Isometric group actions and the cohomology of flat fiber bundles (Q355378)

Let \(B\), \(E\), and \(F\) be closed, smooth manifolds with \(F\) oriented, and let \(\pi:E\to B\) be a smooth fiber bundle with structure group \(H\). If the transition functions into the structure group are locally constant, then the fiber bundle is said to be flat. In [Intersection spaces, spatial homology truncation, and string theory. Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1997, Dordrecht: Springer (2010; Zbl 1219.55001)], the author introduced the method of intersection spaces, and in [Foliated Stratified Spaces and a De Rham Complex Describing Intersection Space Cohomology, Preprint 2011, \url{arXiv:1102.4781}], he considered the de Rham type description of the real cohomology of these spaces by a complex of global differential forms. In this paper, by using these methods, the author shows that for a flat fiber bundle \((E,B,\pi,H)\) if (i)\,\(H\) is a Lie group acting properly and smoothly on \(F\), or (ii)\,\(F\) is Riemannian and the images of the monodromy homomorphisms \(\pi_1(,b)\to H\) act by isometries on \(F\), where the base-point \(b\) ranges over the connected components of \(B\), then the cohomological Leray-Serre spectral sequence of \(\pi\) for real coefficients collapses at the \(E_2\)-term. In particular, the formula \(H^k(E;B)\cong\underset{p+q=k}\bigoplus H^p(B;H^q(F;\mathbb R))\) holds, where the \(H^q(F;\mathbb R)\) are local coefficient systems on \(B\) induced by \(\pi\), whose groups are the real cohomology groups of the fiber. The proof is largely topological and does not need a metric on the base or total space. This result is used to show further that if the fundamental group of a smooth aspherical manifold acts isometrically on a Riemannian manifold, then the equivariant real cohomology of the Riemannian manifold can be computed as a direct sum over the cohomology of the group with coefficients in the twisted cohomology modules of the manifold. These results are used to study the Euler class of flat sphere bundles. The author presents several examples illustrating his results.