On smooth Chas-Sullivan loop product in Quillen's geometric complex cobordism of Hilbert manifolds

In [A.J. Baker, C. Ozel, Complex cobordism of Hilbert manifolds with some applications to flag varieties, Contemp. Math. 258 (2000) 1-19], by using Fredholm index we developed a version of Quillen's geometric cobordism theory for infinite dimensional Hilbert manifolds. This cobordism theory has a graded group structure under topological union operation and has push-forward maps for complex orientable Fredholm maps. In [C. Ozel, On Fredholm index, transversal approximations and Quillen's geometric complex cobordism of Hilbert manifolds with some applications to flag varieties of loop groups, in preparation], by using Quinn's Transversality Theorem [F. Quinn, Transversal approximation on Banach manifolds, Proc. Sympos. Pure Math. 15 (1970) 213-222], it has been shown that this cobordism theory has a graded ring structure under transversal intersection operation and has pull-back maps for smooth maps. It has been shown that the Thom isomorphism in this theory was satisfied for finite dimensional vector bundles over separable Hilbert manifolds and the projection formula for Gysin maps has been proved. In [M. Chas, D. Sullivan, String topology, math.GT/9911159, 1999], Chas and Sullivan described an intersection product on the homology of loop space LM. In [R.L. Cohen, J.D.S. Jones, A homotopy theoretic realization of string topology, math.GT/0107187, 2001], R. Cohen and J. Jones described a realization of the Chas-Sullivan loop product in terms of a ring spectrum structure on the Thom spectrum of a certain virtual bundle over the loop space. In this paper, we will extend this product on cobordism and bordism theories.     

Grope cobordism of classical knots

Motivated by the lower central series of a group, we define the notion of a grope cobordism between two knots in a 3-manifold. Just like an iterated group commutator, each grope cobordism has a type that can be described by a rooted unitrivalent tree. By filtering these trees in different ways, we show how the Goussarov-Habiro approach to finite type invariants of knots is closely related to our notion of grope cobordism. Thus our results can be viewed as a geometric interpretation of finite type invariants.The derived commutator series of a group also has a three-dimensional analogy, namely knots modulo symmetric grope cobordism. On one hand this theory maps onto the usual Vassiliev theory and on the other hand it maps onto the Cochran-Orr-Teichner filtration of the knot concordance group, via symmetric grope cobordism in 4-space. In particular, the graded theory contains information on finite type invariants (with degree h terms mapping to Vassiliev degree 2^h), Blanchfield forms or S-equivalence at h=2, Casson-Gordon invariants at h=3, and for h=4 one finds the new von Neumann signatures of a knot.     

Characterizing Hilbert cube manifolds by their homological structure

A hierarchy of disjoint ?ech carriers properties is introduced; and each is shown to be characteristic of ANR's whose products with 2-cells are Hilbert cube manifolds.     

The essential Lagrangian-Grassmannian and the homotopy type of the Fredholm Lagrangian-Grassmannian

Let H be a separable infinite dimensional Hilbert space endowed with a symplectic structure and let L₀⊂H be a Lagrangian subspace. Using the results of [A. Abbondandolo, P. Majer, Infinite dimensional Grassmannians, math.AT/0307192], we show that the Fredholm Lagrangian-Grassmannian FL₀(Λ) has the homotopy type of Gc(L₀), the Grassmannian of all Lagrangian subspaces of H that are compact perturbations of L₀. It is well known that the latter has the homotopy type of the quotient U(∞)/O(∞). As a corollary, we recover a result by B. Booss-Bavnbek and K. Furutani (see [B. Booss-Bavnbek, K. Furutani, Symplectic functional analysis and spectral invariants, Contemp. Math. 242 (1999) 53-83; K. Furutani, Fredholm-Lagrangian-Grassmannian and the Maslov index, J. Geom. Phys. 51 (2004) 269-331]) that the L₀-Maslov index is an isomorphism between the fundamental group of FL₀(Λ) and the integers.     

Infinite inflations of crumpled cubes

Based upon recent results characterizing Q-manifolds, this paper sets forth an explicit method for retooling certain pathology arising in finite dimensional manifolds as comparable pathology in the Hilbert cube Q. In particular, with reference to an example constructed by the author and J.J. Walsh, it presents an upper semicontinuous decomposition G of Q into points and a null sequence of cellular arcs such that the associated decomposition space is not a Q-manifold, and it also provides a new procedure for embedding finite dimensional compacta as wild subsets of Q.     

