A TOPOLOGISTS VIEW OF SYMMETRIC AND QUADRATIC FORMS Andrew Ranicki - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 A TOPOLOGIST’S VIEW OF SYMMETRIC AND QUADRATIC FORMS Andrew Ranicki (Edinburgh) http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/ � aar Patterson 60++, G¨ ottingen, 27 July 2009

2 The mathematical ancestors of S.J.Patterson Augustus Edward Hough Love Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich G. H. (Godfrey Harold) Hardy University of Cambridge Mary Lucy Cartwright University of Oxford (1930) Walter Kurt Hayman Alan Frank Beardon Samuel James Patterson University of Cambridge (1975)

3 The 35 students and 11 grandstudents of S.J.Patterson Schubert, Volcker (Vlotho) Do Stünkel, Matthias (Göttingen) Di Möhring, Leonhard (Hannover) Di,Do Bruns, Hans-Jürgen (Oldenburg?) Di Bauer, Friedrich Wolfgang (Frankfurt) Di,Do Hopf, Christof () Di Cromm, Oliver ( ) Di Klose, Joachim (Bonn) Do Talom, Fossi (Montreal) Do Kellner, Berndt (Göttingen) Di Martial Hille (St. Andrews) Do Matthews, Charles (Cambridge) Do (JWS Casels) Stratmann, Bernd O. (St. Andrews) Di,Do Falk, Kurt (Maynooth ) Di Kern, Thomas () M.Sc. (USA) Mirgel, Christa (Frankfurt?) Di Thirase, Jan (Göttingen) Di,Do Autenrieth, Michael (Hannover) Di, Do Karaschewski, Horst (Hamburg) Do Wellhausen, Gunther (Hannover) Di,Do Giovannopolous, Fotios (Göttingen) Do (ongoing) S.J.Patterson Mandouvalos, Nikolaos (Thessaloniki) Do Thiel, Björn (Göttingen(?)) Di,Do Louvel, Benoit (Lausanne) Di (Rennes), Do Wright, David (Oklahoma State) Do (B. Mazur) Widera, Manuela (Hannover) Di Krämer, Stefan (Göttingen) Di (Burmann) Hill, Richard (UC London) Do Monnerjahn, Thomas ( ) St.Ex. (Kriete) Propach, Ralf ( ) Di Beyerstedt, Bernd (Göttingen) Di,Do Eckhardt, Carsten (Frankfurt) Do John, Guido () Di Hahn, Jim (Korea ) Di Deng, An-Wen (Taiwan ) Do Brüdern, Jörg (Stuttgart) Di,Do James Spelling (UC London) Do Thilo Breyer (Stuttgart) Do Valentin Blomer (Stuttgart) Do Rainer Dietmann (Stuttgart) Do Stephan Daniel (Stuttgart) Do Dirk Daemen (Stuttgart) Do Markus Hablizel (Stuttgart) Do Sabine Poehler (Stuttgart) Do Stefan Neumann (Stuttgart) Do

4 Paddy with Carla Ranicki at the G¨ ottingen Wildgehege, 1985

5 Irish roots: a practical treatise on planting Woods . . .

6 Symmetric forms ◮ Slogan 1 It is a fact of sociology that topologists are interested in quadratic forms – Serge Lang. ◮ Let A be a commutative ring, or more generally a noncommutative ring with an involution. ◮ Slogan 2 Topologists like quadratic forms over group rings! ◮ Definition For ǫ = 1 or − 1 an ǫ -symmetric form ( F , λ ) over A is a f.g. free A -module F with a bilinear pairing λ : F × F → A such that λ ( x , y ) = ǫλ ( y , x ) ∈ A ( x , y ∈ F ) . ◮ The form ( F , λ ) is nonsingular if the A -module morphism λ : F → F ∗ = Hom A ( F , A ) ; x �→ ( y �→ λ ( x , y )) is an isomorphism.

