No Arabic abstract
Generalized differential cohomology theories, in particular differential K-theory (often called smooth K-theory), are becoming an important tool in differential geometry and in mathematical physics. In this survey, we describe the developments of the recent decades in this area. In particular, we discuss axiomatic characterizations of differential K-theory (and that these uniquely characterize differential K-theory). We describe several explicit constructions, based on vector bundles, on families of differential operators, or using homotopy theory and classifying spaces. We explain the most important properties, in particular about the multiplicative structure and push-forward maps and will sta
In this paper, we develop differential twisted K-theory and define a twisted Chern character on twisted K-theory which depends on a choice of connection and curving on the twisting gerbe. We also establish the general Riemann-Roch theorem in twisted K-theory and find some applications in the study of twisted K-theory of compact simple Lie groups.
For a finite volume geodesic polyhedron P in hyperbolic 3-space, with the property that all interior angles between incident faces are integral submultiples of Pi, there is a naturally associated Coxeter group generated by reflections in the faces. Furthermore, this Coxeter group is a lattice inside the isometry group of hyperbolic 3-space, with fundamental domain the original polyhedron P. In this paper, we provide a procedure for computing the lower algebraic K-theory of the integral group ring of such Coxeter lattices in terms of the geometry of the polyhedron P. As an ingredient in the computation, we explicitly calculate some of the lower K-groups of the dihedral groups and the product of dihedral groups with the cyclic group of order two.
The main result of this paper is a new and direct proof of the natural transformation from the surgery exact sequence in topology to the analytic K-theory sequence of Higson and Roe. Our approach makes crucial use of analytic properties and new index theorems for the signature operator on Galois coverings with boundary. These are of independent interest and form the second main theme of the paper. The main technical novelty is the use of large scale index theory for Dirac type operators that are perturbed by lower order operators.
There is an equivalence relation on the set of smooth maps of a manifold into the stable unitary group, defined using a Chern-Simons type form, whose equivalence classes form an abelian group under ordinary block sum of matrices. This construction is functorial, and defines a differential extension of odd K-theory, fitting into natural commutative diagrams and exact sequences involving K-theory and differential forms. To prove this we obtain along the way several results concerning even and odd Chern and Chern-Simons forms.
We construct a model of differential K-theory, using the geometrically defined Chern forms, whose cocycles are certain equivalence classes of maps into the Grassmannians and unitary groups. In particular, we produce the circle-integration maps for these models using classical homotopy-theoretic constructions, by incorporating certain differential forms which reconcile the incompatibility between these even and odd Chern forms. By the uniqueness theorem of Bunke and Schick, this model agrees with the spectrum-based models in the literature whose abstract Chern cocycles are compatible with the delooping maps on the nose.