Natural operations in Intersection Cohomology

Eilenberg-MacLane spaces, that classify the singular cohomology groups of topological spaces, admit natural constructions in the framework of simplicial sets. The existence of similar spaces for the intersection cohomology groups of a stratified space is a long-standing open problem asked by M. Goresky and R. MacPherson. One feature of this work is a construction of such simplicial sets. From works of R. MacPherson, J. Lurie and others, it is now commonly accepted that the simplicial set of singular simplices associated to a topological space has to be replaced by the simplicial set of singular simplices that respect the stratification. This is encoded in the category of simplicial sets over the nerve of the poset of strata. For each perversity, we define a functor from it, with values in the category of cochain complexes over a commutative ring. This construction is based upon a simplicial blow up and the associated cohomology is the intersection cohomology as it was defined by M. Goresky and R. MacPherson in terms of hypercohomology of Delignes's sheaves. This functor admits an adjoint and we use it to get classifying spaces for intersection cohomology. Natural intersection cohomology operations are understood in terms of intersection cohomology of these classifying spaces. As in the classical case, they form infinite loop spaces. In the last section, we examine the depth one case of stratified spaces with only one singular stratum. We observe that the classifying spaces are Joyal's projective cones over classical Eilenberg-MacLane spaces. We establish some of their properties and conjecture that, for Goresky and MacPherson perversities, all intersection cohomology operations are induced by classical ones

A bordism approach to string topology

Using intersection theory in the context of Hilbert manifolds and geometric homology we show how to recover the main operations of string topology built by M. Chas and D. Sullivan. We also study and build an action of the homology of reduced Sullivan's chord diagrams on the singular homology of free loop spaces, extending previous results of R. Cohen and V. Godin and unifying part of the rich algebraic structure of string topology as an algebra over the prop of these reduced diagrams. Some of these operations are extended to spaces of maps from a sphere to a compact manifold

Mixed Hodge structures on the intersection homotopy type of complex varieties with isolated singularities

A homotopical treatment of intersection cohomology recently developed by Chataur-Saralegui-Tanr\'e associates a "perverse algebraic model" to every topological pseudomanifold, extending Sullivan's presentation of rational homotopy to intersection cohomology. In this context, there is a notion of "intersection-formality", measuring the vanishing of Massey products in intersection cohomology. In the present paper, we study the perverse algebraic model of complex projective varieties with isolated singularities. We endow such invariant with natural mixed Hodge structures. This allows us to prove some intersection-formality results for large families of complex projective varieties, such as isolated surface singularities and varieties of arbitrary dimension with ordinary isolated singularities

Fibrewise nullification and the cube theorem

Our aim is to construct fibrewise localizations in model categories. For pointed spaces, the general idea is to decompose the total space of a fibration as a diagram over the category of simplices of the base and replace it by the localized diagram. This of course is not possible in an arbitrary category. We have thus to adapt another construction which heavily depends on Mather's cube theorem. Working with model categories in which the cube theorem holds, we characterize completely those who admit a fibrewise nullification. As an application we get fibrewise plus-construction and fibrewise Postnikov sections for algebras over an operad

Rational homotopy of complex projective varieties with normal isolated singularities

Let X be a complex projective variety of dimension n with only isolated normal singularities. In this paper we prove, using mixed Hodge theory, that if the link of each singular point of X is (n-2)-connected, then X is a formal topological space. This result applies to a large class of examples, such as normal surface singularities, varieties with ordinary multiple points, hypersurfaces with isolated singularities and more generally, complete intersections with isolated singularities. We obtain analogous results for contractions of subvarieties.Comment: Final version to appear in Forum. Math. Exposition improved thanks to the referees comment

Homology of spaces of regular loops in the sphere

In this paper we compute the singular homology of the space of immersions of the circle into the $n$-sphere. Equipped with Chas-Sullivan's loop product these homology groups are graded commutative algebras, we also compute these algebras. We enrich Morse spectral sequences for fibrations of free loop spaces together with loop products, this offers some new computational tools for string topology.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figure

Steenrod squares on Intersection cohomology and a conjecture of M. Goresky and W. Pardon

We prove a conjecture raised by M. Goresky and W. Pardon, concerning the range of validity of the perverse degree of Steenrod squares in intersection cohomology. This answer turns out of importance for the definition of characteristic classes in the framework of intersection cohomology. For this purpose, we present a construction of ${\rm cup}_{i}$-products on the cochain complex, built on the blow-up of some singular simplices and introduced in a previous work. We extend to this setting the classical properties of the associated Steenrod squares, including Adem and Cartan relations, for any generalized perversities. In the case of a pseudomanifold, we prove that our definition coincides with M. Goresky's definition. Several examples of concrete computation of perverse Steenrod squares are given, including the case of isolated singularities and, more especially, we describe the Steenrod squares on the Thom space of a vector bundle, in function of the Steenrod squares of the basis and the Stiefel-Whitney classes. We detail also an example of a non trivial square, $\sq^2\colon H_{\ bar{p}}\to H_{\ bar{p}+2}$, whose information is lost if we consider it as values in$H_{2\ bar{p}}$, showing the interest of the Goresky and Pardon's conjecture.Comment: Correction of some misprint

Operadic Hochschild chain complex and free loop spaces

We construct for any algebra over an operad an Hochschild chain complex. In the case of the singular cochain complex of a topological space, considered as a commutative algebra up to homotopy, we show that this complex computes the singular cohomology of the free loop space over this topological space.Comment: 13 page

Frobenius Rational Loop Algebra

Recently R. Cohen and V. Godin have proved that the homology of the free loop space of a closed oriented manifold with coefficients in a field has the structure of a Frobenius algebra without counit. In this short note we prove that when the characteristic of the field is zero and when the manifold is 1-connected the algebraic structure depends only on the rational homotopy type of the manifold. We build an algebraic model and use it to do some computations.Comment: 14 page

Poincar\'e duality with cap products in intersection homology

For having a Poincar\'e duality via a cap product between the intersection homology of a paracompact oriented pseudomanifold and the cohomology given by the dual complex, G. Friedman and J. E. McClure need a coefficient field or an additional hypothesis on the torsion. In this work, by using the classical geometric process of blowing-up, adapted to a simplicial setting, we build a cochain complex which gives a Poincar\'e duality via a cap product with intersection homology, for any commutative ring of coefficients. We prove also the topological invariance of the blown-up intersection cohomology with compact supports in the case of a paracompact pseudomanifold with no codimension one strata. This work is written with general perversities, defined on each stratum and not only in function of the codimension of strata. It contains also a tame intersection homology, suitable for large perversities.Comment: A new subsection has been adde