Equivariant Cohomological Chern Characters

We construct for an equivariant cohomology theory for proper equivariant CW-complexes an equivariant Chern character, provided that certain conditions about the coefficients are satisfied. These conditions are fulfilled if the coefficients of the equivariant cohomology theory possess a Mackey structure. Such a structure is present in many interesting examples.Comment: 30 page

Index of transversally elliptic operators

In 1996, Berline and Vergne gave a cohomological formula for the index of a transversally elliptic operator. In this paper we propose a new point of view where the cohomological formulae make use of equivariant Chern characters with generalized coefficients and with compact suppport. This kind of Chern characters was studied by the authors in a previous paper (see arXiv:0801.2822).Comment: 41 page

Orbifold index and equivariant K-homology

We consider a invariant Dirac operator D on a manifold with a proper and cocompact action of a discrete group G. It gives rise to an equivariant K-homology class [D]. We show how the index of the induced orbifold Dirac operator can be calculated from [D] via the assembly map. We further derive a formula for this index in terms of the contributions of finite cyclic subgroups of G. According to results of W. Lueck, the equivariant K-homology can rationally be decomposed as a direct sum of contributions of finite cyclic subgroups of G. Our index formula thus leads to an explicit decomposition of the class [D].Comment: minor correction in Sec.3.

The cohomological Hall algebra of a preprojective algebra

We introduce for each quiver $Q$ and each algebraic oriented cohomology theory $A$, the cohomological Hall algebra (CoHA) of $Q$, as the $A$-homology of the moduli of representations of the preprojective algebra of $Q$. This generalizes the $K$-theoretic Hall algebra of commuting varieties defined by Schiffmann-Vasserot. When $A$ is the Morava $K$-theory, we show evidence that this algebra is a candidate for Lusztig's reformulated conjecture on modular representations of algebraic groups. We construct an action of the preprojective CoHA on the $A$-homology of Nakajima quiver varieties. We compare this with the action of the Borel subalgebra of Yangian when $A$ is the intersection theory. We also give a shuffle algebra description of this CoHA in terms of the underlying formal group law of $A$. As applications, we obtain a shuffle description of the Yangian.Comment: V6: 44 pages; section 6 added; errors in section 8 corrected; minor revisions throughout; final versio

Ramond-Ramond Fields, Fractional Branes and Orbifold Differential K-Theory

We study D-branes and Ramond-Ramond fields on global orbifolds of Type II string theory with vanishing H-flux using methods of equivariant K-theory and K-homology. We illustrate how Bredon equivariant cohomology naturally realizes stringy orbifold cohomology. We emphasize its role as the correct cohomological tool which captures known features of the low-energy effective field theory, and which provides new consistency conditions for fractional D-branes and Ramond-Ramond fields on orbifolds. We use an equivariant Chern character from equivariant K-theory to Bredon cohomology to define new Ramond-Ramond couplings of D-branes which generalize previous examples. We propose a definition for groups of differential characters associated to equivariant K-theory. We derive a Dirac quantization rule for Ramond-Ramond fluxes, and study flat Ramond-Ramond potentials on orbifolds.Comment: 46 pages; v2: typos correcte

Leading terms of Artin L-series at negative integers and annihilation of higher K-groups

Let L/K be a finite Galois extension of number fields with Galois group G. We use leading terms of Artin L-series at strictly negative integers to construct elements which we conjecture to lie in the annihilator ideal associated to the Galois action on the higher dimensional algebraic K-groups of the ring of integers in L. For abelian G our conjecture coincides with a conjecture of Snaith and thus generalizes also the well known Coates-Sinnott conjecture. We show that our conjecture is implied by the appropriate special case of the equivariant Tamagawa number conjecture (ETNC) provided that the Quillen-Lichtenbaum conjecture holds. Moreover, we prove induction results for the ETNC in the case of Tate motives h0(Spec(L))(r), where r is a strictly negative integer. In particular, this implies the ETNC for the pair (h0(Spec(L))(r),M), where L is totally real, r < 0 is odd and M is a maximal order containing Z[ 1/2 ]G, and will also provide some evidence for our conjecture