Central extensions of mapping class groups from characteristic classes

Tangential structures on smooth manifolds, and the extension of mapping class groups they induce, admit a natural formulation in terms of higher (stacky) differential geometry. This is the literal translation of a classical construction in differential topology to a sophisticated language, but it has the advantage of emphasizing how the whole construction naturally emerges from the basic idea of working in slice categories. We characterize, for every higher smooth stack equipped with tangential structure, the induced higher group extension of the geometric realization of its higher automor- phism stack. We show that when restricted to smooth manifolds equipped with higher degree topological structures, this produces higher extensions of homotopy types of diffeomorphism groups. Passing to the groups of connected components, we obtain abelian extensions of mapping class groups and we derive sufficient conditions for these being central. We show as a special case that this provides an elegant re-construction of Segal’s approach to $\mathbb{Z}$ -extensions of mapping class groups of surfaces that provides the anomaly cancellation of the modular functor in Chern-Simons theory. Our construction generalizes Segal’s approach to higher central extensions of mapping class groups of higher dimensional manifolds with higher tangential structures, expected to provide the analogous anomaly cancellation for higher dimensional TQFTs

Endpoint estimates and weighted norm inequalities for commutators of fractional integrals

We prove that the commutator [b, Iα], b ∈ BMO, Iα the fractional integral operator, satisfies the sharp, modular weak-type inequality f(x) tdx, where B(t) = tlog(e + t) and Ψ(t)=[tlog(e + tα/n)]n/(n−α). These commutators were first considered by Chanillo, and our result complements his. The heart of our proof consists of the pointwise inequality, M#([b, Iα]f)(x) ≤ CbBMO [Iαf(x) + Mα,Bf(x)], where M# is the sharp maximal operator, and Mα,B is a generalization of the fractional maximal operator in the scale of Orlicz spaces. Using this inequality we also prove one-weight inequalities for the commutator; to do so we prove one and two-weight norm inequalities for Mα,B which are of interest in their own right.[b, Iα]f(x

Kodaira-Spencer formality of products of complex manifolds

We shall say that a complex manifold $X$ is emph{Kodaira-Spencer formal} if its Kodaira-Spencer differential graded Lie algebra $A^{0,*}_X(Theta_X)$ is formal; if this happen, then the deformation theory of $X$ is completely determined by the graded Lie algebra $H^*(X,Theta_X)$ and the base space of the semiuniversal deformation is a quadratic singularity.. Determine when a complex manifold is Kodaira-Spencer formal is generally difficult and we actually know only a limited class of cases where this happen. Among such examples we have Riemann surfaces, projective spaces, holomorphic Poisson manifolds with surjective anchor map $H^*(X,Omega^1_X) o H^*(X,Theta_X)$ and every compact K"{a}hler manifold with trivial or torsion canonical bundle. In this short note we investigate the behavior of this property under finite products. Let $X,Y$ be compact complex manifolds; we prove that whenever $X$ and $Y$ are K"{a}hler, then $X imes Y$ is Kodaira-Spencer formal if and only if the same holds for $X$ and $Y$. A revisit of a classical example by Douady shows that the above result fails if the K"{a}hler assumption is droppe

Weighted endpoint estimates for commutators of fractional integrals

summary:Given $\alpha$, $0<\alpha <n$, and $b\in {\mathrm BMO}$, we give sufficient conditions on weights for the commutator of the fractional integral operator, $[b,I_\alpha ]$, to satisfy weighted endpoint inequalities on $\mathbb{R}^n$ and on bounded domains. These results extend our earlier work [3], where we considered unweighted inequalities on $\mathbb{R}^n$

L∞L_\infty-Algebras of Classical Field Theories and the Batalin-Vilkovisky Formalism

We review in detail the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism for Lagrangian field theories and its mathematical foundations with an emphasis on higher algebraic structures and classical field theories. In particular, we show how a field theory gives rise to an $L_\infty$-algebra and how quasi-isomorphisms between $L_\infty$-algebras correspond to classical equivalences of field theories. A few experts may be familiar with parts of our discussion, however, the material is presented from the perspective of a very general notion of a gauge theory. We also make a number of new observations and present some new results. Most importantly, we discuss in great detail higher (categorified) Chern-Simons theories and give some useful shortcuts in usually rather involved computations.Comment: v3: 131 pages, minor improvements, published versio

Sums over Graphs and Integration over Discrete Groupoids

We show that sums over graphs such as appear in the theory of Feynman diagrams can be seen as integrals over discrete groupoids. From this point of view, basic combinatorial formulas of the theory of Feynman diagrams can be interpreted as pull-back or push-forward formulas for integrals over suitable groupoids.Comment: 27 pages, 4 eps figures; LaTeX2e; uses Xy-Pic. Some ambiguities fixed, and several proofs simplifie