Given a topological group G, its orbit category Orb_G has the transitive G-spaces G/H as objects and the G-equivariant maps between them as morphisms. A well known theorem of Elmendorf then states that the category of G-spaces and the category of contravariant functors Func(Orb_G,Spaces) have equivalent homotopy theories. We extend this result to the context of orbispaces, with the role of Orb_G now played by a category whose objects are topological groups and whose morphisms are given by Hom(H,G) = Mono(H,G) x_G EG. On our way, we endow the category of topological groupoids with notions of weak equivalence, fibrant objects, and cofibrant objects, and show that it then shares many of the properties of a Quillen model category.
Constructing and manipulating homotopy types from categorical input data has been an important theme in algebraic topology for decades. Every category gives rise to a `classifying space', the geometric realization of the nerve. Up to weak homotopy equivalence, every space is the classifying space of a small category. More is true: the entire homotopy theory of topological spaces and continuous maps can be modeled by categories and functors. We establish a vast generalization of the equivalence of the homotopy theories of categories and spaces: small categories represent refined homotopy types …
This paper identifies the homotopy theories of topological stacks and orbispaces with unstable global homotopy theory. At the same time, we provide a new perspective by interpreting it as the homotopy theory of `spaces with an action of the universal compact Lie group'. The upshot is a novel way to construct and study genuine cohomology theories on stacks, orbifolds, and orbispaces, defined from stable global homotopy types represented by orthogonal spectra. The universal compact Lie group (which is neither compact nor a Lie group) is a well known object, namely the topological monoid $\mathca…
This paper proves that the two homotopy theories for orbispaces given by Gepner and Henriques and by Schwede, respectively, agree by providing a zig-zag of Dwyer-Kan equivalences between the respective topologically enriched index categories. The aforementioned authors establish various models for unstable global homotopy theory with compact Lie group isotropy, and orbispaces serve as a common denominator for their particular approaches. Although the two flavors of orbispaces are expected to agree with each other, a concrete comparison zig-zag has not been known so far. We bridge this gap by p…
In 1985, physicists Dixon, Harvey, Vafa and Witten studied string theories on Calabi-Yau orbifolds (cf. [DHVW]). An interesting discovery in their paper was the prediction that a certain physicist's Euler number of the orbifold must be equal to the Euler number of any of its crepant resolutions. This was soon related to the so called McKay correspondence in mathematics (cf. [McK]). Later developments include stringy Hodge numbers (cf. [Z], [BD]), mirror symmetry of Calabi-Yau orbifolds (cf. [Ro]), and most recently the Gromov-Witten invariants of symplectic orbifolds (cf. [CR1-2]). One common …
``An orbifold is a space which is locally modeled on the quotient of a vector space by a finite group.'' This sentence is so easily said or written that more than one person has missed some of the subtleties hidden by orbifolds. Orbifolds were first introduced by Satake under the name ``V-manifold'' and rediscovered by Thurston who called them ``orbifolds''. Both of them used only faithful actions to define their orbifolds (these are the so called reduced orbifolds). This intuitive restriction is very unnatural mathematically if we want for example to study suborbifolds. Orbispaces are to topo…
We study the topology of T-duality for pairs of U(1)-bundles and three-dimensional integral cohomology classes over orbispaces. In particular, our results apply to U(1)-spaces with finite isotropy. We generalize the theory developed in our previous paper math.GT/0405132 from spaces to orbispaces.
Lie groupoids generalize transformation groups, and so provide a natural language for studying orbifolds and other noncommutative geometries. In this paper, we investigate a connection between orbifolds and equivariant stable homotopy theory using such groupoids. A different sort of twisted sector, along with a classical theorem of tom Dieck, allows for a natural definition of stable orbifold homotopy groups, and motivates defining extended unstable orbifold homotopy groups generalizing previous definitions.
For a given group $G$ and a collection of subgroups $\mathcal F$ of $G$, we show that there exist a left induced model structure on the category of right $G$-simplicial sets, in which the weak equivalences and cofibrations are the maps that induce weak equivalences and cofibrations on the $H$-orbits for all $H$ in $\mathcal F$. This gives a model categorical criterion for maps that induce weak equivalences on $H$-orbits to be weak equivalences in the $\mathcal F$-model structure.
