Jim Simons (with Dennis Sullivan) Title: Enriching Cohomology With A Ring Of Differential Characters
Advances in Algebra and Geometry
May 04, 2007 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM
Speakers:
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Abstract: |
The ring of differential characters, H^, a functor on smooth manifolds, naturally maps onto both differential forms and integral cohomology and carries useful additional information beyond these. Differential characters were inspired by the Chern-Simons construction and have had applications to both geometry and theoretical physics. In recent years a number of other functors, including Deligne cohomology in the smooth context , have been constructed and shown to be naturally isomorphic to this ring.
The first talk will provide background on this functor, show that it is uniquely characterized by a simple commutative diagram, and introduce an analogous functor K^ in which ordinary cohomology is replaced by K-theory. |
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