In this paper we describe a method for producing elements in the mod p cohomology of a discrete group of finite cohomological dimension.
This provides a purely algebraic formulation of the theory of special cycles.
We compute a twisted first cohomology group of the automorphism group of a free group with coefficients in the abelianization $V$ of the IA-automorphism group of a free group. In particular, we show that it is generated by two crossed homomorphisms constructed with the Magnus representation and the Magnus expansion due to Morita and Kawazumi respectively. As a corollary, we see that the first Johnson homomorphism does not extend to the automorphism group of a free group as a crossed homomorphism for the rank of the free group is greater than 4.
It is not known whether or not the stable rational cohomology groups $\tilde H^*(Aut(F_\infty);\Q)$ always vanish. We show that either the rational cohomology does not vanish in certain dimensions, or the integral cohomology of a moduli space of pointed graphs does not stabilize in certain other dimensions. Similar results are stated for groups of outer automorphisms. This yields that $H^5(\hat Q_m; \mathbb{Z})$, $H^6(\hat Q_m; \mathbb{Z})$, and $H^5(Q_m; \mathbb{Z})$ never stabilize as $m \to \infty$, where the moduli spaces $\hat Q_m$ and $Q_m$ are the quotients of the spines $\hat X_m$ and …
We study the cohomology of Aut(F_n) and Out(F_n) with coefficients in the modules \wedge^q H, \wedge H^*, Sym^q H or Sym^q H^*, where H is the Out(F_n)-module obtained by abelianising the free group F_n. For reasons which are not conceptually clear, taking coefficients in H and its related modules behaves in a far less trivial way than taking coefficients in H^* and its related modules. Based on a conjectural homology stability theorem for spaces of graphs labeled by a simply connected background space, we give a stable integral calculation of these groups in low degrees, and modulo a further …
The Johnson filtration of the automorphism group of a free group is composed of those automorphisms which act trivially on nilpotent quotients of the free group. We compute cohomology classes as follows: (i) we analyze analogous classes for a subgroup of the pure symmetric automorphism group of a free group, and (ii) we analyze features of these classes which are preserved by the Johnson homomorphism. One consequence is that the ranks of the cohomology groups in any fixed dimension between 1 and n-1 increase without bound for terms deep in the Johnson filtraton.
We examine the palindromic automorphism group $ΠA(F_n)$ of a free group $F_n$, a group first defined by Collins which is related to hyperelliptic involutions of mapping class groups, congruence subgroups of $SL_n(\Z)$, and symmetric automorphism groups of free groups. Cohomological properties of the group are explored by looking at a contractible space on which $ΠA(F_n)$ acts properly with finite quotient. Our results answer some conjectures of Collins and provide a few striking results about the cohomology of $ΠA(F_n)$, such as that its rational cohomology is zero at the vcd.
We study H^*(P), the mod p cohomology of a finite p--group P, viewed as an Out(P)--module. In particular, we study the conjecture, first considered by Martino and Priddy, that, if e_S in Z/p[Out(P)] is a primitive idempotent associated to an irreducible Z/p[Out(P)]--module S, then the Krull dimension of e_SH^*(P) equals the rank of P. The rank is an upper bound by Quillen's work, and the conjecture can be viewed as the statement that every irreducible Z/p[Out(P)]--module occurs as a composition factor in H^*(P) with similar frequency. In summary, our results are as follows. A strong form of th…
We study the rational homotopy types of classifying spaces of automorphism groups of smooth simply connected manifolds of dimension at least five. We give dg Lie algebra models for the homotopy automorphisms and the block diffeomorphisms of such manifolds. Moreover, we use these models to calculate the rational cohomology of the classifying spaces of the homotopy automorphisms and block diffeomorphisms of the manifold #^g S^d x S^d relative to an embedded disk as g tends to infinity. The answer is expressed in terms of stable cohomology of arithmetic groups and invariant Lie algebra cohomology…
Let PSigma_n denote the group that can be thought of either as the group of motions of the trivial n-component link or the group of symmetric automorphisms of a free group of rank n. The integral cohomology ring of PSigma_n is determined, establishing a conjecture of Brownstein and Lee.
We compute the groups $H^*(\mathrm{Aut}(F_n); M)$ and $H^*(\mathrm{Out}(F_n); M)$ in a stable range, where $M$ is obtained by applying a Schur functor to $H_\mathbb{Q}$ or $H^*_\mathbb{Q}$, respectively the first rational homology and cohomology of $F_n$. For reasons which are not conceptually clear, taking coefficients in $H_\mathbb{Q}$ and its related modules behaves in a far less trivial way than taking coefficients in $H^*_\mathbb{Q}$ and its related modules. The answer may be described in terms of stable multiplicities of irreducibles in the plethysm $\mathrm{Sym}^k \circ \mathrm{Sym}^l$ …
In this paper, we will be concerned with the explicit classification of closed, oriented, simply-connected spin manifolds in dimension eight with vanishing cohomology in the odd dimensions. The study of such manifolds was begun by Stefan Müller. In order to understand the structure of these manifolds, we will analyze their minimal handle presentations and describe explicitly to what extent these handle presentations are determined by the cohomology ring and the characteristic classes. It turns out that the cohomology ring and the characteristic classes do not suffice to reconstruct a manifold …
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.
