Finite type invariants and fatgraphs

We define an invariant ∇G(M) of pairs M,G, where M is a 3-manifold obtained by surgery on some framed link in the cylinder Σ×I, Σ is a connected surface with at least one boundary component, and G is a fatgraph spine of Σ. In effect, ∇G is the composition with the ιn maps of Le-Murakami-Ohtsuki of the link invariant of Andersen-Mattes-Reshetikhin computed relative to choices determined by the fatgraph G; this provides a basic connection between 2d geometry and 3d quantum topology. For each fixed G, this invariant is shown to be universal for homology cylinders, i.e., ∇G establishes an isomorphism from an appropriate vector space of homology cylinders to a certain algebra of Jacobi diagrams. Via composition for any pair of fatgraph spines G,G^′ of Σ, we derive a representation of the Ptolemy groupoid, i.e., the combinatorial model for the fundamental path groupoid of Teichmüller space, as a group of automorphisms of this algebra. The space comes equipped with a geometrically natural product induced by stacking cylinders on top of one another and furthermore supports related operations which arise by gluing a homology handlebody to one end of a cylinder or to another homology handlebody. We compute how ∇G interacts with all three operations explicitly in terms of natural products on Jacobi diagrams and certain diagrammatic constants. Our main result gives an explicit extension of the LMO invariant of 3-manifolds to the Ptolemy groupoid in terms of these operations, and this groupoid extension nearly fits the paradigm of a TQFT. We finally re-derive the Morita-Penner cocycle representing the first Johnson homomorphism using a variant/generalization of ∇G.     

Stable bundles and extension of structure group

Let EG be a polystable principal G-bundle over a compact connected Kähler manifold, where G is a complex reductive group, and a homomorphism to another complex reductive group. We give a sufficient condition under which the principal H-bundle obtained by extending the structure group of EG using ρ is stable.     

Numerically effective line bundles associated to a stable bundle over a curve

Let G be a complex semisimple group and χ a character of a parabolic subgroup P⊂G such that the associated line bundle on G/P is ample. For a general stable G-bundle E_G over a compact Riemann surface of genus at least two, the line bundle over E_G/P defined by χ has the property that the restriction of  to any closed subvariety of E_G/P of smaller dimension is ample, although is not ample.     

Signatures of foliated surface bundles and the symplectomorphism groups of surfaces

For any closed oriented surface Σ_g of genus g?3, we prove the existence of foliatedΣ_g-bundles over surfaces such that the signatures of the total spaces are non-zero. We can arrange that the total holonomy of the horizontal foliations preserve a prescribed symplectic form ω on the fiber. We relate the cohomology class represented by the transverse symplectic form to a crossed homomorphism which is an extension of the flux homomorphism from the identity component to the whole group of symplectomorphisms of Σ_g with respect to the symplectic form ω.     

On the topology of graph picture spaces

We study the space of pictures of a graph G in complex projective d-space. The main result is that the homology groups (with integer coefficients) of are completely determined by the Tutte polynomial of G. One application is a criterion in terms of the Tutte polynomial for independence in the d-parallel matroids studied in combinatorial rigidity theory. For certain special graphs called orchards, the picture space is smooth and has the structure of an iterated projective bundle. We give a Borel presentation of the cohomology ring of the picture space of an orchard, and use this presentation to develop an analogue of the classical Schubert calculus.     

Rational points and cohomology of discriminant varieties

Let G be a finite unitary reflection group acting in a complex vector space . The discriminant varietyX_G of G is defined as the space of regular orbits of G on V. Classical examples include the varieties of complex polynomials of degree n with distinct (resp. non-zero distinct) roots. The normaliser of G in GL(V) acts on X_G; in this work we determine the action of on the cohomology of X_G. In the classical cases this amounts to computing the cohomology of X_G with certain local coefficient systems. Our methods are to compute equivariant weight polynomials by means of explicit counting of the rational points of certain varieties over finite fields, and then to exploit the weight purity of the relevant varieties. We obtain some power series identities as a byproduct.     

Chen-Ruan cohomology of some moduli spaces of parabolic vector bundles

Let (X,D) be an ?-pointed compact Riemann surface of genus at least two. For each point x∈D, fix parabolic weights such that . Fix a holomorphic line bundle ξ over X of degree one. Let PMξ denote the moduli space of stable parabolic vector bundles, of rank two and determinant ξ, with parabolic structure over D and parabolic weights . The group of order two line bundles over X acts on PMξ by the rule E_∗⊗L?E_∗⊗L. We compute the Chen-Ruan cohomology ring of the corresponding orbifold.     

