Rational Pontryagin classes and functor calculus
If \(n\) is even, then \(e^2= p_{n/2}\) in \(H^{2n}(BSO(n); \mathbb{Q})\), where \(e\) is the Euler class and \(p_{n/2}\) the Pontryagin class. This paper studies this relation in the rational cohomology of \(BSTOP(n)\). The authors offer three hypotheses. Hypothesis A states that if \(n\) is even, then \(e^2= p_{n/2}\) in \(H^{2n}(BSTOP(n); \mathbb{Q})\). Hypothesis B involves the space \(R(n,2)\) of smooth maps from \(D^n\times D^2\) to \(D^2\) which agree with the projection onto \(D^2\) near the boundary. For \(f\in R(n,2)\), \(df\) can be viewed as a point in \(\Omega^{n+2}Y\), where \(Y\) is the space of surjective maps from \(\mathbb{R}^{n+2}\) to \(\mathbb{R}^2\) taking the boundary of \(D^n\times D^2\) to the base point. The result is a map \(\nabla:R(n,2)\to \Omega^{n+2}Y\), where \(\nabla(f):= df\). The map \(\nabla\) is an \(S^1\)-map and if \(Y\) is replaced by its path connected rationalization, the target of \(\nabla\) is a path connected \(K(\mathbb{Q},n-3)\). Hypothesis B states that the cohomology class \(|\nabla|\in H^{n-3}_{S^1}(R(n,2),*;\mathbb{Q})\) is zero for even \(n\geq 4\). Hypothesis C involves two functors on the category of finite-dimensional inner product spaces with morphisms injective linear maps respecting inner products. If \(Bo\) is the functor \(V\mapsto BO(V)\) and \(Bt\) is the functor \(V\mapsto BTOP(V)\), then the Hypothesis C states that the inclusion \(Bo\to Bt\) admits a rational left inverse up to weak equivalence. The paper offers the results that C implies A for all even \(n\geq 4\) and A for a specific \(n\) implies B for the same \(n\).
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