Equivariant cohomology

In mathematics, equivariant cohomology (or Borel cohomology) is a cohomology theory from algebraic topology which applies to topological spaces with a group action. It can be viewed as a common generalization of group cohomology and an ordinary cohomology theory. Specifically, the equivariant cohomology ring of a space $X$ with action of a topological group $G$ is defined as the ordinary cohomology ring with coefficient ring $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ of the homotopy quotient $EG{\times }_{G}X$:

$H_G^{*}(X;\mathrm{\Lambda })=H^{*}(EG{\times }_{G}X;\mathrm{\Lambda }).$

If $G$ is the trivial group, this is the ordinary cohomology ring of $X$, whereas if $X$ is contractible, it reduces to the cohomology ring of the classifying space $BG$ (that is, the group cohomology of $G$ when G is finite.) If G acts freely on X, then the canonical map $EG{\times }_{G}X\to X/G$ is a homotopy equivalence and so one gets: $H_G^{*}(X;\mathrm{\Lambda })=H^{*}(X/G;\mathrm{\Lambda }).$

Definitions

It is also possible to define the equivariant cohomology $H_G^{*}(X;A)$ of $X$ with coefficients in a $G$-module A; these are abelian groups. This construction is the analogue of cohomology with local coefficients.

If X is a manifold, G a compact Lie group and $\mathrm{\Lambda }$ is the field of real numbers or the field of complex numbers (the most typical situation), then the above cohomology may be computed using the so-called Cartan model (see equivariant differential forms.)

The construction should not be confused with other cohomology theories, such as Bredon cohomology or the cohomology of invariant differential forms: if G is a compact Lie group, then, by the averaging argument, any form may be made invariant; thus, cohomology of invariant differential forms does not yield new information.

Koszul duality is known to hold between equivariant cohomology and ordinary cohomology.

Relation with groupoid cohomology

For a Lie groupoid

$\mathfrak{𝔛}=[X_1\rightrightarrows X_0]$

equivariant cohomology of a smooth manifold is a special example of the groupoid cohomology of a Lie groupoid. This is because given a

$G$

-space

$X$

for a compact Lie group

$G$

, there is an associated groupoid

${\mathfrak{𝔛}}_G=[G\times X\rightrightarrows X]$

whose equivariant cohomology groups can be computed using the Cartan complex

${\mathrm{\Omega }}_G^{\bullet }(X)$

which is the totalization of the de-Rham double complex of the groupoid. The terms in the Cartan complex are

${\mathrm{\Omega }}_G^n(X)=\underset{2k+i=n}{⨁}({\text{Sym}}^k({\mathfrak{𝔤}}^{\vee })\otimes {\mathrm{\Omega }}^i(X){)}^G$

where

${\text{Sym}}^{\bullet }({\mathfrak{𝔤}}^{\vee })$

is the symmetric algebra of the dual Lie algebra from the Lie group

$G$

, and

$(-{)}^G$

corresponds to the

$G$

-invariant forms. This is a particularly useful tool for computing the cohomology of

$BG$

for a compact Lie group

$G$

since this can be computed as the cohomology of

$[G\rightrightarrows *]$

where the action is trivial on a point. Then,

$H_{dR}^{*}(BG)=\underset{k\ge 0}{⨁}{\text{Sym}}^{2k}({\mathfrak{𝔤}}^{\vee }{)}^G$

For example,

$\begin{array}{rl}{H}_{dR}^{*}(BU(1))& =\underset{k=0}{⨁}{\text{Sym}}^{2k}({\mathbb{ℝ}}^{\vee })\\ & \cong \mathbb{ℝ}[t]\\ & \text{ where }\mathrm{deg}(t)=2\end{array}$

since the

$U(1)$

-action on the dual Lie algebra is trivial.

Homotopy quotient

The homotopy quotient, also called homotopy orbit space or Borel construction, is a “homotopically correct” version of the orbit space (the quotient of $X$ by its $G$-action) in which $X$ is first replaced by a larger but homotopy equivalent space so that the action is guaranteed to be free.

To this end, construct the universal bundle EG → BG for G and recall that EG admits a free G-action. Then the product EG × X —which is homotopy equivalent to X since EG is contractible—admits a “diagonal” G-action defined by (e,x).g = (eg,g⁻¹x): moreover, this diagonal action is free since it is free on EG. So we define the homotopy quotient X_G to be the orbit space (EG × X)/G of this free G-action.

In other words, the homotopy quotient is the associated X-bundle over BG obtained from the action of G on a space X and the principal bundle EG → BG. This bundle X → X_G → BG is called the Borel fibration.

An example of a homotopy quotient

The following example is Proposition 1 of [1].

Let X be a complex projective algebraic curve. We identify X as a topological space with the set of the complex points $X(\mathbb{ℂ})$, which is a compact Riemann surface. Let G be a complex simply connected semisimple Lie group. Then any principal G-bundle on X is isomorphic to a trivial bundle, since the classifying space $BG$ is 2-connected and X has real dimension 2. Fix some smooth G-bundle $P_{\text{sm}}$ on X. Then any principal G-bundle on $X$ is isomorphic to $P_{\text{sm}}$. In other words, the set $\mathrm{\Omega }$ of all isomorphism classes of pairs consisting of a principal G-bundle on X and a complex-analytic structure on it can be identified with the set of complex-analytic structures on $P_{\text{sm}}$ or equivalently the set of holomorphic connections on X (since connections are integrable for dimension reason). $\mathrm{\Omega }$ is an infinite-dimensional complex affine space and is therefore contractible.

