String structures and canonical 3-forms (Q627407)

Roughly speaking, from a homotopy theoretic point of view, a string structure is an analogue of a (better known) spin structure or (even better known) orientation, and the author explains and follows this analogy in the paper under review. Let \(B\text{Spin}(k)\) denote the classifying space of the spin group \(\text{Spin}(k)\). One associates with the universal half first Pontryagin class \(\frac{1}{2}p_1\in H^4(B\text{Spin}(k);\mathbb Z)\) -- identified with a (homotopy class of a) map from \(B\text{Spin}(k)\) to the Eilenberg-MacLane space \(K(\mathbb Z,4)\) -- a topological group known as \(\text{String}(k)\). The homotopy type of the classifying space \(B\text{String}(k)\) is nothing but the homotopy fibre of the map \(\frac{1}{2}p_1: B\text{Spin}(k)\rightarrow K(\mathbb Z,4)\). Given a principal \(\text{Spin}(k)\)-bundle \(\pi: P\rightarrow M\), where \(M\) is a smooth closed connected oriented manifold and \(k\geq 3\), a string structure on this principal bundle is a lift to \(B\text{String}(k)\) of the classifying map \(f: M \rightarrow B\text{Spin}(k)\). A string class \(\mathcal S\in H^ 3(P;\mathbb Z)\) is a cohomology class that restricts fibrewise to the stable generator of \(H^ 3(\text{Spin}(k);\mathbb Z)\). In Section 2, the author shows (among other facts) that, up to homotopy, the choice of a string structure is equivalent to the choice of a string class \(\mathcal S\in H^ 3(P;\mathbb Z)\). In Section 3, he describes the harmonic representative of a string class \(\mathcal S\in H^ 3(P;\mathbb Z)\) (which requires choosing a metric on the base manifold \(M\), a connection on \(P\), and involves taking an adiabatic limit; also a passage from integer coefficients to real coefficients is needed). Using a Hodge isomorphism, the author shows that this harmonic representative gives rise to a canonical \(3\)-form \(H_ {g,{\mathcal S}}\in \Omega^ 3(M)\), refining an associated differential character in the sense of [\textit{J. Cheeger} and \textit{J. Simons}, Geometry and topology, Proc. Spec. Year, College Park/Md. 1983/84, Lect. Notes Math. 1167, 50--80 (1985; Zbl 0621.57010)]. In Sections 4--6, the author deals exclusively with the frame bundle \(\text{Spin}(TM) \rightarrow M\) (over \(M\) having a spin structure) in the role of the principal bundle \(\pi: P\rightarrow M\). Given a string class \(\mathcal S\) and Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(M\), he uses the Levi-Civita connection to produce the canonical \(3\)-form \(H_ {g,{\mathcal S}}\). He explicitly calculates this \(3\)-form for homogeneous metrics on \(3\)-dimensional spheres. The author also discusses how the cohomology theory tmf (Topological Modular Forms; see [\textit{M. Hopkins}, Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians, ICM 2002, Beijing, China, August 20--28, 2002. Vol. I: Plenary lectures and ceremonies. Beijing: Higher Education Press. 291--317 (2002; Zbl 1031.55007)]) could potentially encode obstructions to positive Ricci curvature metrics.