Commutative cocycles and stable bundles over surfaces

Commutative K-theory, a cohomology theory built from spaces of commuting matrices, has been explored in recent work of Adem, G{o}mez, Gritschacher, Lind, and Tillman. In this article, we use unstable methods to construct explicit representatives for the real commutative K-theory classes on surfaces. These classes arise from commutative O(2)-valued cocycles, and are analyzed via the point-wise inversion operation on commutative cocycles.

The homotopy groups of a homotopy group completion

Let $M$ be a topological monoid with homotopy group completion $Omega BM$. Under a strong homotopy commutativity hypothesis on $M$, we show that $pi_k (Omega BM)$ is the quotient of the monoid of free homotopy classes $[S^k, M]$ by its submonoid of nullhomotopic maps. We give two applications. First, this result gives a concrete description of the Lawson homology of a complex projective variety in terms of point-wise addition of spherical families of effective algebraic cycles. Second, we apply this result to monoids built from the unitary, or general linear, representation spaces of discrete groups, leading to results about lifting continuous families of characters to continuous families of representations.

Yang-Mills theory over surfaces and the Atiyah-Segal theorem

In this paper we explain how Morse theory for the Yang-Mills functional can be used to prove an analogue, for surface groups, of the Atiyah-Segal theorem. Classically, the Atiyah-Segal theorem relates the representation ring R(Gamma) of a compact Lie group $Gamma$ to the complex K-theory of the classifying space $BGamma$. For infinite discrete groups, it is necessary to take into account deformations of representations, and with this in mind we replace the representation ring by Carlssons deformation $K$--theory spectrum $K (Gamma)$ (the homotopy-theoretical analogue of $R(Gamma)$). Our main theorem provides an isomorphism in homotopy $K_*(pi_1 Sigma)isom K^{-*}(Sigma)$ for all compact, aspherical surfaces $Sigma$ and all $*>0$. Combining this result with work of Tyler Lawson, we obtain homotopy theoretical information about the stable moduli space of flat unitary connections over surfaces.

The Yang-Mills stratification for surfaces revisited

We revisit Atiyah and Botts study of Morse theory for the Yang-Mills functional over a Riemann surface, and establish new formulas for the minimum codimension of a (non-semi-stable) stratum. These results yield the exact connectivity of the natural map (C_{min} E)//G(E) --> Map^E (M, BU(n)) from the homotopy orbits of the space of central Yang-Mills connections to the classifying space of the gauge group G(E). All of these results carry over to non-orientable surfaces via Ho and Lius non-orientable Yang-Mills theory. A somewhat less detailed version of this paper (titled On the Yang-Mills stratification for surfaces) will appear in the Proceedings of the AMS.

The stable moduli space of flat connections over a surface

We compute the homotopy type of the moduli space of flat, unitary connections over aspherical surfaces, after stabilizing with respect to the rank of the underlying bundle. Over the orientable surface M^g, we show that this space has the homotopy type of the infinite symmetric product of M^g, generalizing a well-known fact for the torus. Over a non-orientable surface, we show that this space is homotopy equivalent to a disjoint union of two tori, whose common dimension corresponds to the rank of the first (co)homology group of the surface. Similar calculations are provided for products of surfaces, and show a close analogy with the Quillen-Lichtenbaum conjectures in algebraic K-theory. The proofs utilize Tyler Lawsons work in deformation K-theory, and rely heavily on Yang-Mills theory and gauge theory.

Homological stability for spaces of commuting elements in Lie groups

In this paper we study homological stability for spaces ${rm Hom}(mathbb{Z}^n,G)$ of pairwise commuting $n$-tuples in a Lie group $G$. We prove that for each $ngeqslant 1$, these spaces satisfy rational homological stability as $G$ ranges through any of the classical sequences of compact, connected Lie groups, or their complexifications. We prove similar results for rational equivariant homology, for character varieties, and for the infinite-dimensional analogues of these spaces, ${rm Comm}(G)$ and ${rm B_{com}} G$, introduced by Cohen-Stafa and Adem-Cohen-Torres-Giese respectively. In addition, we show that the rational homology of the space of unordered commuting $n$-tuples in a fixed group $G$ stabilizes as $n$ increases. Our proofs use the theory of representation stability - in particular, the theory of ${rm FI}_W$-modules developed by Church-Ellenberg-Farb and Wilson. In all of the these results, we obtain specific bounds on the stable range, and we show that the homology isomorphisms are induced by maps of spaces.

Hilbert-Poincare series for spaces of commuting elements in Lie groups

In this article we study the homology of spaces ${rm Hom}(mathbb{Z}^n,G)$ of ordered pairwise commuting $n$-tuples in a Lie group $G$. We give an explicit formula for the Poincare series of these spaces in terms of invariants of the Weyl group of $G$. By work of Bergeron and Silberman, our results also apply to ${rm Hom}(F_n/Gamma_n^m,G)$, where the subgroups $Gamma_n^m$ are the terms in the descending central series of the free group $F_n$. Finally, we show that there is a stable equivalence between the space ${rm Comm}(G)$ studied by Cohen-Stafa and its nilpotent analogues.

The topological Atiyah-Segal map

Associated to each finite dimensional linear representation of a group $G$, there is a vector bundle over the classifying space $BG$. We introduce a framework for studying this construction in the context of infinite discrete groups, taking into account the topology of representation spaces. This involves studying the homotopy group completion of the topological monoid formed by all unitary (or general linear) representations of $G$, under the monoid operation given by block sum. In order to work effectively with this object, we prove a general result showing that for certain homotopy commutative topological monoids $M$, the homotopy groups of $Omega BM$ can be described explicitly in terms of unbased homotopy classes of maps from spheres into $M$. Several applications are developed. We relate our constructions to the Novikov conjecture; we show that the space of flat unitary connections over the 3-dimensional Heisenberg manifold has extremely large homotopy groups; and for groups that satisfy Kazhdans property (T) and admit a finite classifying space, we show that the reduced $K$-theory class associated to a spherical family of finite dimensional unitary representations is always torsion.

Orbit categories, classifying spaces, and generalized homotopy fixed points

We give a new description of Rosenthals generalized homotopy fixed point spaces as homotopy limits over the orbit category. This is achieved using a simple categorical model for classifying spaces with respect to families of subgroups.

The prequantum line bundle on the moduli space of flat $SU(N)$ connections on a Riemann surface and the homotopy of the large $N$ limit

We show that the prequantum line bundle on the moduli space of flat $SU(2)$ connections on a closed Riemann surface of positive genus has degree 1. It then follows from work of Lawton and the second author that the classifying map for this line bundle induces a homotopy equivalence between the stable moduli space of flat $SU(N)$ connections, in the limit as $N$ tends to infinity, and $mathbb{C}P^infty$. Applications to the stable moduli space of flat unitary connections are also discussed.