7 The ( − ) n -symmetric form of a 2 n -manifold ◮ Slogan 3 Manifolds have ǫ -symmetric forms over Z and Z 2 , given algebraically by Poincar´ e duality and cup/cap products, and geometrically by intersections. ◮ Z in oriented case, Z 2 in general. An m -dimensional manifold M m is oriented if the tangent m -plane bundle τ M is oriented, in which case the homology and cohomology are related by the Poincar´ e duality isomorphisms H ∗ ( M ) ∼ = H m −∗ ( M ). ◮ An oriented 2 n -dimensional manifold M 2 n has a ( − ) n -symmetric intersection form over Z λ : F n ( M ) × F n ( M ) → Z ; ( x , y ) �→ � x ∪ y , [ M ] � with F n ( M ) = H n ( M ) / { torsion } a f.g. free Z -module. ◮ Geometric interpretation If K n , L n ⊂ M 2 n are oriented n -dimensional submanifolds which intersect transversely in an oriented 0-dimensional manifold K ∩ L then [ K ] , [ L ] ∈ H n ( M ) ∼ = H n ( M ) are such that λ ([ K ] , [ L ]) = | K ∩ L | ∈ Z .

8 The ǫ -symmetric Witt group ◮ A lagrangian for a nonsingular ǫ -symmetric form ( F , λ ) is a direct summand L ⊂ F such that ◮ λ ( L , L ) = 0, so that L ⊂ L ⊥ = ker( λ | : F → L ∗ ) ◮ L = L ⊥ ◮ A form is metabolic if it admits a lagrangian. ◮ Example For any ǫ -symmetric form ( L ∗ , ν ) the nonsingular ǫ -symmetric � 0 � 1 form ( F , λ ) = ( L ⊕ L ∗ , ) with ǫ ν λ : F × F → A ; (( x 1 , y 1 ) , ( x 2 , y 2 )) �→ y 2 ( x 1 ) + ǫ y 1 ( x 2 ) + ν ( y 1 )( y 2 ) is metabolic, with lagrangian L . ◮ The ǫ -symmetric Witt group of A is the Grothendieck-type group L 0 ( A , ǫ ) = { isomorphism classes of nonsingular ǫ -symmetric forms over A } { metabolic forms }

9 Why do topologists like Witt groups? ◮ Slogan 4 Topologists like Witt groups because we need them in the Browder-Novikov-Sullivan-Wall surgery theory classification of manifolds. ◮ Trivially, the stable classification of symmetric and quadratic forms over a ring A is easier than the isomorphism classification. ◮ Nontrivially, the stable classification is just about possible for the group rings A = Z [ π ] of interesting groups π . ◮ The Witt groups of quadratic forms over group rings A = Z [ π 1 ( M )] play a central role in the Wall obstruction theory for non-simply-connected manifolds M . ◮ Algebra and number theory are used to compute Witt groups of Z [ π ] for finite groups π . ◮ Geometry and topology are used to compute Witt groups of Z [ π ] for infinite groups π . Novikov, Borel and Farrell-Jones conjectures.

10 The signature of symmetric forms over R and Z ◮ Theorem (Sylvester, 1852) Every nonsingular 1-symmetric form ( F , λ ) over R is isomorphic to � � ( R , 1) ⊕ ( R , − 1) p q with p + q = dim R ( F ). ◮ Definition The signature of ( F , λ ) is signature ( F , λ ) = p − q ∈ Z . ◮ Corollary 1 Two nonsingular 1-symmetric forms ( F , λ ), ( F ′ , λ ′ ) over R are isomorphic if and only if ( p , q ) = ( p ′ , q ′ ), if and only if dim R ( F ) = dim R ( F ′ ) , signature ( F , λ ) = signature ( F ′ , λ ′ ) . ◮ Corollary 2 The signature defines isomorphisms ∼ = � Z ; ( F , λ ) �→ signature ( F , λ ) , L 0 ( R , 1) ∼ = � Z ; ( F , λ ) �→ signature R ⊗ Z ( F , λ ) . L 0 ( Z , 1)

11 Cobordism ◮ Definition Oriented m -dimensional manifolds M , M ′ are cobordant if M ∪ − M ′ = ∂ N is the boundary of an oriented ( m + 1)-dimensional manifold N , where − M ′ is M ′ with the opposite orientation. ◮ The m -dimensional oriented cobordism group Ω m is the abelian group of cobordism classes of oriented m -dimensional manifolds, with addition by disjoint union. ◮ Examples Ω 0 = Z , Ω 1 = Ω 2 = Ω 3 = 0 . ◮ Slogan 5 The Witt groups of symmetric and quadratic forms are the algebraic analogues of the cobordism groups of manifolds.

