Sections of fiber bundles over surfaces and TQFTs (Q606476)

Topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) produce topological invariants of manifolds using ideas suggested by quantum field theory. A (\(d+1\))-dimensional TQFT assigns to every closed oriented \(d\)-manifold a finite dimensional vector space and assigns to every compact oriented (\(d+1\))-cobordism a linear map between the two vector spaces corresponding to its boundary. One of the interesting applications of TQFT is the rediscovery of the Frobenuis-Mednykh formula by \textit{R. Dijkgraaf} and \textit{E. Witten} [Commun. Math. Phys. 129, No.~2, 393--429 (1990; Zbl 0703.58011)] and by \textit{D. Freed} and \textit{F. Quinn} [ibid. 156, No. 3, 435--472 (1993; Zbl 0788.58013)]. Let \(\pi=\pi_1(W)\) be the fundamental group of a closed connected oriented surface \(W\) and let \(\Gamma\) be a finite group. The Frobenuis-Mednykh formula computes the number of homomorphisms from \(\pi\) to \(\Gamma\): \[ |\text{Hom}(\pi,\Gamma)|=|\Gamma|\sum_{\rho}(|\Gamma|/\text{dim} \rho)^{-\chi(W)}, \] where \(\chi(W)\) is the Euler characteristic of \(W\) and \(\rho\) runs over the set of equivalence classes of irreducible finite-dimensional complex representations of \(\Gamma\). In a preprint of 1999, \textit{V. Turaev} applied the idea of a TQFT to study maps from manifolds to topological spaces. This lead him to a notion of a homotopy quantum field theory (HQFT). A (\(d+1\))-dimensional HQFT assigns to every closed oriented \(d\)-manifold endowed with a map to a given space \(X\) a finite dimensional vector space and assigns to every compact oriented (\(d+1\))-cobordism endowed with a map to a given space \(X\) a linear map between the two vector spaces corresponding to its boundary. A TQFT may be interpreted as an HQFT with target space consisting of one point. The paper under review generalizes the Frobenuis-Mednykh formula in the context of HQFT. This result was announced in \textit{V. Turaev} [Math. Res. Lett. 16, No.~2--3, 515--529 (2009; Zbl 1175.57013)]. Fix a group epimorphism \(q:G'\to G\) with finite kernel \(\Gamma.\) Consider a homomorphism \(g:\pi=\pi_1(W) \to G.\) A lift of \(g\) to \(G'\) is a homomorphism \(g':\pi \to G'\) such that \(qg'=g.\) The main result in the paper computes the number of such lifts: \[ |\text{Hom}_g(\pi,G')|=|\Gamma|\sum_{\rho}(|\Gamma|/\text{dim} \rho)^{-\chi(W)}g^*(\zeta_\rho)([W]), \] where \(\rho\) runs over the set of equivalence classes of irreducible finite-dimensional complex representations of \(\Gamma\) such that \(g(\pi)\) is in the stabilizer of \(\rho\) and \(g^*(\zeta_\rho)([W])\) is the evaluation of a certain 2-dimensional cohomology class of \(\pi\) on the fundamental class \([W]\). When \(g(\pi)=1\), the formula reduces to the Frobenuis-Mednykh formula. The result is proved using the idea of 2-dimensional HQFTs. It would be interesting to find a purely algebraic proof. In this paper, the result extends to orientable surfaces with boundary and to non-orientable surfaces. As an application, it is used to count homotopy classes of sections of Serre fibrations (in particular, of locally trivial fiber bundles) over the surface \(W\).