arXiv research

We provide local expressions for Chern-Weil type forms built from superconnections associated with families of Dirac operators previously investigated in work by S. Scott and later work by S. Scott and the second author. When the underlying fibration of manifolds is trivial, the even degree forms can be interpreted as …

We show that Chern-Weil theory for tensor bundles over manifolds is a consequence of the existence of natural closed differential forms on total spaces of torsion free connections on frame bundles.

The paper extends Chern-Weil theory to simplicial principal bundles.

Develops Chern-Weil theory for singular foliations.

The paper extends Chern-Weil-Lecomte map to $L_{\infty}$-algebras.

We explain how the distributional index of a transversally elliptic operator on a principal G-manifold P that is obtained by lifting a Dirac operator on P/G can serve as a link between the Duflo isomorphism and Chern-Weil forms.

In this paper we look at two naturally occurring situations where the following question arises. When one can find a metric so that a Chern-Weil form can be represented by a given form ? The first setting is semi-stable Hartshorne-ample vector bundles on complex surfaces where we provide evidence for a conjecture of Gr…

In this paper, we proved the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem on moduli space of polarized Kahler manifolds. Using our results, we proved the rationality of the Chern-Weil forms (with respect to the Weil-Petersson metric) on CY moduli. As an application in physics, by the Ashok-Douglas theory, counting the number of flux com…

We prove that Chern-Weil forms are the only natural differential forms associated to a connection on a principal G-bundle. We use the homotopy theory of simplicial sheaves on smooth manifolds to formulate the theorem and set up the proof. Other arguments come from classical invariant theory. We identify the Weil algebr…

A equivalence relation, preserving the Chern-Weil form, is defined between connections on a complex vector bundle. Bundles equipped with such an equivalence class are called Structured Bundles, and their isomorphism classes form an abelian semi-ring. By applying the Grothedieck construction one obtains the ring K, elem…

Study primitive cohomology in symplectic manifolds.

The paper proves rigidity theorems for forms on reductive symmetric spaces.

A strong from of invariance under a group G is manifested in a family over the classifying space BG. We advocate a differential-geometric avatar of BG when G is a Lie group. Applied to G-equivariant connections on smooth principal or vector bundles, the equivariance-->families principle converts the G-equivariant exten…

Develops a SageMath framework for computing characteristic classes.

We prove a result of Chern-Weil type for canonically metrized line bundles on one-parameter families of smooth complex curves. Our result generalizes a result due to J.I. Burgos Gil, J. Kramer and U. Kühn that deals with a line bundle of Jacobi forms on the universal elliptic curve over the modular curve with full leve…

Abstract: Study of metrics on line bundles over complex varieties.

A Chern-Weil construction for extensions of Lie-Rinehart algebras is introduced. This generalizes the classical Chern-Weil construction in differential geometry and yields characteristic classes for arbitrary extensions of Lie-Rinehart algebras. Some examples arising from spaces with singularities and from foliations a…

Paper proves positivity of Chern-Weil forms for certain vector bundles.

We develop a Chern-Weil theory for compact Lie group action whose generic stabilizers are finite in the framework of equivariant cohomology. This provides a method of changing an equivariant closed form within its cohomological class to a form more suitable to yield localization results. This work is motivated by our w…

Constructs Chern-Weil classes for Cartan geometries.

We construct connections and characteristic forms for principal bundles over groupoids and stacks in the differentiable, holomorphic and algebraic category using Atiyah sequences associated to transversal tangential distributions.

Local index theorem for chiral geometric operators proved using heat kernel.

We show a relationship between Chern-Simons 1- and 3-forms and harmonic forms on a principal bundle. Doing so requires one to consider an adiabatic limit. For the 3-form case, assume that G is simple and the corresponding Chern-Weil 4-form is exact. Then, the Chern-Simons 3-form on the princpal bundle G-bundle, minus a…

This note announces a general construction of characteristic currents for singular connections on a vector bundle. It develops, in particular, a Chern-Weil-Simons theory for smooth bundle maps $α: E \rightarrow F$ which, for smooth connections on $E$ and $F$, establishes formulas of the type $$ φ\ = \ \text{\rm Res}_φΣ…

Paper develops techniques for singular metrics on vector bundles.

Develops connections and Chern-Weil theory for Lie groupoids.

We discuss possible extensions of the classical Chern-Weil formalism to an infinite dimensional setup. This is based on joint work with Steven Rosenberg, joint work with Simon Scott and joint work with Jouko Mickelsson.

