Witt groups of complex cellular varieties (Q638450)

In the paper under review, the author shows that the Grothendieck-Witt and Witt groups of complex projective homogeneous varieties can be computed in a purely topological way. Consider a smooth complex variety \(X\) with a filtration by closed subvarieties \[ \emptyset = Z_0 \subset Z_1 \subset Z_2 \subset \dots \subset Z_N = X \] such that the complement of \(Z_k\) in \(Z_{k+1}\) is an open ``cell'' isomorphic to \({\mathbb A}^{n_k}\) for some \(n_k\). For such cellular variety \(X\) there is an isomorphism \[ K_0(X) \overset{\cong}{\rightarrow} K^0(X({\mathbb C})) \] between the algebraic K-group of \(X\) and the complex \(K\)-group of the underlying topological space \(X({\mathbb C})\). The proof of the main result proceeds by induction over the number of cells of \(X\). The map from Witt groups to the relevant \(KO\)-groups is then defined in such a way that it respects various exact sequences: the Witt group \(W^0(X)\) classifies vector bundles equipped with non-degenerate symmetric forms, and in topology symmetric complex vector bundles are in one-to-one correspondence with real vector bundles, classified by \(KO^0(X)\). To be more precise, there are two natural maps \[ GW^0(X) \rightarrow KO^0(X({\mathcal C}))\quad\text{and}\quad W^0(X) \rightarrow \frac{KO^0(X({\mathcal C}))}{K^0(X({\mathcal C}))}, \] where \(GW^0(X)\) is the Grothendieck-Witt group of \(X\), and \(K^0(X)\) is mapped to \(KO^0(X)\) by sending a complex vector bundle to the underlying real bundle. Relying on the representability of Hermitian \(K\)-theory by a spectrum whose complex realization is the usual topological \(KO\)-spectrum, known in the \({\mathbb A}^1\)-homotopy theory, the author extends these maps to shifted groups and groups with support. As an example, values of the Witt groups of all irreducible hermitian symmetric spaces, including smooth complex quadrics, spinor varieties and symplectic Grassmannians are computed.