Bounded characteristic classes and flat bundles

DOI10.4310/JDG/1375124608MaRDI QIDQ366945zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Indira Chatterji, Guido Mislin, Christophe Pittet, Yves Cornulier

Publication date 25 September 2013

Published in Journal of Differential Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.4069, https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.jdg/1375124608

bounded characteristic classes derived group of the radical stable commutator length, distortion

Classifying spaces of groups and (H)-spaces in algebraic topology (55R35) Homology of classifying spaces and characteristic classes in algebraic topology (55R40) Characteristic classes and numbers in differential topology (57R20) Homology and cohomology of Lie groups (57T10)

Abstract: Let G be a connected Lie group, G^d the underlying discrete group, and BG, BG^d their classifying spaces. Let R denote the radical of G. We show that all classes in the image of the canonical map in cohomology H^*(BG,R)->H^*(BG^d,R) are bounded if and only if the derived group [R,R] is simply connected. We also give equivalent conditions in terms of stable commutator length and distortion.

Review text

Let \(G\) be a connected Lie group and denote by \(BG\) the classifying space of \(G\). If \(BG^\delta\) is the classifying space of the group \(G\) with the discrete topology, a class \(\alpha\) in \(H^n(BG^\delta, A)\) is bounded if it can be represented by a cocycle \(c:G^n\to A\) with bounded image. The authors obtain some conditions for \(G\), under which the classes in the image of \(H^*(BG,\mathbb{R})\to H^*(BG^\delta, \mathbb{R})\) are bounded. Theorem 1.1. Let \(G\) be a connected Lie group and let \(R\) be its radical. The following conditions are equivalent. (1) All elements in the image of \(H^*(BG ,\mathbb{R})\to H^*(BG^\delta, \mathbb{R})\) are bounded. (2) The derived group \([R,R]\) of the radical of \(G\) is simply connected. The authors recall and discuss some background results about Borel cohomology and obtain the Theorem 2.1 where they give some necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of integral Borel cohomology of \(G\) for \(\pi_1(G)\) to be undistorted in \(G\). In Theorem 2.2. some background results related to Theorem 1.1. are given. In section 3, a primary obstruction to the existence of a global section of the universal \(G\)-bundle is obtained. Then the authors prove the existence of a non-zero lower bound on the stable commutator length of all elements in the commutator subgroup of the universal cover of \(G\) that are central and whose stable commutator length is non-zero.

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