We study the classifying space of a twisted loop group $L_σG$ where $G$ is a compact Lie group and $σ$ is an automorphism of $G$ of finite order modulo inner automorphisms. Equivalently, we study the $σ$-twisted adjoint action of $G$ on itself. We derive a formula for the cohomology ring $H^*(BL_σG)$ and explicitly carry out the calculation for all automorphisms of simple Lie groups. More generally, we derive a formula for the equivariant cohomology of compact Lie group actions with constant rank stabilizers.
Sheaves and sheaf cohomology are powerful tools in computational topology, greatly generalizing persistent homology. We develop an algorithm for simplifying the computation of cellular sheaf cohomology via (discrete) Morse-theoretic techniques. As a consequence, we derive efficient techniques for distributed computation of (ordinary) cohomology of a cell complex.
We construct spectral sequences for computing the cohomology of automorphism groups of formal groups with complex multiplication by a $p$-adic number ring. We then compute the cohomology of the group of automorphisms of a height four formal group law which commute with complex multiplication by the ring of integers in the field $\mathbb{Q}_p(\sqrt{p})$, for primes $p>5$. This is a large subgroup of the height four strict Morava stabilizer group. The group cohomology of this group of automorphisms turns out to have cohomological dimension $8$ and total rank $80$. We then run the $K(4)$-local $E…
We establish the homological foundations for studying polynomially bounded group cohomology, and show that the natural map from PH^*(G;Q) to H^*(G;Q) is an isomorphism for a certain class of groups.
A polyhedral product is a natural subspace of a Cartesian product, which is specified by a simplicial complex K. The automorphism group Aut(K) of K induces a group action on the polyhedral product. In this paper we study this group action and give a formula for the fixed point set of the polyhedral product for any subgroup H of Aut(K). We use the fixed point data to compute examples of Bredon cohomolohgy for small non-Abelian groups such as $D_8$ and $Σ_4$.
Given a group $G$ of automorphisms of a matroid $M$, we describe the representations of $G$ on the homology of the independence complex of the dual matroid $M^*$. These representations are related with the homology of the lattice of flats of $M$, and (when $M$ is realizable) with the top cohomology of a hyperplane arrangement. Finally we analyze in detail the case of the complete graph, which has applications to algebraic geometry.
In this paper, we show that for finite $CW$-complexes $X$ and two-stage space $Y$ (for example $n$-spheres $S^n$, homogeneous spaces and $F_0$-spaces), the rational homotopy type of $\map(X, Y)$ is determined by the cohomology algebra $H^*(X; \Q)$ and the rational homotopy type of $Y$. From this, we deduce the existence of H-structures on a component of the mapping space $\map(X, Y)$, assuming the cohomology algebras of $X$ and $Y$ are isomorphism. Finally, we will show that $\map(X, Y; f)\simeq\map(X, Y; f')$ if the corresponding \emph{Maurer-Cartan elements} are connected by an algebra autom…
This paper is concerned with the primitive cohomology of a smooth projective hypersurface considered as a linear representation for its automorphism group. Using the Lefschetz-Riemann-Roch formula, the character of this representation is described on each piece of the Hodge decomposition. A consequence about the existence of smooth symmetric hypersurfaces that are stable under the standard irreducible permutation representation of the symmetric group on homogeneous coordinates is drawn.
We develop methods for computing the restriction map from the cohomology of the automorphism group of a height $dn$ formal group law (i.e., the height $dn$ Morava stabilizer group) to the cohomology of the automorphism group of an $A$-height $n$ formal $A$-module, where $A$ is the ring of integers in a degree $d$ field extension of $\mathbb{Q}_p$. We then compute this map for the quadratic extensions of $\mathbb{Q}_p$ and the height $2$ Morava stabilizer group at primes $p>3$. We show that the these automorphism groups of formal modules are closed subgroups of the Morava stabilizer groups, and…
In this paper we introduce the concept of Deligne cohomology of an orbifold. We prove that the third Deligne cohomology group of a smooth étale groupoid classify gerbes with connection over the groupoid. We argue that the $B$-field and the discrete torsion in type II superstring theories are special kinds of gerbes with connection, and finally, for each one of them, using Deligne cohomology we construct a flat line bundle over the inertia groupoid, namely a Ruan inner local in the case of an orbifold.
We study discrete symmetries of Dijkgraaf-Witten theories and their gauging in the framework of (extended) functorial quantum field theory. Non-abelian group cohomology is used to describe discrete symmetries and we derive concrete conditions for such a symmetry to admit 't Hooft anomalies in terms of the Lyndon-Hochschild-Serre spectral sequence. We give an explicit realization of a discrete gauge theory with 't Hooft anomaly as a state on the boundary of a higher-dimensional Dijkgraaf-Witten theory. This allows us to calculate the 2-cocycle twisting the projective representation of physical …