Lifting problems and transgression for non-abelian gerbes

We discuss lifting and reduction problems for bundles and gerbes in the context of a Lie 2-group. We obtain a geometrical formulation (and a new proof) for the exactness of Breen’s long exact sequence in non-abelian cohomology. We use our geometrical formulation in order to define a transgression map in non-abelian cohomology. This transgression map relates the degree one non-abelian cohomology of a smooth manifold (represented by non-abelian gerbes) with the degree zero non-abelian cohomology of the free loop space (represented by principal bundles). We prove several properties for this transgression map. For instance, it reduces–in case of a Lie 2-group with a single object–to the ordinary transgression in ordinary cohomology. We describe applications of our results to string manifolds: first, we obtain a new comparison theorem for different notions of string structures. Second, our transgression map establishes a direct relation between string structures and spin structures on the loop space.     

Cayley Snarks and Almost Simple Groups

A Cayley snark is a cubic Cayley graph which is not 3-edge-colourable. In the paper we discuss the problem of the existence of Cayley snarks. This problem is closely related to the problem of the existence of non-hamiltonian Cayley graphs and to the question whether every Cayley graph admits a nowhere-zero 4-flow. So far, no Cayley snarks have been found. On the other hand, we prove that the smallest example of a Cayley snark, if it exists, comes either from a non-abelian simple group or from a group which has a single non-trivial proper normal subgroup. The subgroup must have index two and must be either non-abelian simple or the direct product of two isomorphic non-abelian simple groups. Received January 18, 2000 Research partially supported by VEGA grant 1/3213/96 Research partially supported by VEGA grants 1/3213/96 and 1/4318/97     

New polytope decompositions and Euler-Maclaurin formulas for simple integral polytopes

We give new weighted decompositions for simple polytopes, generalizing previous results of Lawrence-Varchenko and Brianchon-Gram. We start with Witten's non-abelian localization principle in equivariant cohomology for the norm-square of the moment map in the context of toric varieties to obtain a decomposition for Delzant polytopes. Then, by a purely combinatorial argument, we show that this formula holds for any simple polytope. As an application, we study Euler-Maclaurin formulas.     

Non-Abelian Hopf Cohomology of Radford Products

We study the non-abelian Hopf cohomology theory of Radford products with coefficients in a comodule algebra. We show that these sets can be expressed in terms of the non-abelian Hopf cohomology theory of each factor of the Radford product. We write down an exact sequence relating these objects. This allows to compute explicitly the non-abelian Hopf cohomology sets in large classes of examples.     

Commutator theory, action groupoids, and an intrinsic Schreier-Mac Lane extension theorem

Beyond groups of automorphisms in the category Gp of groups and Lie-algebras of derivations in the category K-Lie of Lie algebras, there are structures of internal groupoids (called action groupoids) in both categories. They allow a synthesis of the notion of obstruction to extensions. This leads, in any pointed protomodular category C with split extension classifiers, to a general treatment of non-abelian extensions which can be understood as morphisms in a certain groupoid TorsC.     

Non-abelian GKM theory

We describe a generalization of GKM theory for actions of arbitrary compact connected Lie groups. To an action satisfying the non-abelian GKM conditions we attach a graph encoding the structure of the non-abelian 1-skeleton, i.e., the subspace of points with isotopy rank at most one less than the rank of the acting group. We show that the algebra structure of the equivariant cohomology can be read off from this graph. In comparison with ordinary abelian GKM theory, there are some special features due to the more complicated structure of the non-abelian 1-skeleton.     

A non-abelian tensor product of precrossed modules in lie algebras

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the non-abelian tensor square of precrossed modules in Lie algebras and investigate some of its properties. In particular, for an arbitrary Lie algebra L, we study the relation of the second homology of a precrossed L-module and the non-abelian exterior square. Also, we show how this non-abelian tensor product is related to the universal central extensions (with respect to the subcategory of crossed modules) of a precrossed module.     

A simple proof of the Grobman–Hartman theorem for nonuniformly hyperbolic flows

We give a simple and direct proof of the Grobman–Hartman theorem for nonautonomous differential equations obtained from perturbing a nonuniform exponential dichotomy. In particular, we do not need to pass through discrete time and obtain the result as a consequence of a corresponding result for maps. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct approach for nonuniform exponential dichotomies. We also show that the conjugacies are continuous in time and Hölder continuous in space. In addition, we describe the dependence of the conjugacies on the perturbation, and we obtain a reversibility result for the conjugacies of reversible differential equations. We emphasize that the additional work required to consider nonuniform exponential dichotomies is substantial.     

Coupled fixed points of multivalued operators and first-order ODEs with state-dependent deviating arguments

We establish a coupled fixed point theorem for a meaningful class of mixed monotone multivalued operators, and then we use it to derive some results on the existence of quasisolutions and unique solutions to first-order functional differential equations with state-dependent deviating arguments. Our results are very general and can be applied to functional equations featuring discontinuities with respect to all of their arguments, but we emphasize that they are new even for differential equations with continuously state-dependent delays.     

