Equivariant characteristic forms on the bundle of connections (Q557163)

Let \(p:C(P)\rightarrow M\) be the affine bundle of connections of a principal \(G\)-bundle \(\pi: P\rightarrow M\), where \(M\) is a connected \(C^ \infty\)-manifold and \(G\) is a Lie group; there is a bijective correspondence between connections on \(P\) and global sections of \(p:C(P)\rightarrow M\). For the induced principal \(G\)-bundle \(p^ \ast(P)\) over \(C(P)\) there is a canonical connection \(\mathbb A\) described, e.g., in [\textit{M. Castrillón López} and \textit{J. Muñoz Masqué}, Math. Z. 236, 797--811 (2001; Zbl 0977.53020)]; let \(\mathbb F\) be the curvature of \(\mathbb A\). Let \(\mathcal I_ k^ G\) be the space of Weil polynomials of degree \(k\) for \(G\). As is known, for \(f\in \mathcal I_ k^ G\) there is a characteristic \(2k\)-form on \(C(P)\). The author denotes it by \(c_f(\mathbb F)\), and his main aim is to give a geometric interpretation of the forms \(c_f(\mathbb F)\) if \(2k>\text{dim}(M)\). To do this, he obtains a canonical equivariant extension of the form \(c_f(\mathbb F)\), and then a canonical cohomology class on \(\mathcal A/\text{Gau}^ 0 P\), where \(\mathcal A\) is the space of connections on \(P\) and \(\text{Gau}^ 0 P\) consists of those gauge transformations leaving a point \(u_ 0\in P\) fixed. More generally, for any closed form \(\beta \in \Omega^ r (M)\) and \(f\in \mathcal I_ k^ G\) with \(2k+r\geq \text{dim}(M)\), the author obtains a cohomology class on \(\mathcal A/\text{Gau}^ 0 P\). It is shown that these classes coincide with those defined by \textit{M. Atiyah} and \textit{I. Singer} in [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 81, 2597--2600 (1984; Zbl 0547.58033)].