A geometric description of differential cohomology (Q982742)

This paper gives a geometric description of differential integral homology. A differential extension of ordinary integral cohomology \(H^*\) is a functor \(X \mapsto \widehat{H}^*(X)\) from the category of smooth manifolds to the category of \({\mathbb Z}\)-graded groups together with natural transformations \[ \begin{aligned} R : \widehat{H}^*(X) &\rightarrow \Omega_{cl}^*(X),\\ I : \widehat{H}^*(X) &\rightarrow H^*(X),\\ a:\Omega^{*-1}(X)/im(d) &\rightarrow \widehat{H}^*(X) \end{aligned} \] where \(\Omega\) denotes differential forms. The authors show how the theory \(\widehat{H}^*(X)\) can be constructed by using stratifolds (essentially stratified manifolds) as ``cycles'' and cobordism to give a geometric description of the theory. That this can be done depends on the fact that Stokes' theorem applies in this situation.