arXiv research

Study shows zero Pontrjagin classes for sprays.

Gelfand and MacPherson provided a new formula for calculating Pontrjagin classes.

We use the exterior and composition products of double forms together with the alternating operator to reformulate Pontrjagin classes and all Pontrjagin numbers in terms of the Riemannian curvature. We show that the alternating operator is obtained by a succession of applications of the first Bianchi sum and we prove s…

Let $M^{2n}$ be a closed smooth manifold homotopy equivalent to the complex projective space $\mathbb{C}P(n)$. The purpose of this paper is to show that when $n$ is even, the difference of the first Pontrjagin classes between $M^{2n}$ and $\mathbb{C}P(n)$ is divisible by 16.

The study restricts circle actions on certain manifolds to dimensions 4, 8, and 16.

This paper shows how Hodge's theory of harmonic $p$-sets (a discrete version of his theory of harmonic forms) allows a new approach to be taken to the problem of providing a combinatorial definition of the Pontrjagin classes of a compact manifold. This approach is then related to the author's definition of flag vectors…

The paper studies integrability and geometric invariants on manifolds.

The paper proves a cohomological injection for a specific group.

Researchers classify quotients of lens spaces using linear actions and topological tools.

Non-trivial Clifford bundle from loop space tangent bundle.

We show that the integral of the first Pontrjagin class is given by an integer and it is identified with instanton number of the U(n) gauge theory on noncommutative ${\bf R^4}$. Here the dimension of the vector space $V$ that appear in the ADHM construction is called Instanton number. The calculation is done in operato…

Let $M$ be a simply-connected closed manifold of dimension $\geq 5$ which does not admit a metric with positive scalar curvature. We give necessary conditions for $M$ to admit a scalar-flat metric. These conditions involve the first Pontrjagin class and the cohomology ring of $M$. As a consequence any simply-connected …

We prove several finiteness results for the class $M_{a,b,G,n}$ of $n$-manifolds that have fundamental groups isomorphic to $G$ and that can be given complete Riemannian metrics of sectional curvatures within $[a,b]$ where $a\le b<0$. In particular, if $M$ is a closed negatively curved manifold of dimension at least th…

This paper studies the relationship between the sections and the Chern or Pontrjagin classes of a vector bundle by the theory of connection. Our results are natural generalizations of the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem.

We introduce an equivariant Pontrjagin-Thom construction which identifies equivariant cohomotopy classes with certain fixed point bordism classes. This provides a concrete geometric model for equivariant cohomotopy which works for any compact Lie group G. In the special case when G is finite or a torus, we show that ou…

The goal of this paper is to study the Pontrjagin dual of (reduced) 4-dimensional Spin bordism. That is to say, we consider the functor from the category of topological spaces to the category of compact abelian groups that associates to each space X the compact group of homomorphisms from the reduced 4-dimensional Spin…

In this note we prove that equivariantly homeomorphic quasitoric manifolds are diffeomorphic. As a consequence we show that up to finite ambiguity the diffeomorphism type of certain quasitoric manifolds $M$ is determined by their cohomology rings and first Pontrjagin classes.

The based loop space homology of a special family of homogeneous spaces, flag manifolds of connected compact Lie groups is studied. First, the rational homology of the based loop space on a complete flag manifold is calculated together with its Pontrjagin structure. Second, it is shown that the integral homology of the…

We first notice in this article that if a compact Kähler manifold has the same integral cohomology ring and Pontrjagin classes as the complex projective space $\mathbb{C}P^n$, then it is biholomorphic to $\mathbb{C}P^n$ provided $n$ is odd. The same holds for even $n$ if we further assume that $M$ is simply-connected. …

The purpose of this paper is to both survey and offer some new results on the non-triviality of the characteristic classes of Riemannian foliations. We give examples where the primary Pontrjagin classes are all linearly independent. The independence of the secondary classes is also discussed, along with their total var…

New conformally invariant forms help identify Einstein metrics.

