Operations and poly-operations in Algebraic Cobordism

We describe all operations from a theory A^* obtained from Algebraic Cobordism of M.Levine-F.Morel by change of coefficients to any oriented cohomology theory B^* (in the case of a field of characteristic zero). We prove that such an operation can be reconstructed out of it's action on the products of projective spaces. This reduces the construction of operations to algebra and extends the additive case done earlier, as well as the topological one obtained by T.Kashiwabara. The key new ingredients which permit us to treat the non-additive operations are: the use of "poly-operations" and the "Discrete Taylor expansion". As an application we construct the only missing, the 0-th (non-additive) Symmetric operation, for arbitrary p, which permits to sharpen results on the structure of Algebraic Cobordism. We also prove the general Riemann-Roch theorem for arbitrary (even non-additive) operations (over an arbitrary field). This extends the multiplicative case proved by I.Panin.Comment: To appear in Advances in Mathematic

Symmetric operations for all primes and Steenrod operations in Algebraic Cobordism

In this article we construct Symmetric operations for all primes (previously known only for p=2). These unstable operations are more subtle than the Landweber-Novikov operations, and encode all p-primary divisibilities of characteristic numbers. Thus, taken together (for all primes) they plug the gap left by the Hurewitz map L ---> Z[b_1,b_2,...], providing an important structure on Algebraic Cobordism. Applications include: questions of rationality of Chow group elements - see [11], and the structure of the Graded Algebraic Cobordism. We also construct Steenrod operations of T.tom Dieck-style in Algebraic Cobordism. These unstable multiplicative operations are more canonical and subtle than Quillen-style operations, and complement the latter.Comment: 21 page

On Link Homology Theories from Extended Cobordisms

This paper is devoted to the study of algebraic structures leading to link homology theories. The originally used structures of Frobenius algebra and/or TQFT are modified in two directions. First, we refine 2-dimensional cobordisms by taking into account their embedding into the three space. Secondly, we extend the underlying cobordism category to a 2-category, where the usual relations hold up to 2-isomorphisms. The corresponding abelian 2-functor is called an extended quantum field theory (EQFT). We show that the Khovanov homology, the nested Khovanov homology, extracted by Stroppel and Webster from Seidel-Smith construction, and the odd Khovanov homology fit into this setting. Moreover, we prove that any EQFT based on a Z_2-extension of the embedded cobordism category which coincides with Khovanov after reducing the coefficients modulo 2, gives rise to a link invariant homology theory isomorphic to those of Khovanov.Comment: Lots of figure

Algebraic Structures Derived from Foams

Foams are surfaces with branch lines at which three sheets merge. They have been used in the categorification of sl(3) quantum knot invariants and also in physics. The 2D-TQFT of surfaces, on the other hand, is classified by means of commutative Frobenius algebras, where saddle points correspond to multiplication and comultiplication. In this paper, we explore algebraic operations that branch lines derive under TQFT. In particular, we investigate Lie bracket and bialgebra structures. Relations to the original Frobenius algebra structures are discussed both algebraically and diagrammatically.Comment: 11 pages; 14 figure