Cheeger-Simons differential characters, Deligne cohomology in the smooth category, the Hopkins-Singer construction of ordinary differential cohomology and the recent Harvey-Lawson constructions are each in two distinct ways Abelian group extensions of known functors. In one desciption these objects are extensions of integral cohomology by the quotient space of all differential forms by the subspace of closed forms with integral periods. In the other they are extensions of closed differential forms with integral periods by the cohomology with coefficients in the circle. These two series of short exact sequences mesh with two interlocking long exact sequences (the Bockstein sequence and a DeRham sequence) to form a commutative DNA-like array of functors called the Character Diagram.
Theorem 1.1 shows that on the category of smooth manifolds and smooth maps any package consisting of a functor into graded abelian groups together with four natural transformations that fit together so as to form a Character Diagram as above is unique up to unique natural equivalence. Theorem 1.2 shows the natural product structure on differential characters is uniquely characterized by its compatibility with the product structures on the known functors in the Character Diagram. The proof of Theorem 1.1 couples the naturality with results about approximating smooth singular cycles and homologies by embedded pseudomanifolds.
On the category of pairs of topological spaces having a homotopy type of $CW$ complexes the singular (co)homology theory was axiomatically studied by J.Milnor. In particular, Milnor gave additivity axiom for a (co)homology theory and proved that any additive (co)homology theory on the given category is isomorphic to the singular (co)homology. On the other hand, the singular homology is a homology with compact support \cite{3}. In the paper \cite{6}, L. Mdzinarishvili proposed {\it partially compact support property} for a cohomology theory and gave another axiomatic characterization of the sin…
The Alexandroff-Čech normal cohomology theory [Mor$_1$], [Bar], [Ba$_1$],[Ba$_2$] is the unique continuous extension \cite{Wat} of the additive cohomology theory [Mil], [Ber-Mdz$_1$] from the category of polyhedral pairs $\mathcal{K}^2_{Pol}$ to the category of closed normally embedded, the so called, $P$-pairs of general topological spaces $\mathcal{K}^2_{Top}$. In this paper we define the Alexander-Spanier normal cohomology theory based on all normal coverings and show that it is isomorphic to the Alexandroff-Čech normal cohomology. Using this fact and methods developed in [Ber-Mdz$_3$] we c…
With $G = \mathbb{Z}/p$, $p$ prime, we calculate the ordinary $G$-cohomology (with Burnside ring coefficients) of $\mathbb{C}P_G^\infty = B_G U(1)$, the complex projective space, a model for the classifying space for $G$-equivariant complex line bundles. The $RO(G)$-graded ordinary cohomology was calculated by Gaunce Lewis, but here we extend to a larger grading in order to capture a more natural set of generators, including the Euler class of the canonical bundle, as well as a significantly simpler set of relations.
We provide a suitable axiomatic framework for differential cohomology in the relative case and we deduce the corresponding long exact sequences. We also construct the relative version of the generalized Cheeger-Simons characters and we define the integration map when the fibre has a boundary.
We study a family of subrings, indexed by the natural numbers, of the mod-p cohomology of a finite group G. These subrings are based on a family of v_n-periodic complex oriented cohomology theories and are constructed as rings of generalised characteristic classes. We identify the varieties associated to these subrings in terms of colimits over categories of elementary abelian subgroups of G, naturally interpolating between the work of Quillen on var(H^*(BG)), the variety of the whole cohomology ring, and that of Green and Leary on the variety of the Chern subring, var(Ch(G)). Our subrings giv…
For any odd squarefree integer r, we get complete description of the G_r=Gal(Q(mu_r)/Q) group cohomology of the universal ordinary distribution U_r in this paper. Moreover, if M is a fixed integer which divides l-1 for all prime factors l of r, we study the cohomology group H^{*}(G_r, U_r/MU_r). In particular, we explain the mysterious construction of the elements kappa_{r'} for r'|r in Rubin's construction of Kolyvagin elements, which come exactly from a certain Z/M Z-basis of the cohomology group H^{0}(G_r, U_r/MU_r) through an evaluation map.
This note contains a generalization to $p>2$ of the authors' previous calculations of the coefficients of $(\mathbb{Z}/2)^n$-equivariant ordinary cohomology with coefficients in the constant $\mathbb{Z}/2$-Mackey functor. The algberaic results by S.Kriz allow us to calculate the coefficients of the geometric fixed point spectrum $Φ^{(\mathbb{Z}/p)^n}H\mathbb{Z}/p$, and more generally, the $\mathbb{Z}$-graded coefficients of the localization of $H\mathbb{Z}/p_{(\mathbb{Z}/p)^n}$ by inverting any chosen set of embeddings $S^0\rightarrow S^{α_i}$ where $α_i$ are non-trivial irreducible representa…
We provide an axiomatic framework for the study of smooth extensions of generalized cohomology theories. Our main results are about the uniqeness of smooth extensions, and the identification of the flat theory with the R/Z-theory. In particular, we show that there is a unique smooth extension of K-theory and of MU-cobordism with a unique multiplication, and that the flat theory in these cases is naturally isomorphic to the homotopy theorist's version of the cohomology theory with R/Z-coefficients. For this we only require a small set of natural compatibility conditions.
