and prove that the categorical little bundles algebras are precisely Turaev's crossed categories. Moreover, we prove that the evaluation on the circle of a homotopical two-dimensional equivariant topolological field theory…
We use classical results in smoothing theory to extract information about the rational homotopy groups of the space of negatively curved metrics on a high dimensional manifold. It is also shown that smooth M-bundles over spheres equipped with fiberwise negatively curved metrics, represent elements of finite order in the homotopy groups of the classifying space for smooth M-bundles, provided the dimension of M is large enough.
Let G be a connected Lie group, G^d the underlying discrete group, and BG, BG^d their classifying spaces. Let R denote the radical of G. We show that all classes in the image of the canonical map in cohomology H^*(BG,R)->H^*(BG^d,R) are bounded if and only if the derived group [R,R] is simply connected. We also give equivalent conditions in terms of stable commutator length and distortion.
Given an arbitrary topological complex vector space $A$, a quotient vector bundle for $A$ is a quotient of a trivial vector bundle $π_2:A\times X\to X$ by a fiberwise linear continuous open surjection. We show that this notion subsumes that of a Banach bundle over a locally compact Hausdorff space $X$. Hyperspaces consisting of linear subspaces of $A$, topologized with natural topologies that include the lower Vietoris topology and the Fell topology, provide classifying spaces for various classes of quotient vector bundles, in a way that generalizes the classification of locally trivial vector…
We extend the formalism of Topological T-duality to spaces which are the total space of a principal $S^1$-bundle $p:E \to W$ with an $H$-flux in $H^3(E,Z)$ together the together with an automorphism of the continuous-trace algebra on $E$ determined by $H$. The automorphism is a `topological approximation' to a gerby gauge transformation of spacetime. We motivate this physically from Buscher's Rules for T-duality. Using the Equivariant Brauer Group, we connect this problem to the $C^{\ast}$-algebraic formalism of Topological T-duality of Mathai and Rosenberg. We show that the study of this prob…
Every small category $C$ has a classifying space $BC$ associated in a natural way. This construction can be extended to other contexts and set up a fruitful interaction between categorical structures and homotopy types. In this paper we study the classifying space $B_2C$ of a 2-category $C$ and prove that, under certain conditions, the loop space $Ω_c B_2C$ can be recovered up to homotopy from the endomorphisms of a given object. We also present several subsidiary results that we develop to prove our main theorem.