We give a general method that may be effectively applied to the question of whether two components of a function space have the same homotopy type. We describe certain group-like actions on function spaces. Our basic results assert that if two maps are in the same orbit under such an action, then the components of the function space that contain these maps have the same homotopy type.
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.
We prove that the space of gauge equivalence classes of U(1)-invariant connections on some SU(2)-principle bundles over the 4-sphere S^4 is weakly homotopy equivalent to a component of the second loop space of the 2-sphere S^2.
Let G be a finite group given in one of the forms listed in the title with period 2d and X(n) an n-dimensional CW-complex with the homotopy type of an n-sphere. We study the automorphism group Aut(G) to compute the number of distinct homotopy types of orbit spaces X(2dn-1)/μwith respect to free and cellular G-actions μon all CW-complexes X(2dn-1). At the end, the groups E(X(2dn-1)/μ) of self homotopy equivalences of orbit spaces X(2dn-1)/μassociated with free and cellular G-actions μon X(2dn-1) are determined.
Let G be a finite group. The unit sphere in a finite-dimensional orthogonal G-representation motivates the definition of homotopy representations, due to tom Dieck. We introduce an algebraic analogue, and establish its basic properties including the Borel-Smith conditions and realization by finite G-CW-complexes.
Let $f$ be a real- or circle-valued Morse function on a compact surface M having exactly $n>0$ critical points. Denote by $O$ the orbit of $f$ with respect to the right action of the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$. We show that the connected components of $O$ have the homotopy type of a finite-dimensional CW-complex. Actually, these connected components are homotopy equivalent to a certain covering space of the $n$-th configuration space of the interior of $M$. As a consequence we obtain that the fundamental group of $O$ is a subgroup of the $n$-th braid group of $M$.
Under certain conditions, we describe the homotopy type of the homo-topy fibre of the inclusion map F\_n(X) $\rightarrow$ $\prod$\_1^n X for the n-th configuration space F\_n(X) of a topological manifold X without boundary such that dim(X) $\ge$ 3. We then apply our results to the cases where either the universal covering of X is contractible or X is an orbit space S^k/G of a tame, free action of a Lie group G on the k-sphere S^k. If the group G is finite and k is odd, we give a full description of the long exact sequence in homotopy of the homotopy fibration of the inclusion map F\_n(S^k/G) $…
For a finitely presented discrete group $Γ$, we introduce two generalizations of the orbifold Euler characteristic and $Γ$-orbifold Euler characteristic to a class of proper topological groupoids large enough to include all cocompact proper Lie groupoids. The $Γ$-Euler characteristic is defined as an integral with respect to the Euler characteristic over the orbit space of the groupoid, and the $Γ$-inertia Euler characteristic is the usual Euler characteristic of the $Γ$-inertia space associated to the groupoid. A key ingredient is the application of o-minimal structures to study orbit spaces …
We introduce and compare two approaches to equivariant homotopy theory in a topological or ordinary Quillen model category. For the topological model category of spaces, we generalize Piacenza's result that the categories of topological presheaves indexed by the orbit category of a fixed topological group $G$ and the category of $G$-spaces can be endowed with Quillen equivalent model category structures. We prove an analogous result for any cofibrantly generated model category and discrete group $G$, under certain conditions on the fixed point functors of the subgroups of $G$. These conditions…
Let A be a dg category, F:A->A a dg functor inducing an equivalence of categories in degree-zero cohomology, and A/F the associated dg orbit category. For every A1-homotopy invariant (e.g. homotopy K-theory, K-theory with coefficients, etale K-theory and periodic cyclic homology), we construct a distinguished triangle expressing E(A/F) as the cone of the endomorphism E(F)-Id of E(A). In the particular case where F is the identity dg functor, this triangle splits and gives rise to the fundamental theorem. As a first application, we compute the A1-homotopy invariants of cluster (dg) categories, …
Let U be a unipotent group over the field of complex numbers C, acting on a complex algebraic variety X. Assume that there exists a surjective morphism of complex algebraic varieties f: X --> Y whose fibres are orbits of U. We show that if X and Y are smooth and all orbits of U in X have the same dimension, then the induced map on C-points X(C) --> Y(C) is a homotopy equivalence. Moreover, if U, X, Y, and f are defined over the field of real numbers R, then the induced map on R-points X(R) --> Y(R) is surjective and induces homotopy equivalences on connected components.
