arXiv research

Nonorientable surfaces in rational 4-manifolds linked to Pontrjagin square.

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. …

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

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…

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…

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 paper studies integrability and geometric invariants on manifolds.

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…

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

New geometric model for equivariant cohomotopy using bordism.

The paper proves a cohomological injection for a specific group.

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…

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) --…

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…

Non-trivial Clifford bundle from loop space tangent bundle.

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 …

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…

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 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.

New conformally invariant forms help identify Einstein metrics.

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.

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. …

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…

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…

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…

Analyzes quantization of flux observables in gauge theories.

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…

Novikov initiated the study of the algebraic properties of quadratic forms over polynomial extensions by a far-reaching analogue of the Pontrjagin-Thom transversality construction of a Seifert surface of a knot and the infinite cyclic cover of the knot exterior. In this paper the analogy is applied to explain the relat…

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…

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…

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…

The paper studies Gauss sums and their applications in algebra and topology.

Conformally compact and complete smooth solutions to the Strominger system with non vanishing flux, non-trivial instanton and non-constant dilaton using the first Pontrjagin form of the (-)-connection} on 6-dimensional non-Kaehler nilmanifold are presented. In the conformally compact case the dilaton is determined by t…

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…

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 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…

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 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…

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…

The topological significance of the spectral Atiyah-Patodi-Singer eta-invariant is investigated under the parity conditions of P. Gilkey. We show that twice the fractional part of the invariant is computed by the linking pairing in K-theory with the orientation bundle of the manifold. The Pontrjagin duality implies the…

We develop a theory of parametrized geometric cobordism by introducing smooth Thom stacks. This requires identifying and constructing a smooth representative of the Thom functor acting on vector bundles equipped with extra geometric data, leading to a geometric refinement of the the Pontrjagin-Thom construction in stac…

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 …