Let C be a small category and k a field. There are two interesting mathematical subjects: the category algebra kC and the classifying space |C|=BC. We study the ring homomorphism HH*(kC) --> H*(|C|,k) and prove it is split surjective. This generalizes the well-known results for groups and posets. Based on this result, we construct a seven-dimensional category algebra whose Hochschild cohomology ring modulo nilpotents is not finitely generated, against a conjecture of Snashall and Solberg.
On the basis of Brylinski's work, we introduce a notion of equivariant smooth Deligne cohomology group, which is a generalization of both the ordinary smooth Deligne cohomology and the ordinary equivariant cohomology. Using the cohomology group, we classify equivariant circle bundles with connection, and equivariant gerbes with connection.
Poincare duality lies at the heart of the homological theory of manifolds. In the presence of the action of a group it is well-known that Poincare duality fails in Bredon's ordinary, integer-graded equivariant homology. We give here a detailed account of one way around this problem, which is to extend equivariant ordinary homology to a theory graded on representations of fundamental groupoids. Versions of this theory have appeared previously for actions of finite groups, but this is the first account that works for all compact Lie groups. The first part of this work is a detailed discussion of…
We compute the integral torus-equivariant cohomology ring for weighted projective space for two different torus actions by embedding the cohomology in a sum of polynomial rings $\oplus_{i=0}^n \Z[t_1, t_2,..., t_n]$. One torus action gives a result complementing that of Bahri, Franz, and Ray. For the other torus action, each basis class for weighted projective space is a multiple of the basis class for ordinary projective space; we identify each multiple explicitly. We also give a simple formula for the structure constants of the equivariant cohomology ring of ordinary projective space in term…
While intersection cohomology is stable under small resolutions, both ordinary and intersection cohomology are unstable under smooth deformation of singularities. For complex projective algebraic hypersurfaces with an isolated singularity, we show that the first author's cohomology of intersection spaces is stable under smooth deformations in all degrees except possibly the middle, and in the middle degree precisely when the monodromy action on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber is trivial. In many situations, the isomorphism is shown to be a ring homomorphism induced by a continuous map. This…
Cheeger-Simons differential characters and differential $K$-theory are refinements of ordinary cohomology theory and topological $K$-theory respectively, and they are examples of differential cohomology. Each of these differential cohomology theories fits into a hexagon on the cohomology level. We show that these differential cohomology theories fit into hexagons on the cocycle level, and the hexagons on the cocycle level induce the hexagons on the cohomology level.
Following Eilenberg-Steenrod axiomatic approach we construct the universal ordinary homology theory for any homological structure on a given category by representing ordinary theories with values in abelian categories. For a convenient category of spaces we then obtain a universal abelian category which can be actually described for CW-complexes as the category of hieratic modules.
Locally variational systems of differential equations on smooth manifolds, having certain de Rham cohomology group trivial, automatically possess a global Lagrangian. This important result due to Takens is, how-ever, of sheaf-theoretic nature. A new constructive method of finding a global Lagrangian for second-order ODEs on 2-manifolds is described on the basis of solvability of exactness equation for Lepage 2-forms, and the top-cohomology theorems. Examples from geometry and mechanics are discussed.
By adapting the Cheeger-Simons approach to differential cohomology, we establish a notion of differential cohomology with compact support. We show that it is functorial with respect to open embeddings and that it fits into a natural diagram of exact sequences which compare it to compactly supported singular cohomology and differential forms with compact support, in full analogy to ordinary differential cohomology. We prove an excision theorem for differential cohomology using a suitable relative version. Furthermore, we use our model to give an independent proof of Pontryagin duality for diffe…
The Chern-Dold character of a cohomology theory E is a canonical transformation $E\rightarrow HV$ to ordinary cohomology. A spectrum representing E gives homotopy theoretic cocycles for E, while HV can be represented by singular cocycles. We construct a refinement of the Chern-Dold character to a transformation of the cocycle categories that takes the homotopical composition to the addition of singular cocycles. This is applied to construct additive structures at the level of differential cocycles for generalized differential cohomology.
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.
We generalize the results of a previous paper of ours to compact Lie groups. Using a recently developed ordinary equivariant homology and cohomology, we define equivariant Poincare complexes with the properties that (1) every compact G-manifold is an equivariant Poincare complex, (2) every finite equivariant Poincare complex (with some mild additional hypotheses) has an equivariant spherical Spivak normal fibration, and (3) the Pi-Pi Theorem holds for equivariant Poincare pairs under suitable gap hypotheses. The nice behavior of the ordinary equivariant homology and cohomology theories allows …
We generalize our puzzle formula for ordinary Schubert calculus on Grassmannians, to a formula for the T-equivariant Schubert calculus. The structure constants to be calculated are polynomials in {y_{i+1} - y_i}; they were shown (abstractly) to have positive coefficients in [Graham] math.AG/9908172. Our formula is the first to be manifestly positive in this sense. In particular this gives a new and self-contained proof of the ordinary puzzle formula, by an induction backwards from the "most equivariant" case. The proof of the formula is mostly combinatorial, but requires no prior combinatorics…
This survey paper describes two geometric representations of the permutation group using the tools of toric topology. These actions are extremely useful for computational problems in Schubert calculus. The (torus) equivariant cohomology of the flag variety is constructed using the combinatorial description of Goresky-Kottwitz-MacPherson, discussed in detail. Two permutation representations on equivariant and ordinary cohomology are identified in terms of irreducible representations of the permutation group. We show how to use the permutation actions to construct divided difference operators an…
