Questions tagged [cobordism]

Cobordism is a fundamental equivalence relation on the class of compact manifolds of the same dimension, set up using the concept of the boundary of a manifold.

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Elegant proof that any closed, oriented 3-manifold is the boundary of some oriented 4-manifold?

I'm looking for an elegant proof that any closed, oriented $3$-manifold $M$ is the boundary of some oriented $4$-manifold $B$.
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What manifolds are bounded by RP^odd?

Real projective spaces $\mathbb{R}P^n$ have $\mathbb{Z}/2$ cohomology rings $\mathbb{Z}/2[x]/(x^{n+1})$ and total Stiefel-Whitney class $(1+x)^{n+1}$ which is $1$ when $n$ is odd, so it follows that ...
Pierre Weil's user avatar
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Explanation for the Thom-Pontryagin construction (and its generalisations)

In 1950, Pontryagin showed that the n-th framed cobordism group of smooth manifolds was equal to n-th stable homotopy group of spheres: $$ \lim_{k \to \infty} \pi_{n+k}(S^k) \cong \Omega_n^{\text{...
Sam Derbyshire's user avatar
33 votes
1 answer
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Nilpotence of the stable Hopf map via framed cobordism

The Pontryagin-Thom construction shows that the stable homotopy groups of spheres are the same as the groups of stably framed manifolds up to cobordism. Specifically the Hopf map corresponds to the ...
Noah Snyder's user avatar
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30 votes
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Book recommendation for cobordism theory

I am planning to organize a seminar on cobordism theory and I'm looking for a reference. Such a reference is preferably a book, but I'm open to other ideas. The audience is familiar with ...
Thomas Rot's user avatar
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29 votes
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Is there an explicit description of a cobordism between $\mathbb{CP}^n$ and $\mathbb{RP}^n\times\mathbb{RP}^n$?

With a little bit of work, one can show that $\mathbb{CP}^n$ and $\mathbb{RP}^n\times\mathbb{RP}^n$ have the same Stiefel-Whitney numbers, so by a theorem of Thom, they are (unorientedly) cobordant. ...
Michael Albanese's user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
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Cobordism of orbifolds?

Is it possible to setup classical cobordism theory in the context of orbifolds? For example, let's consider the free abelian group generated by oriented smooth orbifolds and quotient by those which ...
John Pardon's user avatar
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Chromatic Spectra and Cobordism

I apologize in advance, if some of the things I've written are incorrect. The cobordism hypothesis states that $\mathbf{Bord}^\mathrm{fr}_n$ is the free symmetric monoidal $(\infty,n)$-category with ...
Nerses Aramian's user avatar
23 votes
2 answers
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Vanishing of characteristic numbers vs vanishing of characteristic classes

A famous result by Thom states that Oriented Bordism classes are determined by characteristic numbers; specifically, two closed manifolds are orientedly bordant if and only if they have the same ...
William's user avatar
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Twistings for other cohomology theories

Twistings in cohomology theories have a long history and have been used to great effect. The classical example is cohomology with local coefficients. Using this one can formulate Poincaré duality and ...
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Does Spin cobordism vanish in dimension $4k-1$?

For the purposes of a remark in a paper in preparation, I would like to know if anyone can confirm that $\Omega^{spin}_{4k-1} = 0$. In the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer paper, Spectral asymmetry and ...
Danny Ruberman's user avatar
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Every Manifold Cobordant to a Simply Connected Manifold

I am wondering if it is true that every compact, connected, oriented manifold is cobordant to a simply connected manifold. I believe that some sort of surgery will do the trick. Roughly speaking, I ...
Justin Curry's user avatar
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Super-cobordisms

One can construct the $d$-dimensional bordism category by declaring the objects to be the $(d-1)$-dimensional compact manifolds without boundary and the morphisms the $d$-dimensional bordisms between ...
Nerses Aramian's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
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Homology theory represented by Madsen-Tillmann spectra

The generalized homology theory of the Thom spectrum $MO=\varinjlim\Sigma^nMTO_n$ is bordism theory:\begin{equation*}\pi_k(MO\wedge X)=\Omega^O_k(X)\end{equation*}These groups form the ring of (...
Alex Turzillo's user avatar
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Does the bordism homology theory satisfy the weak equivalence axiom?