Using certain Thom spectra appearing in the study of cobordism categories, we show that the odd half of the Miller-Morita-Mumford classes on the mappping class group of a surface with negative Euler characteristic vanish in integral cohomology when restricted to the handlebody subgroup. This is a special case of a more…

We show that for any nonzero class $A$ in $H_2(X; \mathbb{Z}_2)$ in a rational 4-manifold $X$, $A$ is represented by a nonorientable embedded Lagrangian surface L (for some symplectic structure) if and only if $P(A)\equiv (L) (mod\ 4)$; where $P(A)$ denotes the mod 4 valued Pontrjagin square of $A$.

By results of Loeffler and Comezana, the Pontrjagin-Thom map from geometric G-equivariant bordism to homotopy theoretic equivariant bordism is injective for compact abelian G. If G = S^1 x ... x S^1, we prove that the associated fixed point square is a pull back square, thus confirming a recent conjecture of D. Sinha. …

A theory of differential characters is developed for manifolds with boundary. This is done from both the Cheeger-Simons and the deRham-Federer viewpoints. The central result of the paper is the formulation and proof of a Lefschetz-Pontrjagin Duality Theorem, which asserts that the pairing: Ch^k(X,dX) x Ch^{n-k-1}(X) --…

In this paper we consider a generalization of the Faddeev model for the maps from a closed three-manifold into the two-sphere. We give a novel representation of smooth $S^2$-valued maps based on flat connections. This representation allows us to obtain an analytic description of the homotopy classes of $S^2$-valued m…

We develop an epsilon-controlled algebraic L-theory, extending our earlier work on epsilon-controlled algebraic K-theory. The controlled L-theory is very close to being a generalized homology theory; we study analogues of the homology exact sequence of a pair, excision properties, and the Mayer--Vietoris exact sequence…

We show in this short note that if a rational linear combination of Pontrjagin numbers vanishes on all simply-connected $4k$-dimensional closed connected and oriented spin manifolds admitting a Riemannian metric whose Ricci curvature is nonnegative and nonzero at any point, then this linear combination must be a multip…

In this paper a geometric approach toward stable homotopy groups of spheres, based on the Pontrjagin-Thom construction is proposed. From this approach a new proof of Hopf Invariant One Theorem by J.F.Adams for all dimensions except $15,31,63,127$ is obtained. It is proved that for $n>127$ in the stable homotopy group o…

We give bordism-finiteness results for manifolds with semi-simple group action. Consider the class of oriented manifolds which admit a circle action with isolated fixed points such that the action extends to an $S^3$-action with fixed point. We exhibit various subclasses, characterized by an upper bound for the Euler c…

We show that the self-duality defined in [Trautman, Int.J.Theor.Phys.,{\bf 16},561 (1977)] is equivalent to strong self-duality defined in [Bilge, Dereli and Kocak, Lett.Math.Phys., {\bf 36}, 301-309, (1996)] and we obtain an upper bound on $\int (p_2)^{n}$, where $p_2$ is the second Pontrjagin class of an $SO(N)$ bund…

We construct cohomology classes in the space of knots by considering a bundle over this space and "integrating along the fiber" classes coming from the cohomology of configuration spaces using a Pontrjagin-Thom construction. The bundle we consider is essentially the one considered by Bott and Taubes, who integrated dif…

Let $M$ be a manifold homotopy equivalent to the complex projective space $\C P^m$. Petrie conjectured that $M$ has standard total Pontrjagin class if $M$ admits a non-trivial action by $S^1$. We prove the conjecture for $m<12$ under the assumption that the action extends to a nice $Pin(2)$-action with fixed point. The…

We clarify the conformal invariance of the Pontrjagin forms by giving them a manifestly conformally invariant construction; they are shown to be the Pontrjagin forms of the conformally invariant tractor connection. The Q-curvature is intimately related to the Pfaffian. Working on even-dimensional manifolds, we show how…

