We introduce multiplicative differential forms on Lie groupoids with values in VB-groupoids. Our main result gives a complete description of these objects in terms of infinitesimal data. By considering split VB-groupoids, we are able to present a Lie theory for differential forms on Lie groupoids with values in 2-term representations up to homotopy. We also define a differential complex whose 1-cocycles are exactly the multiplicative forms with values in VB-groupoids and study the Morita invariance of its cohomology.
VB-groupoids and algebroids are vector bundle objects in the categories of Lie groupoids and Lie algebroids respectively, and they are related via the Lie functor. VB-groupoids and algebroids play a prominent role in Poisson and related geometries. Additionally, they can be seen as models for vector bundles over singular spaces. In this paper we study their infinitesimal automorphisms, i.e. vector fields on them generating a flow by diffeomorphisms preserving both the linear and the groupoid/algebroid structures. For a special class of VB-groupoids/algebroids coming from representations of Lie groupoids/algebroids, we prove that infinitesimal automorphisms are the same as multiplicative sections of a certain derivation groupoid/algebroid.
Endowing differentiable functions from a compact manifold to a Lie group with the pointwise group operations one obtains the so-called current groups and, as a special case, loop groups. These are prime examples of infinite-dimensional Lie groups modelled on locally convex spaces. In the present paper, we generalise this construction and show that differentiable mappings on a compact manifold (possibly with boundary) with values in a Lie groupoid form infinite-dimensional Lie groupoids which we call current Lie groupoids. We then study basic differential geometry and Lie theory for these Lie groupoids of mappings. In particular, we show that certain Lie groupoid properties, like being a proper etale Lie groupoid, are inherited by the current groupoid. Furthermore, we identify the Lie algebroid of a current Lie groupoid as a current Lie algebroid (analogous to the current Lie algebra associated to a current Lie group). To establish these results, we study superposition operators given by postcomposition with a fixed function, between manifolds of $C^ell$-functions. Under natural hypotheses, these operators turn out to be a submersion (an immersion, an embedding, proper, resp., a local diffeomorphism) if so is the underlying map. These results are new in their generality and of independent interest.
We establish a relation between smooth 2-functors defined on the path 2-groupoid of a smooth manifold and differential forms on this manifold. This relation can be understood as a part of a dictionary between fundamental notions from category theory and differential geometry. We show that smooth 2-functors appear in several fields, namely as connections on (non-abelian) gerbes, as curvatures of smooth functors and as critical points in BF theory. We demonstrate further that our dictionary provides a powerful tool to discuss the transgression of geometric objects to loop spaces.
We give a new CR invariant treatment of the bigraded Rumin complex and related cohomology groups via differential forms. We also prove related Hodge decomposition theorems. Among many applications, we give a sharp upper bound on the dimension of the Kohn--Rossi groups $H^{0,q}(M^{2n+1})$, $1leq qleq n-1$, of a closed strictly pseudoconvex manifold with a contact form of nonnegative pseudohermitian Ricci curvature; we prove a sharp CR analogue of the Frolicher inequalities in terms of the second page of a natural spectral sequence; and we generalize the Lee class $mathcal{L}in H^1(M;mathscr{P})$ -- whose vanishing is necessary and sufficient for the existence of a pseudo-Einstein contact form -- to all nondegenerate orientable CR manifolds.
we introduce a generalization of the $p$-Laplace operator to act on differential forms and generalize an estimate of Gallot-Meyer for the first nonzero eigenvalue on closed Riemannian manifolds.