No Arabic abstract
The concept of orbifolds should unify differential geometry with equivariant homotopy theory, so that orbifold cohomology should unify differential cohomology with proper equivariant cohomology theory. Despite the prominent role that orbifolds have come to play in mathematics and mathematical physics, especially in string theory, the formulation of a general theory of orbifolds reflecting this unification has remained an open problem. Here we present a natural theory argued to achieve this. We give both a general abstract axiomatization in higher topos theory, as well as concrete models for ordinary as well as for super-geometric and for higher-geometric orbifolds. Our first main result is a fully faithful embedding of the 2-category of orbifolds into a singular-cohesive infinity-topos whose intrinsic cohomology theory is proper globally equivariant differential generalized cohomology, subsuming traditional orbifold cohomology, Chen-Ruan cohomology, and orbifold K-theory. Our second main result is a general construction of orbifold etale cohomology which we show to naturally unify (i) tangentially twisted cohomology of smooth but curved spaces with (ii) RO-graded proper equivariant cohomology of flat but singular spaces. As a fundamental example we present J-twisted orbifold Cohomotopy theories with coefficients in shapes of generalized Tate spheres. According to Hypothesis H this includes the proper orbifold cohomology theory that controls non-perturbative string theory.
In this paper we study the cohomology of (strict) Lie 2-groups. We obtain an explicit Bott-Shulman type map in the case of a Lie 2-group corresponding to the crossed module $Ato 1$. The cohomology of the Lie 2-groups corresponding to the universal crossed modules $Gto Aut(G)$ and $Gto Aut^+(G)$ is the abutment of a spectral sequence involving the cohomology of $GL(n,Z)$ and $SL(n,Z)$. When the dimension of the center of $G$ is less than 3, we compute explicitly these cohomology groups. We also compute the cohomology of the Lie 2-group corresponding to a crossed module $Gto H$ whose kernel is compact and cokernel is connected, simply connected and compact and apply the result to the string 2-group.
We extend the Chern character on K-theory, in its generalization to the Chern-Dold character on generalized cohomology theories, further to (twisted, differential) non-abelian cohomology theories, where its target is a non-abelian de Rham cohomology of twisted L-infinity algebra valued differential forms. The construction amounts to leveraging the fundamental theorem of dg-algebraic rational homotopy theory to a twisted non-abelian generalization of the de Rham theorem. We show that the non-abelian character reproduces, besides the Chern-Dold character, also the Chern-Weil homomorphism as well as its secondary Cheeger-Simons homomorphism on (differential) non-abelian cohomology in degree 1, represented by principal bundles (with connection); and thus generalizes all these to higher (twisted, differential) non-abelian cohomology, represented by higher bundles/higher gerbes (with higher connections). As a fundamental example, we discuss the twisted non-abelian character map on twistorial Cohomotopy theory over 8-manifolds, which can be viewed as a twisted non-abelian enhancement of topological modular forms (tmf) in degree 4. This turns out to exhibit a list of subtle topological relations that in high energy physics are thought to govern the charge quantization of fluxes in M-theory.
Atiyahs classical work on circular symmetry and stationary phase shows how the $hat{A}$-genus is obtained by formally applying the equivariant cohomology localization formula to the loop space of a simply connected spin manifold. The same technique, applied to a suitable antiholomorphic sector in the $mathbb{C}/Lambda$-equivariant cohomology of the conformal double loop space $mathrm{Maps}(mathbb{C}/Lambda,X)$ of a rationally string manifold $X$ produces the Witten genus of $X$. This can be seen as an equivariant localization counterpart to Berwick-Evans supersymmetric localization derivation of the Witten genus.
We construct a global geometric model for complex analytic equivariant elliptic cohomology for all compact Lie groups. Cocycles are specified by functions on the space of fields of the two-dimensional sigma model with background gauge fields and $mathcal{N} = (0, 1)$ supersymmetry. We also consider a theory of free fermions valued in a representation whose partition function is a section of a determinant line bundle. We identify this section with a cocycle representative of the (twisted) equivariant elliptic Euler class of the representation. Finally, we show that the moduli stack of $U(1)$-gauge fields carries a multiplication compatible with the complex analytic group structure on the universal (dual) elliptic curve, with the Euler class providing a choice of coordinate. This provides a physical manifestation of the elliptic group law central to the homotopy-theoretic construction of elliptic cohomology.
We show that the exterior derivative operator on a symplectic manifold has a natural decomposition into two linear differential operators, analogous to the Dolbeault operators in complex geometry. These operators map primitive forms into primitive forms and therefore lead directly to the construction of primitive cohomologies on symplectic manifolds. Using these operators, we introduce new primitive cohomologies that are analogous to the Dolbeault cohomology in the complex theory. Interestingly, the finiteness of these primitive cohomologies follows directly from an elliptic complex. We calculate the known primitive cohomologies on a nilmanifold and show that their dimensions can vary depending on the class of the symplectic form.