There is an interesting and important homology theory called bordism. Briefly speaking, a singular manifold in a space $X$ is a pair $(M, f)$ where $M$ is a closed smooth manifold and $f : M \to X$ is ...
Karol Szumiło's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
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Oriented cobordism classes represented by rational homology spheres

Any homology sphere is stably parallelizable, hence nullcobordant. However, rational homology spheres need not be nullcobordant, as the example of the Wu manifold shows, which generates $\text{torsion}...
Jens Reinhold's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
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Cobordism categories that don't involve manifolds

In order to capture the various flavors of cobordism into one concept, the notion of a "cobordism category" is introduced. This is an essentially small category $C$, together with finite coproducts, ...
Dylan Wilson's user avatar
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String Orientation and Level Structures

Atiyah, Bott and Shapiro defined orientations of real and complex K-theory that were later refined to maps of ($E_\infty$-ring) spectra $$MSpin \to KO$$ and $$MSpin^c \to KU.$$ Likewise, but more ...
Lennart Meier's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
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Explicit cobordism between Wu manifold and Dold manifold P(1,2)?

The Wu manifold $SU(3)/SO(3)$ and the Dold manifold $P(1,2)$, the latter being defined as $(S^1\times \mathbb{C}P^2) / (p, x) \sim (-p, \overline{x})$, are cobordant because they are both generators ...
Taisong Jing's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
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Are Thom spectra MU, MSO and K-theory spectra KU, KO modules over some truncations of the sphere spectrum?

The Thom spectrum MO is a module over the ring spectrum π≤0S=HZ, where S is the sphere spectrum. In particular, MO is equivalent to the Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum Hπ*(MO). On the other hand, MU and ...
Dmitri Pavlov's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
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Does every $SL_2\mathbb{C}$ representation of a closed oriented surface extend over a compact oriented three-manifold?

Let $F$ be a compact oriented surface and $\rho:\pi_1(F)\rightarrow SL_2\mathbb{C}$ be a representation. Does there exist a compact oriented three-manifold $M$ with $\partial M=F$ and a homomorphism $...
Charlie Frohman's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
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What is known about exotic spheres up to stable diffeomorphism?

In even dimensions $n=2k$ we can define two smooth manifolds $M$ and $N$ to be stably diffeomorphic if they become diffeomorphic after the connect sum with $r$ many copies of $S^k \times S^k$ for some ...
Chris Schommer-Pries's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
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The structure of complex cobordism cohomology of the Eilenberg-Maclane spectrum

Let $MU$ be the complex bordism spectrum and let $H\mathbb{Z}$ be the Eilenberg-Maclane spectrum. Is it know what the structure of the complex cobordism cohomology $MU^{*}(H\mathbb{Z})$ is? EDIT: ...
user438991's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
628 views

Is there a PL, or topological, bordism hypothesis?

The bordism hypothesis says that the $(\infty, n)$-category of smooth, framed $n$-bordisms, $(n-1)$-dimensional boundaries, and corners down to points, is freely generated symmetric monoidal with ...
Manuel Bärenz's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
584 views

Formal group law of unoriented cobordism

It is well known that the formal group law $F_U$ of complex cobordism, expressing the Euler class of a tensor product of complex line bundles, is universal. Also, the formal group law $F_O$ of ...
Mark Grant's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
523 views

Does the signature admit a homotopy coherent refinement?

Cobordism genera can often be refined to $E_\infty$-orientations in the sense of Ando-Blumberg-Gepner-Hopkins-Rezk: 1) the mod 2 Euler characteristic $MO\to H\mathbb{F}_2$; 2) the $\widehat A$-genus ...
Ben Knudsen's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
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Does the paper "On the cobordism ring $\Omega_*$ and a complex analogue II" exist?