Geometric BVPs, Hardy spaces, and the Cauchy integral and transform on regions with corners

In this paper we give a new perspective on the Cauchy integral and transform and Hardy spaces for Dirac-type operators on manifolds with corners of codimension two. Instead of considering Banach or Hilbert spaces, we use polyhomogeneous functions on a geometrically “blown-up” version of the manifold called the total boundary blow-up introduced by Mazzeo and Melrose [R.R. Mazzeo, R.B. Melrose, Analytic surgery and the eta invariant, Geom. Funct. Anal. 5 (1) (1995) 14-75]. These polyhomogeneous functions are smooth everywhere on the original manifold except at the corners where they have a “Taylor series” (with possible log terms) in polar coordinates. The main application of our analysis is a complete Fredholm theory for boundary value problems of Dirac operators on manifolds with corners of codimension two.     

Transversality for equivariant exact 1-forms and gauge theory on 3-manifolds

An equivariant jet transversality framework is developed for the study of critical sets of invariant functions on G manifolds. Techniques are developed to extend transversality results to the infinite dimensional Fredholm setting. As an application, the generic structure of the SU(4) perturbed flat moduli space of an integral homology three-sphere is described, as well as the generic structure of the parameterized moduli space for a path of perturbations. A similar analysis of the U(3) moduli space for rational homology three-spheres is also carried out.     

Special manifolds and shape fibrator properties

Our main interest in this paper is further investigation of the concept of (PL) fibrators (introduced by Daverman [R.J. Daverman, PL maps with manifold fibers, J. London Math. Soc. (2) 45 (1992) 180-192]), in a slightly different PL setting. Namely, we are interested in manifolds that can detect approximate fibrations in the new setting. The main results state that every orientable, special (a new class of manifolds that we introduce) PL n-manifold with non-trivial first homology group is a fibrator in the new category, if it is a codimension-2 fibrator (Theorem 8.2) or has a non-cyclic fundamental group (Theorem 8.4). We show that all closed, orientable surface S with χ(S)<0 are fibrators in the new category.     

Riemannian geometry of finite rank positive operators

A riemannian metric is introduced in the infinite dimensional manifold Σn of positive operators with rank n<∞ on a Hilbert space H. The geometry of this manifold is studied and related to the geometry of the submanifolds Σp of positive operators with range equal to the range of a projection p (rank of p=n), and Pp of selfadjoint projections in the connected component of p. It is shown that these spaces are complete in the geodesic distance.     

Topology of compact space forms from Platonic solids. I.

The problem of classifying, up to isometry, the orientable 3-manifolds that arise by identifying the faces of a Platonic solid was completely solved in a nice paper of Everitt [B. Everitt, 3-manifolds from Platonic solids, Topology Appl. 138 (2004) 253-263]. His work completes the classification begun by Best [L.A. Best, On torsion-free discrete subgroups of PSL₂(C) with compact orbit space, Canad. J. Math. 23 (1971) 451-460], Lorimer [P.J. Lorimer, Four dodecahedral spaces, Pacific J. Math. 156 (2) (1992) 329-335], Prok [I. Prok, Classification of dodecahedral space forms, Beiträge Algebra Geom. 39 (2) (1998) 497-515], and Richardson and Rubinstein [J. Richardson, J.H. Rubinstein, Hyperbolic manifolds from a regular polyhedron, Preprint]. In this paper we investigate the topology of closed orientable 3-manifolds from Platonic solids. Here we completely recognize those manifolds in the spherical and Euclidean cases, and state topological properties for many of them in the hyperbolic case. The proofs of the latter will appear in a forthcoming paper.     

Transformations of linear connections,II

We elucidate [9] with two applications. In the first we view connections as differential systems. Specializing this to trivial bundles overS ¹ and applying the theory of Floquet, we obtain equivalent connections with constant Christoffel symbols. In the second application we prove that the canonical connections of parallelizable manifolds (in particular Lie groups) can be obtained from the canonical flat connection of appropriate trivial bundles. Thus, the formalisms of [1], [4], [5] and [6] fit in the general setting of [9].     

Algebraic topological methods for the supercritical Q-curvature problem

We study the problem of existence of conformal metrics with prescribed Q-curvature on closed four-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. This problem has a variational structure, and in the case of interest here, it is noncompact in the sense that accumulations points of some noncompact flow lines of a pseudogradient of the associated Euler–Lagrange functional, the so-called true critical points at infinity of the associated variational problem, occur. Using the characterization of the critical points at infinity of the associated variational problem which is established in [42], combined with some arguments from Morse theory, some algebraic topological methods, and some tools from dynamical system originating from Conley's isolated invariant sets and isolated blocks theory, we derive a new kind of existence results under an algebraic topological hypothesis involving the topology of the underling manifold, stable and unstable manifolds of some of the critical points at infinity of the associated Euler–Lagrange functional.     