We construct analytically the signature operator for a new family of topological manifolds. This family contains the quasi-conformal manifolds and the topological manifolds modeled on germs of homeomorphisms of R^n possessing a derivative which is in L^p, with p > n(n+1)/2. We obtain an unbounded Fredholm module which …

We give a generalization of the notion of a Cartan-Ehresmann connection from Lie algebras to L-infinity algebras and use it to study the obstruction theory of lifts through higher String-like extensions of Lie algebras. We find (generalized) Chern-Simons and BF-theory functionals this way and describe aspects of their …

For a Spin(9)-structure on a Riemannian manifold M^16 we write explicitly the matrix psi of its Kähler 2-forms and the canonical 8-form Phi. We then prove that Phi coincides up to a constant with the fourth coefficient of the characteristic polynomial of psi. This is inspired by lower dimensional situations, related to…

In a recent joint work with V. Turaev (cf. math.DG/9810114) we defined a new concept of combinatorial torsion which we called absolute torsion. Compared with the classical Reidemeister torsion it has the advantage of having a well-defined sign. Also, the absolute torsion is defined for arbitrary orientable flat vector …

We give conceptual proofs of some well known results concerning compact non-positively curved locally symmetric spaces. We discuss vanishing and non-vanishing of Pontrjagin numbers and Euler characteristics for these locally symmetric spaces. We also establish vanishing results for Stiefel-Whitney numbers of (finite co…

We develop a geometric approach to stable homotopy groups of spheres in the spirit of the work of Pontrjagin and Rokhlin. A new proof of the Hopf Invariant One Theorem by J.F.Adams is obtained in all dimensions except 15 and 31. To prove that the stable Hopf invariant H: Π_n \to Z/2 vanishes for n>31, we apply methods …

We compute explicit transgression forms for the Euler and Pontrjagin classes of a Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension 4 under a conformal change of the metric, or a change to a Riemannian connection with torsion. These formulae describe the singular set of some connections with singularities on compact manifolds as a …

Alan Weinstein showed that certain characteristic numbers of any Riemannian submersion with totally geodesic fibers and positive vertizontal curvatures are nonzero. In this paper we explicitly compute these invariants in terms of Chern and Pontrjagin numbers of the bundle. This allows us to show that many bundles do no…

Let $Gr_k(\H^n)$ be the Grassmannian manifold of Quaternionic $k$-planes in $\H^n$ and let $γ^n_k\to Gr_k(\H^n)$ denote the Stiefel bundle of quaternionic $k$-frames in $\H^n$. Let $σ$ denote the first symplectic Pontrjagin form associated with the universal connection on $γ^n_k$. We show that every 4-form $ω$ on a smo…

In this paper we calculate the integral Pontrjagin homology ring of the based loop space on some generalised symmetric spaces with a toral stationary subgroup. In the Appendix we show that the method can be applied to other type generalised symmetric spaces as well.

We construct an oriented cobordism between moduli spaces of flat connections on the three holed sphere and disjoint unions of toric varieties, together with a closed two-form which restricts to the symplectic forms on the ends. As applications, we obtain formulas for mixed Pontrjagin numbers and Witten's formulas for s…

This work continues the study of a homotopy-theoretic construction of the author inspired by the Bott-Taubes integrals. Bott and Taubes constructed knot invariants by integrating differential forms along the fiber of a bundle over the space of knots. Their techniques were later used by Cattaneo et al. to construct real…

Subtle issues arise when extending homotopy invariants to spaces of functions having little regularity, e.g., Sobolev spaces containing discontinuous functions. Sometimes it is not possible to extend the invariant at all, and sometimes, even when the formulas defining the invariants make sense, they may not have expect…

We translate into the double forms formalism the basic identities of Greub and Greub-Vanstone that were obtained in the mixed exterior algebra. In particular, we introduce a second product in the space of double forms, namely the composition product, which provides this space with a second associative algebra structure…