On the de Rham cohomology of differential and algebraic stacks (Q2577008)

The paper under review is devoted to the study of an analogue of the classical ``Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence'' for stacks. More precisely, there is a fundamental spectral sequence of the form \[ E^{p,q}_1:= H^q(X, \Omega^p)\Rightarrow H^{p+q}_{\text{DR}}(X) \] in the classical geometric categories of differentiable \(C^\infty\)-manifolds, complex-analytic manifolds, or algebraic manifolds over a field of characteristic zero, respectively. Now, instead of manifolds, the author considers a smooth Artin stack \(X\) over any of these categories, and he asks the question of whether there is an analogous, just as significant spectral sequence for such a stack. Certainly, such a ``Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence'' for stacks would be very useful in the study of the various moduli stacks constructed in geometry and physics, and this basically motivates the author's undertaking. As for the concept of de Rham cohomology for differential stacks, the foundations have been laid by the author himself in his recent work ``Cohomology of Stacks'' [in: Intersection Theory and Moduli, ICTP Lecture notes 19, Trieste (2004; Zbl 1081.58003)]. Using and extending the methods developed there, including groupoid representations of stacks, Lie algebroids and big sites associated to stacks, and cotangent complexes in their derived categories, the author establishes a spectral sequence that resembles the ``Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence'' for manifolds. However, this main task is to examine what additional structure on the underlying stack \(X\) is needed in order to construct this particular spectral sequence. To this end, the notion of cofoliation on a stack \(X\) is invented. A cofoliation is a change of the differentiable structure of the stack, which turns out to be uniquely determined by its associated Lie groupoid. Actually, cofoliations on stacks are constructed from suitable flat connections on groupoids, which, on their part, generalize the usual connections on gerbes and vector bundles in a natural way. Finally, the author shows how a cofoliation on a stack \(X\) can be used to give a refinement of the previously known form of the ``Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence'' of \(X\) where now the \(E_1\)-term consists entirely of vector bundle valued cohomology groups, and no longer of abstract, hypercohomology objects as before. At the end of the paper, the author explains how his general construction specializes in the cases of holomorphic and algebraic stacks, respectively. As it becomes apparent from the framework of the present paper, he whole subject is closely related to the problem of deformation quantization of groupoids [cf.: \textit{C. Teleman}, Ann. Math. (2) 152, 1--43 (2000; Zbl 0980.53102)].