Is there a version of the 2d cobordism hypothesis for surfaces with non-empty incoming and outgoing boundary? - MathOverflow most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-21T08:10:51Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/question/111225 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/111225/is-there-a-version-of-the-2d-cobordism-hypothesis-for-surfaces-with-non-empty-inc Is there a version of the 2d cobordism hypothesis for surfaces with non-empty incoming and outgoing boundary? Sam Gunningham 2012-11-01T23:23:46Z 2012-11-02T02:08:55Z <p><strong>Question:</strong> Is there a condition on an object $x$ of an $(\infty,2)$-category $\mathcal C$ which is equivalent to $x = Z(pt_+)$ for a unique TFT $Z$ from the $(\infty,2)$-category of framed bordisms where we only allow $2$-cobordisms for which the incoming and outgoing boundary of every component is non-empty.</p> <p><strong>Remark</strong>: if I only demanded that the outgoing boundary was non-empty, this is called the non-compact bordism category non-compact -see below, and Defn 4.2.10 in <a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/cobordism.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/papers/cobordism.pdf</a> for the oriented version.</p> <p><strong>Motivation</strong>: The kind of examples I have in mind are things like string topology for a non-compact oriented manifold (this would be an oriented theory rather than framed, but I want to try to separate out the conditions imposed by giving rise to a framed theory, and the fixed point data for the action of $SO(2)$.</p> <p><strong>Background</strong> (from Jacob Lurie's paper linked above): The cobordism hypothesis in two dimensions states that fully extended 2d framed TFTs </p> <p>$Bord_2 ^{fr} \to \mathcal C$</p> <p>are equivalent to fully dualizable objects in $\mathcal C$ (where $\mathcal C$ is some symmetric monoidal $(\infty,2)$-category).</p> <p>Explicitly, an object $x \in \mathcal C$ is fully dualizable if</p> <ol> <li>It is dualizable (with dual $x^\vee$)</li> <li>The evaluation morphism $ev:x \otimes x^\vee \to 1_{\mathcal C}$ has both a right and a left adjoint.</li> </ol> <p>By duality, the adjoints $ev^R$ and $ev^L$ give rise to endomorphisms $S$ and $T$ of $x$ which are inverses of each other ($S$ is called the Serre automorphism).</p> <p>There is also a non-compact version (as far as I understand): Let $Bord_n ^{fr,nc}$ be the bordism category in which every connected componant of a surface has a non-empty outgoing boundary. A non-compact 2d TFT</p> <p>$Bord_n^{fr,nc} \to \mathcal C$</p> <p>is equivalent to a $(1 + 1/2)$-dualizable object in $\mathcal C$. That is, an object $x$ which is</p> <ol> <li>Dualizable, </li> <li>The evaluation morphism has a right adjoint,</li> <li>The corresponding endomorphism of $x$ is invertible.</li> </ol> <p><strong>Thoughts:</strong> Both full and 1.5 dualizibility are conditions that can be checked on the level of homotopy 2-categories. If an object $x$ is fully dualizable then the dualizing data (evaluation, unit and counit for the adjunction, etc.) are essentially uniquely determined. </p> <p>The issue for me is that I don't see an obvious way to express the generators and relations for the non-empty incoming and outgoing boundary bordism category in terms of duals and adjoints. I could see a potential answer to my question along the lines of: </p> <ol> <li>$x$ is dualizable,</li> <li>$x$ admits an automorphism $S$, giving rise to morphisms $coev^\ast = (S\otimes 1_{x^{\ast}}) \circ coev$ and $coev^! = (S^{-1} \otimes 1_{x^\ast}) \circ coev: 1_{\mathcal C} \to x \otimes x^\ast$,</li> <li>There are 2-morphisms $coev^! \circ ev: \to 1_{x^\ast \otimes x}$ and $1_{x^\ast \otimes x} \to coev^\ast \circ ev$ (corresponding to "saddle" cobordisms).</li> <li>These satisfy some relations (I am picturing something like the identity that relates the comultiplication and multiplication in a Frobenius algebra...)</li> </ol> <p>In any case, if there is an answer along these lines, my question is: if an object $x$ admits such a collection of data, is this collection unique?</p> <p>I hope this makes some sense...</p>