In this paper we describe and continue the study begun by the author, Jones, and Segal, of the homotopy theory that underlies Floer theory. In that paper the authors addressed the question of realizing a Floer complex as the celluar chain complex of a CW -spectrum or pro-spectrum, where the attaching maps are determined by the compactified moduli spaces of connecting orbits. The basic obstructions to the existence of this realization are the smoothness of these moduli spaces, and the existence of compatible collections of framings of their stable tangent bundles. In this note we describe a gen…
We describe various equivalent ways of associating to an orbifold, or more generally a higher étale differentiable stack, a weak homotopy type. Some of these ways extend to arbitrary higher stacks on the site of smooth manifolds, and we show that for a differentiable stack X arising from a Lie groupoid G, the weak homotopy type of X agrees with that of BG. Using this machinery, we are able to find new presentations for the weak homotopy type of certain classifying spaces. In particular, we give a new presentation for the Borel construction of an almost free action of a Lie group G on a smooth …
We give rigorous foundations for parametrized homotopy theory in this monograph. After preliminaries on point-set topology, base change functors, and proper actions of non-compact Lie groups, we develop the homotopy theory of equivariant ex-spaces (spaces over and under a given space) and of equivariant parametrized spectra. We emphasize several issues of independent interest and include much new material on the general theory of topologically enriched model categories. The essential point is to resolve problems in parametrized homotopy theory that have no nonparametrized counterparts. In cont…
Let $G$ be a group acting freely, properly discontinuously and cellularly on a finite dimensional $C$W-complex $Σ(2n)$ which has the homotopy type of the $2n$- sphere $\mathbb{S}^{2n}$. Then, this action induces an action of the group $G$ on the top cohomology of $Σ(2n)$. For the family of virtually cyclic groups, we classify all groups which act on $Σ(2n)$, the homotopy type of all possible orbit spaces and all actions on the top cohomology as well. \par Under the hypothesis that $\mbox{dim}\,Σ(2n)\leq 2n+1$, we study the groups with the virtual cohomological dimension $\mbox{vcd}\,G<\infty$ …
Let $f:T^2\to\mathbb{R}$ be a Morse function on a 2-torus, $\mathcal{S}(f)$ and $\mathcal{O}(f)$ be its stabilizer and orbit with respect to the right action of the group $\mathcal{D}(T^2)$ of diffeomorphisms of $T^2$, $\mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{id}}(T^2)$ be the identity path component of $\mathcal{D}(T^2)$, and $\mathcal{S}'(f) = \mathcal{S}(f) \cap \mathcal{D}_{\mathrm{id}}(T^2)$. We give sufficient conditions under which $$ π_1\mathcal{O}_f(f) \ \cong \ π_1\mathcal{D}(T^2) \times π_0 \mathcal{S}'(f) \ \equiv \ \mathbb{Z}^2 \times π_0 \mathcal{S}'(f).$$ In fact this result holds for a larger cla…
In this paper, we investigate the properties of the category of equivariant diagram spectra indexed on the category W_G of based G-spaces homeomorphic to finite G-CW-complexes for a compact Lie group G. Using the machinery of Mandell, May, Schwede, and Shipley, we show that there is a "stable model structure" on this category of diagram spectra which admits a monoidal Quillen equivalence to the category of orthogonal G-spectra. We construct a second "absolute stable model structure" which is Quillen equivalent to the "stable model structure". Our main result is a concrete identification of the…
Informally, an orbifold is a smooth space whose points may have finitely many internal symmetries. Formally, however, the notion of orbifold has been presented in a number of different guises -- from Satake's V-manifolds to Moerdijk and Pronk's proper étale groupoids -- which do not on their face resemble the informal definition. The reason for this divergence between formalism and intuition is that the points of spaces cannot have internal symmetries in traditional, set-level foundations. The extra data of these symmetries must be carried around and accounted for throughout the theory. More d…
We show that a category $\mathscr{M}$ equipped with a model structure defined by a proper, locally small class of orbits $\mathscr{O}$ is Quillen equivalent to the category of small relative presheaves $\mathcal{P}(\mathscr{M},\mathscr{O})$.
