Axiomatic characterization of ordinary differential cohomology

DOI10.1112/JTOPOL/JTM006MaRDI QIDQ5451806zbMATHOpenAlexFDO

Authors James Simons, Dennis Sullivan

Publication date 27 March 2008

Published in Journal of Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0701077

zbMATH Keywords

Deligne cohomologyCheeger-Simons differential characterscharacter diagramHarvey-Lawson constructionHopkins-Singer construction

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Eta-invariants, Chern-Simons invariants (58J28) Algebraic topology on manifolds and differential topology (57R19)

Abstract: Cheeger-Simons differential characters, Deligne cohomology in the smooth category, the Hopkins-Singer construction of ordinary differential cohomology and the recent Harvey-Lawson constructions are each in two distinct ways Abelian group extensions of known functors. In one desciption these objects are extensions of integral cohomology by the quotient space of all differential forms by the subspace of closed forms with integral periods. In the other they are extensions of closed differential forms with integral periods by the cohomology with coefficients in the circle. These two series of short exact sequences mesh with two interlocking long exact sequences (the Bockstein sequence and a DeRham sequence) to form a commutative DNA-like array of functors called the Character Diagram. Theorem 1.1 shows that on the category of smooth manifolds and smooth maps any package consisting of a functor into graded abelian groups together with four natural transformations that fit together so as to form a Character Diagram as above is unique up to unique natural equivalence. Theorem 1.2 shows the natural product structure on differential characters is uniquely characterized by its compatibility with the product structures on the known functors in the Character Diagram. The proof of Theorem 1.1 couples the naturality with results about approximating smooth singular cycles and homologies by embedded pseudomanifolds.

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Cites work

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Cited in

(42)

• Comparison of two equivariant \(\eta\)-forms
• Chern-Simons classes for a superconnection
• Differential twisted K-theory and applications
• Trivializations of differential cocycles
• Relative differential cohomology and generalized Cheeger-Simons characters
• Cheeger-Simons differential characters with compact support and Pontryagin duality
• Geometric Hodge filtered complex cobordism
• Index theory on Pin manifolds
• String structures and trivialisations of a Pfaffian line bundle
• Generalized Einstein-Scalar-Maxwell theories and locally geometric \(\mathrm{U}\)-folds
• Landweber exact formal group laws and smooth cohomology theories
• Differential characters and geometric chains
• Differential function spectra, the differential Becker-Gottlieb transfer, and applications to differential algebraic 𝐾-theory
• Massey products in differential cohomology via stacks
• Abelian BF theory and Turaev-Viro invariant
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• Differential KO-theory: constructions, computations, and applications
• Differential \(K\)-theory, \(\eta\)-invariant, and localization
• Modal fracture of higher groups
• Adams operations in smooth \(K\)-theory
• The de Rham-Federer theory of differential characters and character duality
• Aspects of higher-abelian gauge theories at zero and finite temperature: topological Casimir effect, duality and Polyakov loops
• Differential cohomology and locally covariant quantum field theory
• Relative differential cohomology
• The differential analytic index in Simons-Sullivan differential \(K\)-theory
• A Goldstone theorem for continuous non-invertible symmetries
• Twisted smooth Deligne cohomology
• On 2-form gauge models of topological phases
• On Bott-Chern forms and their applications
• Hadamard states for quantum abelian duality
• Spectral sequences in smooth generalized cohomology
• Equivariant differential cohomology
• String connections and Chern-Simons theory
• Uniqueness of differential characters and differential \(K\)-theory via homological algebra
• Differential cohomology theories as sheaves of spectra
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• A condensed proof of the differential Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theorem
• Primary operations in differential cohomology
• Spark complexes on good effective orbifold atlases categorically
• A functorial approach to differential characters
• Gerbes in geometry, field theory, and quantisation

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