Reduction of derived Hochschild functors over commutative algebras and schemes

We study functors underlying derived Hochschild cohomology, also called Shukla cohomology, of a commutative algebra S essentially of finite type and of finite flat dimension over a commutative noetherian ring K. We construct a complex of S-modules D, and natural reduction isomorphisms for all complexes of S-modules N and all complexes M of finite flat dimension over K whose homology H(M) is finitely generated over S; such isomorphisms determine D up to derived isomorphism. Using Grothendieck duality theory we establish analogous isomorphisms for any essentially finite-type flat map of noetherian schemes, with f^!OY in place of D.     

Modified regular representations of affine and Virasoro algebras, VOA structure and semi-infinite cohomology

We find a counterpart of the classical fact that the regular representation R(G) of a simple complex group G is spanned by the matrix elements of all irreducible representations of G. Namely, the algebra of functions on the big cell G₀⊂G of the Bruhat decomposition is spanned by matrix elements of big projective modules from the category O of representations of the Lie algebra g of G, and has the structure of a g⊕g-module.The standard regular representation of the affine group has two commuting actions of the Lie algebra with total central charge 0, and carries the structure of a conformal field theory. The modified versions and , originating from the loop version of the Bruhat decomposition, have two commuting -actions with central charges shifted by the dual Coxeter number, and acquire vertex operator algebra structures derived from their Fock space realizations, given explicitly for the case G=SL(2,C).The quantum Drinfeld-Sokolov reduction transforms the representations of the affine Lie algebras into their W-algebra counterparts, and can be used to produce analogues of the modified regular representations. When g=sl(2,C) the corresponding W-algebra is the Virasoro algebra. We describe the Virasoro analogues of the modified regular representations, which are vertex operator algebras with the total central charge equal to 26.The special values of the total central charges in the affine and Virasoro cases lead to the non-trivial semi-infinite cohomology with coefficients in the modified regular representations. The inherited vertex algebra structure on this cohomology degenerates into a supercommutative associative superalgebra. We describe these superalgebras in the case when the central charge is generic, and identify the 0th cohomology with the Grothendieck ring of finite-dimensional G-modules. We conjecture that for the integral values of the central charge the 0th semi-infinite cohomology coincides with the Verlinde algebra and its counterpart associated with the big projective modules.     

Localization and duality in topology and modular representation theory

We develop a duality theory for localizations in the context of ring spectra in algebraic topology. We apply this to prove a theorem in the modular representation theory of finite groups.Let G be a finite group and k be an algebraically closed field of characteristic p. If p is a homogeneous nonmaximal prime ideal in H^∗(G,k), then there is an idempotent module κ_p which picks out the layer of the stable module category corresponding to p, and which was used by Benson, Carlson and Rickard [D.J. Benson, J.F. Carlson, J. Rickard, Thick subcategories of the stable module category, Fund. Math. 153 (1997) 59-80] in their development of varieties for infinitely generated kG-modules. Our main theorem states that the Tate cohomology is a shift of the injective hull of H^∗(G,k)/p as a graded H^∗(G,k)-module. Since κ_p can be constructed using a version of the stable Koszul complex, this can be viewed as a statement of localized Gorenstein duality in modular representation theory. Various consequences of this theorem are given, including the statement that the stable endomorphism ring of the module κ_p is the p-completion of cohomology , and the statement that κ_p is a pure injective kG-module.In the course of proving the theorem, we further develop the framework introduced by Dwyer, Greenlees and Iyengar [W.G. Dwyer, J.P.C. Greenlees, S. Iyengar, Duality in algebra and topology, Adv. Math. 200 (2006) 357-402] for translating between the unbounded derived categories and . We also construct a functor to the full stable module category, which extends the usual functor and which preserves Tate cohomology. The main theorem is formulated and proved in , and then translated to and finally to .The main theorem in can be viewed as stating that a version of Gorenstein duality holds after localizing at a prime ideal in H^∗(BG;k). This version of the theorem holds more generally for a compact Lie group satisfying a mild orientation condition. This duality lies behind the local cohomology spectral sequence of Greenlees and Lyubeznik for localizations of H^∗(BG;k).In a companion paper [D.J. Benson, Idempotent kG-modules with injective cohomology, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 212 (7) (2008) 1744-1746], a more recent and shorter proof of the main theorem is given. The more recent proof seems less natural, and does not say anything about localization of the Gorenstein condition for compact Lie groups.     