We consider the topology for a class of hypersurfaces with highly nonisolated singularites which arise as exceptional orbit varieties of a special class of prehomogeneous vector spaces, which are representations of linear algebraic groups with open orbits. These hypersurface singularities include both determinantal hypersurfaces and linear free (and free*) divisors. Although these hypersurfaces have highly nonisolated singularities, we determine the topology of their Milnor fibers, complements and links. We do so by using the action of linear algebraic groups beginning with the complement, ins…
This very speculative sketch suggests that a theory of fundamental groupoids for tensor triangulated categories could be used to describe the ring of integers as the singular fiber in a family of ring-spectra parametrized by a structure space for the stable homotopy category, and that Bousfield localization might be part of a theory of `nearby' cycles for stacks or orbifolds.
We study higher analogues of effective and effectual topological complexity of spaces equipped with a group action. These are $G$-homotopy invariant and are motivated by the (higher) motion planning problem of $G$-spaces for which their group action is thought of as an external system assisting the motion planning. Related to this interpretation we define what we call orbital topological complexity, which is also a $G$-homotopy invariant that provides an upper bound for the topological complexity of the quotient space by the group action. We apply these concepts to actions of the group of orde…
We introduce the notion of a strongly homotopy-comultiplicative resolution of a module coalgebra over a chain Hopf algebra, which we apply to proving a comultiplicative enrichment of a well-known theorem of Moore concerning the homology of quotient spaces of group actions. The importance of our enriched version of Moore's theorem lies in its application to the construction of useful cochain algebra models for computing multiplicative structure in equivariant cohomology. In the special cases of homotopy orbits of circle actions on spaces and of group actions on simplicial sets, we obtain small,…
Let G be a real reductive algebraic group with maximal compact subgroup K, and let F be a rank r free group. Here, we summarize the construction of a natural strong deformation retraction from the space of closed orbits in Hom(F,G)/G to the orbit space Hom(F,K)/K. In particular, these spaces have the same homotopy type.
We propose a new homotopy invariant for Lie groupoids which generalizes the classical Lusternik-Schnirelmann category for topological spaces. We use a bicategorical approach to develop a notion of contraction in this context. We propose a notion of homotopy between generalized maps given by the 2-arrows in a certain bicategory of fractions. This notion is invariant under Morita equivalence. Thus, when the groupoid defines an orbifold, we have a well defined LS-category for orbifolds. We prove an orbifold version of the classical Lusternik-Schnirelmann theorem for critical points.
For a profinite group, we construct a model structure on profinite spaces and profinite spectra with a continuous action. This yields descent spectral sequences for the homotopy groups of homotopy fixed point space and for stable homotopy groups of homotopy orbit spaces. Our main example is the Galois action on profinite étale topological types of varieties over a field. One motivation is to understand Grothendieck's section conjecture in terms of homotopy fixed points.
We construct model category structures on various types of (marked) *-categories. These structures are used to present the infinity categories of (marked) *-categories obtained by inverting (marked) unitary equivalences. We use this presentation to explicitly calculate the \infty-categorical G-fixed points and G-orbits for G-equivariant (marked) *-categories.