Let ${𝒢}$ be the group of all automorphisms of $P_{\text{sm}}$ (i.e., gauge group.) Then the homotopy quotient of $\mathrm{\Omega }$ by ${𝒢}$ classifies complex-analytic (or equivalently algebraic) principal G-bundles on X; i.e., it is precisely the classifying space $B{𝒢}$ of the discrete group ${𝒢}$.

One can define the moduli stack of principal bundles ${\mathrm{Bun}}_G(X)$ as the quotient stack $[\mathrm{\Omega }/{𝒢}]$ and then the homotopy quotient $B{𝒢}$ is, by definition, the homotopy type of ${\mathrm{Bun}}_G(X)$.

Equivariant characteristic classes

Let E be an equivariant vector bundle on a G-manifold M. It gives rise to a vector bundle $\tilde{E}$ on the homotopy quotient $EG{\times }_{G}M$ so that it pulls-back to the bundle $\tilde{E}=EG\times E$ over $EG\times M$. An equivariant characteristic class of E is then an ordinary characteristic class of $\tilde{E}$, which is an element of the completion of the cohomology ring $H^{*}(EG{\times }_{G}M)=H_G^{*}(M)$. (In order to apply Chern–Weil theory, one uses a finite-dimensional approximation of EG.)

Alternatively, one can first define an equivariant Chern class and then define other characteristic classes as invariant polynomials of Chern classes as in the ordinary case; for example, the equivariant Todd class of an equivariant line bundle is the Todd function evaluated at the equivariant first Chern class of the bundle. (An equivariant Todd class of a line bundle is a power series (not a polynomial as in the non-equivariant case) in the equivariant first Chern class; hence, it belongs to the completion of the equivariant cohomology ring.)

In the non-equivariant case, the first Chern class can be viewed as a bijection between the set of all isomorphism classes of complex line bundles on a manifold M and $H^2(M;\mathbb{\mathbb{Z}}).$ In the equivariant case, this translates to: the equivariant first Chern gives a bijection between the set of all isomorphism classes of equivariant complex line bundles and $H_G^2(M;\mathbb{\mathbb{Z}})$.

Localization theorem

The localization theorem is one of the most powerful tools in equivariant cohomology.

See also

• Equivariant differential form
• Kirwan map
• Localization formula for equivariant cohomology
• GKM variety
• Bredon cohomology

References

• Atiyah, Michael; Bott, Raoul (1984), "The moment map and equivariant cohomology", Topology 23: 1–28, doi:10.1016/0040-9383(84)90021-1 
• Brion, M. (1998). "Equivariant cohomology and equivariant intersection theory". Representation Theories and Algebraic Geometry. Nato ASI Series. 514. Springer. pp. 1–37. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-9131-7_1. ISBN 978-94-015-9131-7. http://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~mbrion/notesmontreal.pdf. 
• Goresky, Mark; Kottwitz, Robert; MacPherson, Robert (1998), "Equivariant cohomology, Koszul duality, and the localization theorem", Inventiones Mathematicae 131: 25–83, doi:10.1007/s002220050197 
• Hsiang, Wu-Yi (1975). Cohomology Theory of Topological Transformation Groups. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-66052-8. ISBN 978-3-642-66052-8. 
• Tu, Loring W. (March 2011). "What Is . . . Equivariant Cohomology?". Notices of the American Mathematical Society 58 (3): 423–6. https://www.ams.org/notices/201103/rtx110300423p.pdf. 

Relation to stacks

• Behrend, K. (2004). "Cohomology of stacks". Intersection theory and moduli. ICTP Lecture Notes. 19. pp. 249–294. ISBN 9789295003286. https://www.math.ubc.ca/~behrend/CohSta-1.pdf.  PDF page 10 has the main result with examples.

Further reading

• Guillemin, V.W.; Sternberg, S. (1999). Supersymmetry and equivariant de Rham theory. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-03992-2. ISBN 978-3-662-03992-2. 
• Vergne, M.; Paycha, S. (1998). "Cohomologie équivariante et théoreme de Stokes". Département de Mathématiques, Université Blaise Pascal. https://www.emis.de/journals/SC/2003/7/pdf/smf_sem-cong_7_1-43.pdf. 

External links

• Meinrenken, E. (2006), "Equivariant cohomology and the Cartan model", Encyclopedia of mathematical physics, pp. 242–250, ISBN 978-0-12-512666-3, http://www.math.toronto.edu/mein/research/enc.pdf  — Excellent survey article describing the basics of the theory and the main important theorems
• Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Equivariant cohomology", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. / Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4, https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=e/e036090 
• Young-Hoon Kiem (2008). "Introduction to equivariant cohomology theory". Seoul National University. http://www.math.snu.ac.kr/~kiem/mylecture-equivcoh.pdf. 
• What is the equivariant cohomology of a group acting on itself by conjugation?