12 The signature of manifolds ◮ Slogan 6 Don’t be ashamed to apply quadratic forms to topology! ◮ The signature of an oriented 4 k -dimensional manifold M 4 k is signature( M 4 k ) = signature( F 2 k ( M ) , λ ) ∈ L 0 ( Z , 1) = Z . ◮ The signature of a manifold was first defined by Weyl in a 1923 paper http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/˜aar/surgery/weyl.pdf published in Spanish in South America to spare the author the shame of being regarded as a topologist. Here is Weyl’s own signature: ◮ Theorem (Thom, 1952, Hirzebruch, 1953) The signature is a cobordism invariant, determined by the tangent bundle τ M σ : Ω 4 k → Z ; M �→ signature( M 4 k ) = �L ( τ M ) , [ M ] � . If M = ∂ N is the boundary of an oriented (4 k + 1)-manifold N then L = im( F 2 k ( N ) → F 2 k ( M )) is a lagrangian of ( F 2 k ( M ) , λ ), which is thus metabolic and has signature 0. σ is an isomorphism for k = 1, onto for k � 2, with signature( C P 2 × C P 2 × · · · × C P 2 ) = 1.

13 Quadratic forms ◮ Definition An ǫ -quadratic form ( F , λ, µ ) over A is an ǫ -symmetric form ( F , λ ) with a function µ : F → Q ǫ ( A ) = coker(1 − ǫ : A → A ) such that for all x , y ∈ F , a ∈ A ◮ λ ( x , x ) = (1 + ǫ ) µ ( x ) ∈ A ◮ µ ( ax ) = a 2 µ ( x ) , µ ( x + y ) − µ ( x ) − µ ( y ) = λ ( x , y ) ∈ Q ǫ ( A ). ◮ Proposition (Tits 1966, Wall 1970) The pairs ( λ, µ ) are in one-one correspondence with equivalence classes of ψ ∈ Hom A ( F , F ∗ ) such that λ ( x , y ) = ψ ( x )( y ) + ǫψ ( y )( x ) ∈ A , µ ( x ) = ψ ( x )( x ) ∈ Q ǫ ( A ) . Equivalence: ψ ∼ ψ ′ if ψ ′ − ψ = χ − ǫχ ∗ for some χ ∈ Hom A ( F , F ∗ ). ◮ An ǫ -symmetric form ( F , λ ) is a fixed point of the ǫ -duality λ ∈ ker(1 − ǫ ∗ : Hom A ( F , F ∗ ) → Hom A ( F , F ∗ )) = H 0 ( Z 2 ; Hom A ( F , F ∗ )) while an ǫ -quadratic form ( F , λ, µ ) is an orbit ( λ, µ ) = [ ψ ] ∈ coker(1 − ǫ ∗ ) = H 0 ( Z 2 ; Hom A ( F , F ∗ )) .

14 The ǫ -quadratic forms H ǫ ( L , α, β ) ◮ Definition Given ( − ǫ )-symmetric forms ( L , α ), ( L ∗ , β ) over A define the nonsingular ǫ -quadratic form over A H ǫ ( L , α, β ) = ( L ⊕ L ∗ , λ, µ ) , λ (( x 1 , y 1 ) , ( x 2 , y 2 )) = y 2 ( x 1 ) + ǫ y 1 ( x 2 ) , µ ( x , y ) = α ( x )( x ) + β ( y )( y ) + y ( x ) with L , L ∗ complementary lagrangians in the ǫ -symmetric form ( L ⊕ L ∗ , λ ). ◮ Proposition A nonsingular ǫ -quadratic form ( F , λ, µ ) is isomorphic to H ǫ ( L , α, β ) if and only if the ǫ -symmetric form ( F , λ ) is metabolic. ◮ Proof If L ⊂ F is a lagrangian of ( F , λ ) and λ = ψ + ǫψ ∗ then there exists a complementary lagrangian L ∗ ⊂ F for ( F , λ ), and � α � � 0 � 1 1 , ψ + ǫψ ∗ = : F = L ⊕ L ∗ → F ∗ = L ∗ ⊕ L ψ = 0 β ǫ 0 with α + ǫα ∗ = 0 : L → L ∗ , β + ǫβ ∗ = 0 : L ∗ → L .