Integral generators for the cohomology ring of moduli spaces of sheaves over Poisson surfaces

Let M be a smooth and compact moduli space of stable coherent sheaves on a projective surface S with an effective (or trivial) anti-canonical line bundle. We find generators for the cohomology ring of M, with integral coefficients. When S is simply connected and a universal sheaf E exists over S×M, then its class [E] admits a Künneth decomposition as a class in the tensor product of the topological K-rings. The generators are the Chern classes of the Künneth factors of [E] in . The general case is similar.     

The realization space of a Π-algebra: a moduli problem in algebraic topology

A Π-algebra A is a graded group with all of the algebraic structure possessed by the homotopy groups of a pointed connected topological space. We study the moduli space R(A) of realizations of A, which is defined to be the disjoint union, indexed by weak equivalence classes of CW-complexes X with , of the classifying space of the monoid of self homotopy equivalences of X. Our approach amounts to a kind of homotopical deformation theory: we obtain a tower whose homotopy limit is R(A), in which the space at the bottom is BAut(A) and the successive fibres are determined by Π-algebra cohomology. (This cohomology is the analog for Π-algebras of the Hochschild cohomology of an associative ring or the André-Quillen cohomology of a commutative ring.) It seems clear that the deformation theory can be applied with little change to study other moduli problems in algebra and topology.     

Stable cohomology over local rings

For a commutative noetherian ring R with residue field k stable cohomology modules have been defined for each n∈Z, but their meaning has remained elusive. It is proved that the k-rank of any characterizes important properties of R, such as being regular, complete intersection, or Gorenstein. These numerical characterizations are based on results concerning the structure of Z-graded k-algebra carried by stable cohomology. It is shown that in many cases it is determined by absolute cohomology through a canonical homomorphism of algebras . Some techniques developed in the paper are applicable to the study of stable cohomology functors over general associative rings.     

Toric complexes and Artin kernels

A simplicial complex L on n vertices determines a subcomplex TL of the n-torus, with fundamental group the right-angled Artin group GL. Given an epimorphism χ:GL→Z, let be the corresponding cover, with fundamental group the Artin kernel Nχ. We compute the cohomology jumping loci of the toric complex TL, as well as the homology groups of with coefficients in a field k, viewed as modules over the group algebra kZ. We give combinatorial conditions for to have trivial Z-action, allowing us to compute the truncated cohomology ring, . We also determine several Lie algebras associated to Artin kernels, under certain triviality assumptions on the monodromy Z-action, and establish the 1-formality of these (not necessarily finitely presentable) groups.     

Poisson deformations of symplectic quotient singularities

We establish a connection between smooth symplectic resolutions and symplectic deformations of a (possibly singular) affine Poisson variety.In particular, let V be a finite-dimensional complex symplectic vector space and G⊂Sp(V) a finite subgroup. Our main result says that the so-called Calogero-Moser deformation of the orbifold V/G is, in an appropriate sense, a versal Poisson deformation. That enables us to determine the algebra structure on the cohomology of any smooth symplectic resolution X?V/G (multiplicative McKay correspondence). We prove further that if is an irreducible Weyl group and , then no smooth symplectic resolution of V/G exists unless G is of types .     

On the Heegaard Floer homology of branched double-covers

Let be a link. We study the Heegaard Floer homology of the branched double-cover Σ(L) of S³, branched along L. When L is an alternating link, of its branched double-cover has a particularly simple form, determined entirely by the determinant of the link. For the general case, we derive a spectral sequence whose E² term is a suitable variant of Khovanov's homology for the link L, converging to the Heegaard Floer homology of Σ(L).     

Asymptotic stability of Riemann solutions in BGK approximations to certain multidimensional systems of conservation laws

We prove the asymptotic stability of nonplanar two-states Riemann solutions in BGK approximations of a class of multidimensional systems of conservation laws. The latter consists of systems whose flux-functions in different directions share a common complete system of Riemann invariants, the level surfaces of which are hyperplanes. The asymptotic stability to which the main result refers is in the sense of the convergence as t→∞ in of the space of directions ζ=x/t. That is, the solution z(t,x,ξ) of the perturbed Cauchy problem for the corresponding BGK system satisfies as t→∞, in , where R(ζ) is the self-similar entropy solution of the two-states nonplanar Riemann problem for the system of conservation laws.