For an orbifold M we define a homology group, called t-singular homology group t-H_q(M), which depends not only on the topological structure of the underlying space of M, but also on the orbifold structure of M. We prove that it is a b-homotopy invariant of orbifolds. If M is a manifold, t-H_q(M) coincides with the usual singular homology group. We calculate the t-singular homology groups with Z-coefficients of several orbifolds. The t-singular homology group with rational coefficients of an orbifold M is isomorphic to the singular homology group with rational coefficients of M (and to that of…
Given a simply connected, closed four manifold, we associate to it a simply connected, closed, spin five manifold. This leads to several consequences : the stable and unstable homotopy groups of such a four manifold is determined by its second Betti number, and the ranks of the homotopy groups can be explicitly calculated. We show that for a generic metric on such a smooth four manifold with second Betti number at least three, the number of geometrically distinct periodic geodesics of length at most l grow exponentially as a function of l. The number of closed Reeb orbits of length at most l o…
Given a finite $\mathbb{Z}_2$-graded group $\hat{\mathsf{G}}$ with ungraded subgroup $\mathsf{G}$ and a twisted cocycle $\hatλ \in Z^n(B \hat{\mathsf{G}}; \mathsf{U}(1)_π)$ which restricts to $λ\in Z^n(B \mathsf{G}; \mathsf{U}(1))$, we construct a lift of $λ$-twisted $\mathsf{G}$-Dijkgraaf--Witten theory to an unoriented topological quantum field theory. Our construction uses a new class of homotopy field theories, which we call orientation twisted. We also introduce an orientation twisted variant of the orbifold procedure, which produces an unoriented topological field theory from an orientat…
In a previous article, we introduced notions of finiteness obstruction, Euler characteristic, and L^2-Euler characteristic for wide classes of categories. In this sequel, we prove the compatibility of those notions with homotopy colimits of I-indexed categories where I is any small category admitting a finite I-CW-model for its I-classifying space. Special cases of our Homotopy Colimit Formula include formulas for products, homotopy pushouts, homotopy orbits, and transport groupoids. We also apply our formulas to Haefliger complexes of groups, which extend Bass--Serre graphs of groups to highe…
Motivated by ideas from stable homotopy theory we study the space of strongly homotopy associative multiplications on a two-cell chain complex. In the simplest case this moduli space is isomorphic to the set of orbits of a group of invertible power series acting on a certain space. The Hochschild cohomology rings of resulting A-infinity algebras have an interpretation as totally ramified extensions of discrete valuation rings. All A-infinity algebras are supposed to be unital and we give a detailed analysis of unital structures which is of independent interest.
The symplectomorphism group of a 2-dimensional surface is homotopy equivalent to the orbit of a filling system of curves. We give a generalization of this statement to dimension 4. The filling system of curves is replaced by a decomposition of the symplectic 4-manifold (M, omega) into a disjoint union of an isotropic 2-complex L and a disc bundle over a symplectic surface Sigma which is Poincare dual to a multiple of the form omega. We show that then one can recover the homotopy type of the symplectomorphism group of M from the orbit of the pair (L, Sigma). This allows us to compute the homoto…
We give a general framework for studying G-CW complexes via the orbit category. As an application we show that the symmetric group G=S_5 admits a finite G-CW complex X homotopy equivalent to a sphere, with cyclic isotropy subgroups.
Let $M$ be a smooth compact connected surface, $P$ be either the real line $\mathbb{R}$ or the circle $S^1$ and $f:M\to P$ be a Morse map. Denote by $\mathcal{S}(f)$ and $\mathcal{O}(f)$ the corresponding stabilizer and orbit of $f$ with respect to the right action of the group $\mathcal{D}(M)$ of diffeomorphisms of $M$. In a series of papers the author described homotopy types of $\mathcal{S}(f)$ and computed higher homotopy groups of $\mathcal{O}(f)$. The present paper describes the structure of the remained fundamental group $π_1 \mathcal{O}(f)$ for the case when $M$ is orientable and diffe…
We study string topology for classifying spaces of connected compact Lie groups, drawing connections with Hochschild cohomology and equivariant homotopy theory. First, for a compact Lie group $G$, we show that the string topology prospectrum $LBG^{-TBG}$ is equivalent to the homotopy fixed-point prospectrum for the conjugation action of $G$ on itself, $G^{hG}$. Dually, we identify $LBG^{-ad}$ with the homotopy orbit spectrum $(DG)_{hG}$, and study ring and co-ring structures on these spectra. Finally, we show that in homology, these products may be identified with the Gerstenhaber cup product …
We prove that the parallel transport of a flat $n-1$-gerbe on any given target space gives rise to an $n$-dimensional extended homotopy quantum field theory. In case the target space is the classifying space of a finite group, we provide explicit formulae for this homotopy quantum field theory in terms of transgression. Moreover, we use the geometric theory of orbifolds to give a dimension-independent version of twisted and equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten models. Finally, we introduce twisted equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten theories giving us in the 3-2-1-dimensional case a new class of equivariant …
