Gelfand-Fuchs cohomology of invariant formal vector fields (Q932928)

Let \(V\) be either a real or a complex vector space. Let \(W\) be the set of formal vector fields on \(V\); the Lie bracket makes this into an infinite dimensional Lie algebra. Let \(\rho\) define a linear action of a finite group \(\Gamma\) on \(V\) and let \(W^\Gamma_\rho\) be the Lie subalgebra of \(\Gamma\) invariant formal vector fields. The authors compute the Lie algebra cohomology of \(W_\rho^\Gamma\) as well as some relative cases. They work with the orbifold \(M/\Gamma\) but note that their results hold more generally for arbitrary orbi\-folds. Their results concerning the Lie algebra cohomology of \(W_\rho^\Gamma\) are applied to define characteristic classes belonging to the de Rham cohomology of its inertia orbifold for equivariant foliations using Kontsevich's approach and the Gelfand-Fuks method. The authors concentrate primarily on cyclic \(\Gamma\) but the results extend to other cases under suitable additional technical assumptions. The Hochschild--Serre spectral sequence plays a central role in the discussion.