Groupoids, branched manifolds and multisections (Q2472589)

The paper gives a presentation of the Euler class of an orbifold in the language of branched manifolds and multisections. The second section of the paper is dedicated to orbifolds or V-manifolds described in terms of groupoids [due to \textit{A. Haefliger}, Manifolds -- Amsterdam 1970, Proc. NUFFIC Summer School Manifolds 1970, Lect. Notes Math. 197, 133--163 (1971; Zbl 0215.52403), Structure transverse des feuilletages, Toulouse 1982, Astérisque 116, 70--97 (1984; Zbl 0562.57012), Ramsay, Arlan (ed.) et al., Groupoids in analysis, geometry, and physics. AMS-IMS-SIAM joint summer research conference, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, June 20--24, 1999. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS). Contemp. Math. 282, 83--100 (2001; Zbl 0994.57025)]. The presentation follows closely the survey paper [\textit{I. Moerdijk}, Adem, Alejandro (ed.) et al., Orbifolds in mathematics and physics. Proceedings of a conference on mathematical aspects of orbifold string theory, Madison, WI, USA, May 4--8, 2001. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS). Contemp. Math. 310, 205--222 (2002; Zbl 1041.58009)]. The first subsection introduces various properties of groupoids such as stable, proper or effective, then of a refinement of a groupoid and of equivalent groupoids. The second subsection begins with the definition of an orbifold structure with the aid of a groupoid and of an orbifold, and next this definition is compared with the ``good atlas'' one. Finally, the results on fundamental cycles and cobordism of orbifolds are reviewed [cf. e.g., \textit{I. Moerdijk} and \textit{D. A. Pronk}, Indag. Math., New Ser. 10, No. 2, 269--293 (1999; Zbl 1026.55007)]. In the third section weighted nonsingular branched (wnb) groupoids are introduced and studied. To obtain a good class of branched groupoids which carry a fundamental cycle the author imposes a weighting condition, cf. Definition 3.2. The definition adapts Definition 5.6 of [\textit{D. Salamon}, Eliashberg, Yakov (ed.) et al., Symplectic geometry and topology. Lecture notes from the graduate summer school program, Park City, UT, USA, June 29--July 19, 1997. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. IAS/ Park City Math. Ser. 7, 145--229 (1999; Zbl 1031.53118)] to the context of groupoids, and also is close to the definition of a branched submanifold of Euclidean space [cf. \textit{K. Cieliebak, I. Mundet i Riera} and \textit{D. A. Salamon}, Topology 42, No. 3, 641--700 (2003; Zbl 1026.58010)]. The definition is followed by an illuminating example and a detailed discussion of the technicalities involved. The next subsection is dedicated to layered coverings. Finally, in the third subsection the notion of a branched manifold is introduced using wnb groupoids. The main result of the section is Proposition 3.25 which states that every compact branched manifold (even with boundary) has a fundamental class. Moreover, this proposition enumerates some basic properties of this class. The final section is concerned with resolutions of orbifolds. First, it is demonstrated that any orbifold admits a resolution. The second subsection introduces orbibundles [cf. \textit{I. Moerdijk}, op. cit.], and multisections (over orbifolds) in order to show how branched manifolds arise as multivalued sections of (unbranched) orbibundles. It is a groupoid version of constructions of [\textit{K. Cieliebak, I. Mundet i Riera} and \textit{D. A. Salamon}, op. cit. and \textit{H. Hofer, K. Wysocki} and \textit{E. Zehnder}, J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 9, No. 4, 841--876 (2007; Zbl 1149.53053)]. In the final subsection, the author discusses the relation of her results on the Euler class to those of Satake, Haefliger and Cieliebak et al. [cf. \textit{I. Satake}, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 42, 359--363 (1956; Zbl 0074.18103), \textit{A. Haefliger}, op. cit., \textit{K. Cieliebak, I. Mundet i Riera} and \textit{D. A. Salamon}, op. cit.].