Ordinary differential operators in Hilbert spaces and Fredholm pairs

Let be a path of bounded operators on a real Hilbert space, hyperbolic at . We study the Fredholm theory of the operator . We relate the Fredholm property of to the stable and unstable linear spaces of the associated system . Several examples are included to point out the differences with respect to the finite dimensional case, in particular concerning the role of the spectral flow. We define a general class of paths A for which many properties typical of the finite dimensional framework still hold. Our motivation is to develop the linear theory which is necessary for the set-up of Morse homology on Hilbert manifolds. Received: 9 March 2001; in final form: 1 March 2002 / Published online: 2 December 2002     

Real, complex and quaternionic equivariant vector fields on spheres

The equivariant real, complex and quaternionic vector fields on spheres problem is reduced to a question about the equivariant J-groups of the projective spaces. As an application of this reduction, we give a generalization of the results of Namboodiri [U. Namboodiri, Equivariant vector fields on spheres, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 278 (2) (1983) 431-460], on equivariant real vector fields, and Önder [T. Önder, Equivariant cross sections of complex Stiefel manifolds, Topology Appl. 109 (2001) 107-125], on equivariant complex vector fields, which avoids the restriction that the representation containing the sphere has enough orbit types.     

Manifolds of positive scalar curvature and conformal cobordism theory

For a supergoup , we study closed -manifolds with positive conformal classes. We use the relative Yamabe invariant from [2] to define the conformal cobordism relation on the category of such manifolds. We prove that the corresponding conformal cobordism groups are isomorphic to the cobordism groups defined by Stolz in [19]. As a corollary, we show that the conformal concordance relation on positive conformal classes coincides with the standard concordance relation on positive scalar curvature metrics. Our main technical tools come from analysis and conformal geometry. Received: 22 August 2000 / Published online: 5 September 2002     

Austere and arid properties for PF submanifolds in Hilbert spaces

Austere submanifolds and arid submanifolds constitute respectively two different classes of minimal submanifolds in finite dimensional Riemannian manifolds. In this paper we introduce the concepts of these submanifolds into a class of proper Fredholm (PF) submanifolds in Hilbert spaces, discuss their relation and show examples of infinite dimensional austere PF submanifolds and arid PF submanifolds in Hilbert spaces. We also mention a classification problem of minimal orbits in hyperpolar PF actions on Hilbert spaces.     

Determinant preserving maps: an infinite dimensional version of a theorem of Frobenius

In this paper we investigate the structure of maps on classes of Hilbert space operators leaving the determinant of linear combinations invariant. Our main result is an infinite dimensional version of the famous theorem of Frobenius about determinant preserving linear maps on matrix algebras. In this theorem of ours, we use the notion of (Fredholm) determinant of bounded Hilbert space operators which differ from the identity by an element of the trace class. The other result of the paper describes the structure of those transformations on sets of positive semidefinite matrices which preserve the determinant of linear combinations with fixed coefficients.     

Topology of compact space forms from Platonic solids. II

The problem of classifying, up to isometry, the orientable 3-manifolds that arise by identifying the faces of a Platonic solid was completely solved in a nice paper of Everitt [B. Everitt, 3-manifolds from Platonic solids, Topology Appl. 138 (2004) 253-263]. His work completes the classification begun by Best [L.A. Best, On torsion-free discrete subgroups of PSL₂(C) with compact orbit space, Canad. J. Math. 23 (1971) 451-460], Lorimer [P.J. Lorimer, Four dodecahedral spaces, Pacific J. Math. 156 (2) (1992) 329-335], Prok [I. Prok, Classification of dodecahedral space forms, Beiträge Algebra Geom. 39 (2) (1998) 497-515; I. Prok, Fundamental tilings with marked cubes in spaces of constant curvature, Acta Math. Hungar. 71 (1-2) (1996) 1-14], and Richardson and Rubinstein [J. Richardson, J.H. Rubinstein, Hyperbolic manifolds from a regular polyhedron, preprint]. In a previous paper we investigated the topology of closed orientable 3-manifolds from Platonic solids in the spherical and Euclidean cases, and completely classified them, up to homeomorphism. Here we describe many topological properties of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds arising from Platonic solids. As a consequence of our geometric and topological methods, we improve the distinction between the hyperbolic “Platonic” manifolds with the same homology, which up to this point was only known by computational means.     

Semi-slant Riemannian map

As a generalization of slant submersions [18], semi-slant submersions [15], and slant Riemannian maps [21], we define the notion of semi-slant Riemannian maps from almost Hermitian manifolds to Riemannian manifolds. We study the integrability of distributions, the geometry of fibers, the harmonicity of such maps, etc. We also find a condition for such maps to be totally geodesic and investigate some decomposition theorems. Moreover, we give examples.