Basic bundle theory and \(K\)-cohomology invariants. With contributions by Siegfried Echterhoff, Stefan Fredenhagen and Bernhard Krötz (Q2455351)

The book, according to the authors, originated in a course of lectures by \textit{D. Husemoller} for physics students at the LMU in München during summer term 2003. It also can be seen that the course has been constituted based on Husemoller's book ``Fibre bundles'' [New York etc.: McGraw-Hill Book Company (1994; Zbl 0144.44804)] and it has covered a broad range of bundle theory from elementary aspects to topics related to mathematical physics. In compiling lectures given here into book form, there is provided an extra introductory chapter entitled ``Physical background to the \(K\)-theory classification of D-branes: Introduction and references'', written by \textit{S. Fredenhagen}, for the sake of including information on the relation to physics. This extra chapter surveys the process in which \(K\)-theory invariants came to play an important role in string theory. This theory is known for providing the most interesting mathematical approach to theoretical physics at present. The purpose of this paper is to give an introduction to bundle theory and twisted \(K\)-theory. The book consists of 5 parts (which are resolved into 25 chapters). Part I deals with the elementary foundations of bundles including the Serre-Swan theorem which states that the category of vector bundles over a compact space \(X\) is equivalent to the category of finitely generated projective modules over the ring \(C(X)\) of continuous complex valued functions on \(X\). Part II discusses the homotopy classification of bundles and the theory of characteristic classes. Particularly this allows to define a string structure in an analogy to spin structure, which is accompanied by the remark: (1) the spin manifold \(M\) is string if and only if the Pontryagin class \(\frac{1}{2}p_1(M)=0\); (2) the set of string structures on \(M\) is simply and transitively acted on by \(H^3(M, \mathbb{Z})\). Part III provides a detailed discussion about the homotopy representation of \(K\)-theory and the operator formulation of \(K\)-theory. Incidentally it is observed that the \(C^*\)-algebra \(K\)-theory \(K_0(C(X))\) is isomorphic to the \(K\)-theory \(K^0(X)\) of vector bundles. This idea of describing \(K\)-theory in terms of algebra bundles generates a new idea of considering higher order twisting on vector bundles and leads to the notion of twisted \(K\)-theory. In fact there are several versions of twisted \(K\)-theory corresponding to the approachs to ordinary complex \(K\)-theory. For each element \(\alpha \in H^3(X, \mathbb{Z})\) one has a \(C^*\)-algebra bundle \(A(\alpha)\) with fibre isomorphic to the algebra of all bounded operators on a separable Hilbert space. Then, for example, the \(C^*\)-algebra \(K\)-theory \(K_0(A(\alpha))\) presents one of them, which is denoted by \(K_\alpha(X)\). The details are discussed in Part IV, and also as for its physical interpretation, it can be found in the extra chapter above. Part V is devoted to studying the gluing of local data attached to an open covering of a space \(X\) into a global object, called a gerbe whose gluing data leads to an element of \(H^3(X, \mathbb{Z})\). The book is suitable for those readers who want to learn this subject rapidly, even if they are newcomers to this field, and also for the sake of the interest in twisted \(K\)-theory this book will be stimulative even to the readers who have already studied Husemoller's book ``Fibre bundles'' above. Every part and chapter begins with a short summary and almost every chapter ends with references. Apart from these references, a bibliography of 69 papers and books is given at the end of the volume for further reading. In particular these summaries serve to orient the readers to their concerns or help them grasp an outline of the substantials of the subjects.