Graph mappings and Poincaré duality (Q1000588)

Poincaré duality asserts that for a compact oriented \(m\)-manifold the mapping \({\mathcal D} : H^k(M;\mathbb Z) \to H_{m-k}(M;\mathbb Z)\) defined by the cap product with the fundamental class \([M]\) of \(M\) is an isomorphism. In this text the authors give a formulation of the duality in the context of geometric measure theory extending the classical fact that for a map \(g : M \to S^k\), the Poincaré dual of \(g^*([i])\), \([i]\) being the generator of \(H^k(S^k)\), is the class in \(H_{m-k}(M)\) represented by the inverse image of a regular value of \(g\). Here \(A\) is a compact oriented pseudo-manifold. Using the Dold-Thom theorem, a cohomology class \(\alpha\in H^k(A;\mathbb Z)\) can be viewed as a multi-valued map from \(A\) to the sphere \(S^k\), and here as a Lipschitz map from \(A\) into some symmetric product of the sphere \(S^k\), \(SP^d(S^k)\). The authors then construct a graph map \(\Gamma : \text{Map}_{\text{ Lipschitz}}(A, SP^d(S^k))\to {\mathcal Z}_m(A\times S^k)\), where \({\mathcal Z}_m\) denotes the space of rectifiable \(m\)-currents with \(0\)-boundary. Then, using Federer's technique of slicing currents, they construct a continuous slicing map \(sl : {\mathcal Z}_m(A\times S^k)\to {\mathcal Z}_{m-k}(A)\). As a main theorem they prove that \(\Gamma \circ sl\) gives the usual duality isomorphism \({\mathcal D}\). The final result of the paper is the compatibility of this Poincaré duality map with the duality map relating motivic cohomology to Lawson homology.