Polarized non-abelian representations of slim near-polar spaces

In (Bull Belg Math Soc Simon Stevin 4:299–316, 1997), Shult introduced a class of parapolar spaces, the so-called near-polar spaces. We introduce here the notion of a polarized non-abelian representation of a slim near-polar space, that is, a near-polar space in which every line is incident with precisely three points. For such a polarized non-abelian representation, we study the structure of the corresponding representation group, enabling us to generalize several of the results obtained in Sahoo and Sastry (J Algebraic Comb 29:195–213, 2009) for non-abelian representations of slim dense near hexagons. We show that with every polarized non-abelian representation of a slim near-polar space, there is an associated polarized projective embedding.     

Heptavalent Symmetric Graphs with Certain Conditions

A graph Γ is said to be symmetric if its automorphism group Aut(Γ)acts transitively on the arc set of Γ.We show that if Γ is a finite connected heptavalent symmetric graph with solvable stabilizer admitting a vertex-transitive non-abelian simple group G of automorphisms,then either G is normal in Aut(Γ),or Aut(Γ)contains a non-abelian simple normal subgroup T such that G≤T and(G,T)is explicitly given as one of 11 possible exceptional pairs of non-abelian simple groups.If G is arc-transitive,then G is always normal in Aut(r),and if G is regular on the vertices of Γ,then the number of possible exceptional pairs(G,T)is reduced to 5.     

Non-abelian Hopf cohomology II—The general case

We introduce and study non-abelian cohomology sets of Hopf algebras with coefficients in Hopf comodule algebras. We prove that these sets generalize as well Serre's non-abelian group cohomology theory as the cohomological theory constructed by the authors in a previous article. We establish their functoriality and compute explicit examples. Further we classify Hopf torsors.     

Butterflies II: Torsors for 2-group stacks

We study torsors over 2-groups and their morphisms. In particular, we study the first non-abelian cohomology group with values in a 2-group. Butterfly diagrams encode morphisms of 2-groups and we employ them to examine the functorial behavior of non-abelian cohomology under change of coefficients. We re-interpret the first non-abelian cohomology with coefficients in a 2-group in terms of gerbes bound by a crossed module. Our main result is to provide a geometric version of the change of coefficients map by lifting a gerbe along the “fraction” (weak morphism) determined by a butterfly. As a practical byproduct, we show how butterflies can be used to obtain explicit maps at the cocycle level. In addition, we discuss various commutativity conditions on cohomology induced by various degrees of commutativity on the coefficient 2-groups, as well as specific features pertaining to group extensions.     

Maximal Sections and Primitive Permutation Groups of Twisted Wreath Type

A primitive permutation group is said to be of twisted wreathtype if its socle is both non-abelian and regular. We reducethe study of such primitive permutation groups to the studyof ‘maximal non-abelian simple sections’ of non-abeliansimple groups.     

Groups with few conjugacy classes of non-normal subgroups

The structure of groups with finitely many non-normal subgroups is well known. In this paper, groups are investigated with finitely many conjugacy classes of non-normal subgroups with a given property. In particular, it is proved that a locally soluble group with finitely many non-trivial conjugacy classes of non-abelian subgroups has finite commutator subgroup. This result generalizes a theorem by Romalis and Sesekin on groups in which every non-abelian subgroup is normal.      

The derivative of global surface-holonomy for a non-abelian gerbe

Starting with a non-abelian gerbe represented by a non-abelian differential cocycle, with values in a given crossed-module, this paper explicitly calculates a formula for the derivative of the associated surface holonomy of squares mapped into the base manifold; with spheres later considered as a special case. While the definitions in this paper used for gerbes, their connections, and the induced holonomy will initially be simplicial, translations into a cubical setting will be provided to aide in explicit coordinate-based calculations. While there are many previously published results on the properties of these non-abelian gerbes, including some calculations of the derivative over a single open set, this paper endeavors to take these local calculations and glue them together across multiple open sets in order to obtain a single expression for the change in surface holonomy with respect to a one-parameter family of squares.     

Monge–Ampère measures on pluripolar sets

In this article we solve the complex Monge–Ampère problem for measures with large singular part. This result generalizes classical results by Demailly, Lelong and Lempert a.o., who considered singular parts carried on discrete sets. By using our result we obtain a generalization of Ko?odziej's subsolution theorem. More precisely, we prove that if a non-negative Borel measure is dominated by a complex Monge–Ampère measure, then it is a complex Monge–Ampère measure.     

Sharp estimates and saturation phenomena for a nonlocal eigenvalue problem

We determine the shape which minimizes, among domains with given measure, the first eigenvalue of a nonlocal operator consisting of a perturbation of the standard Dirichlet Laplacian by an integral of the unknown function. We show that this problem displays a saturation behaviour in that the corresponding value of the minimal eigenvalue increases with the weight affecting the average up to a (finite) critical value of this weight, and then remains constant. This critical point corresponds to a transition between optimal shapes, from one ball as in the Faber–Krahn inequality to two equal balls.     

The normal distribution is ?-infinitely divisible

We prove that the classical normal distribution is infinitely divisible with respect to the free additive convolution. We study the Voiculescu transform first by giving a survey of its combinatorial implications and then analytically, including a proof of free infinite divisibility. In fact we prove that a sub-family of Askey–Wimp–Kerov distributions are freely infinitely divisible, of which the normal distribution is a special case. At the time of this writing this is only the third example known to us of a nontrivial distribution that is infinitely divisible with respect to both classical and free convolution, the others being the Cauchy distribution and the free 1/2-stable distribution.