In this paper we study the groups of contactomorphisms of a closed contact manifold from a topological viewpoint. First we construct examples of contact forms on spheres whose Reeb flow has a dense orbit. Then we show that the unitary group U(n+1) is homotopically essential in the group of contactomorphisms of the stan…

Categorifies Chern-Weil theory for infinite local systems.

For a compact Lie group acting on a smooth manifold, we define the differential cohomology of a certain quotient stack involving principal bundles with connection. This produces differential equivariant cohomology groups that map to the Cartan-Weil equivariant forms and to Borel's equivariant integral cohomology. We sh…

Chern-Weil and Chern-Simons theory extend to certain infinite-rank bundles that appear in mathematical physics. We discuss what is known of the invariant theory of the corresponding infinite-dimensional Lie groups. We use these techniques to detect cohomology classes for spaces of maps between manifolds and for diffeom…

Study the spaces of flat connections for classical Lie groups using Chern-Weil theory.

Proves an equivariant version of index theorem for geometric families.

Constructs a universal Chern-Weil map for infinite dimensional Lie groups.

The theory of principal $G$-bundles over a Lie groupoid is an important one, unifying the various types of principal $G$-bundles, including those over manifolds, those over orbifolds, as well as equivariant principal $G$-bundles. In this paper, we study the differential geometry of these objects, including connections …

We construct Chern-Weil classes on infinite dimensional vector bundles with structure group contained in the algebra $\cl[\leq 0](M, E)$ of non-positive order classical pseudo-differential operators acting on a finite rank vector bundle $E$ over a closed manifold $M$. Mimicking the finite dimensional Chern-Weil constru…

Combines techniques to remove tameness condition in Morse-Smale flows.

The notion of a gerbe with connection is conveniently reformulated in terms of the simplicial deRham complex. In particular the usual Chern-Weil and Chern-Simons theory is well adapted to this framework and rather easily gives rise to `characteristic gerbes' associated to families of bundles and connections. In turn th…

This paper contains the constructions of a real manifold version of relative K-theory, and of an extension of Karoubi's multiplicative K-theory suggested by U. Bunke (which I call ``free multiplicative K-theory'' in the sequel). Chern-Simons-Nadel type classes on relative K-theory are constructed, while it is proved th…

We generalize some of the results of Harvey, Lawson and Latschev about transgression formulas. The focus here is on flowing forms via vertical vector fields, especially Morse-Bott-Smale vector fields. We prove a very general transgression formula including also a version covering non-compact situations. Among applicati…

For any regular Courant algebroid, we construct a characteristic class a la Chern-Weil. This intrinsic invariant of the Courant algebroid is a degree-3 class in its naive cohomology. When the Courant algebroid is exact, it reduces to the Severa class (in H^3_{DR}(M)). On the other hand, when the Courant algebroid is a …

Chern-Weil theory provides for each invariant polynomial on a Lie algebra g a map from g-connections to differential cocycles whose volume holonomy is the corresponding Chern-Simons theory action functional. Kotov and Strobl have observed that this naturally generalizes from Lie algebras to dg-manifolds and dg-bundles …

We study a fully nonlinear PDE involving a linear combination of symmetric polynomials of the Kähler form on a Kähler manifold. A $C^0$ \emph{a priori} estimate is proven in general and a gradient estimate is proven in certain cases. Independently, we also provide a method-of-continuity proof via a path of Kähler metri…

We provide an integral formula for the Maslov index of a pair $(E,F)$ over a surface $Σ$, where $E\rightarrowΣ$ is a complex vector bundle and $F\subset E_{|\partialΣ}$ is a totally real subbundle. As in Chern-Weil theory, this formula is written in terms of the curvature of $E$ plus a boundary contribution. When $(E,F…

We study the existence of $S^1$-equivariant characteristic classes on certain natural infinite rank bundles over the loop space $LM$ of a manifold $M$. We discuss the different $S^1$-equivariant cohomology theories in the literature and clarify their relationships. We attempt to use $S^1$-equivariant Chern-Weil techniq…

Combinatorial transgressions are secondary invariants of a space admitting triangulations. They arise from subdivisions and are analogous to transgressive forms such as those arising in Chern-Weil theory. Unlike combinatorial characteristic classes, combinatorial transgressions have not been previously studied. First, …

In this paper we analyse the topological group cohomology of finite-dimensional Lie groups. We introduce a technique for computing it (as abelian groups) for torus coefficients by the naturally associated long exact sequence. The upshot in there is that certain morphisms in this long exact coefficient sequence can be a…

We describe the Cartan and Weil models of twisted equivariant cohomology together with the Cartan homomorphism among the two, and we extend the Chern-Weil homomorphism to the twisted equivariant cohomology. We clarify that in order to have a cohomology theory, the coefficients of the twisted equivariant cohomology must…