I've been investigating the Milnor hypersurfaces, and every reference seems to point to the paper by Milnor, "On the cobordism ring $\Omega_*$ and a complex analogue II". Despite my best efforts, I ...
Glen M Wilson's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
732 views

Units of MO and MU

Real (or complex) cobordism is described by a symmetric ring spectrum MO (or MU respectively) as explained in examples 2.8 and 2.9 here. Associated to such a ring spectrum $R$, we have a unit spectrum ...
Ulrich Pennig's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why Lagrangian cobordism?

There are a good number of quantum topology papers in which a TQFT-like set-up is constructed as a functor to the category of vector spaces from some category of cobordisms which satisfy some "...
Daniel Moskovich's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
317 views

How does quotienting by a finite subgroup act on the framed-cobordism class of a group manifold?

Let $G$ be a connected simple connected compact Lie group, and $\Gamma \subset G$ a finite subgroup. Then (the underlying manifold of) $G$ can be framed by right-invariant vector fields, and this ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
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How is the differential in complex cobordism defined?

This is my first MO question...hopefully it's not a bad one... Background: As a stable homotopy theorist, I like to think of complex cobordism $MU$ as a ring spectrum. If I needed to get my hands ...
David White's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
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Cobordism and Kirby calculus

It may be a simple question but I wonder to ask: Is it possible to draw a homology cobordism between $3$-manifolds by using the techniques of Kirby calculus? At least, for instance, Brieskorn ...
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12 votes
1 answer
298 views

Are the symmetric spaces $\operatorname{SU}(n)/{\operatorname{SO}(n)}$ always nontrivial in the bordism rings for $n>2$?

In my recent research, I need to know if the symmetric spaces $\operatorname{SU}(n)/{\operatorname{SO}(n)}$ are always nontrivial in the unoriented and oriented bordism rings for $n>2$. (For the ...
Zhenhua Liu's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
350 views

Unoriented bordism with twisted orientation

The computation of the unoriented bordism group of the point $N_*=\Omega_*^O$ is a classic result. I would like to know a related bordism group, where we specify the twisted fundamental class $[M]\in ...
Yuji Tachikawa's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
458 views

Reference on complex cobordism

I am trying to study a little of algebraic cobordism and I lack background from the classic setting. Hence, I am looking for a textbook or expository writing covering the basics of complex cobordism. ...
Tintin's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
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Can one show corbordism invariance of the Crane-Yetter state-sum using simplicial methods / are there 'Pachner-like' moves for cobordisms?

Let $\mathcal{C}$ denote some Unitary Braided Modular Fusion Category. It is well known that the Crane-Yetter state-sum, $Z_{CY}(\bullet|\mathcal{C})$ is an oriented-cobordism invariant. In other ...
Joe's user avatar
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12 votes
0 answers
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Simply connected homology cobordisms

I'm looking for interesting examples of a homology 3-sphere $Y$ for which there exists a smooth, simply connected homology cobordism from $Y$ to itself (or simply to another homology 3-sphere $Y'$, ...
Adam Levine's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
839 views

Critical dimensions D for "smooth manifolds iff triangulable manifolds"

I am aware that at least for lower dimensions, "smooth manifolds iff triangulable manifolds" at least for dimensions below a certain critical dimensions D. My question is that for For ...
wonderich's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
618 views

Orientable with respect to complex cobordism?

I have learned that an orientation of a manifold $M$ with respect to ordinary cohomology is an ordinary orientation, that an orientation with respect to complex K-theory is a Spin$^c$ structure, and ...
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11 votes
1 answer
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Interdependence between A^1 homotopy theory and algebraic cobordism

I would like to learn something about $\mathbb{A}^1$-homotopy theory. I know about standard references on the subject, but before dwelling into studying them I have a doubt which some expert could ...
Andrea Ferretti's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
381 views

Twisting bordism classes

Let $X$ be a reasonable topological space (I'd be happy to assume that $X$ is a smooth closed manifold) and let $f\colon M^n \rightarrow X$ be a continuous map from a smooth oriented $n$-manifold $M^n$...
Sarah's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
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How to write the Thom spectrum representing cobordism as an $\Omega$-spectrum?

It is often said [e.g. Atiyah, "Bordism and Cobordism" (1961)] that the Thom spectrum $MSO(i)$ represents oriented cobordism, in the following sense: \begin{eqnarray} MSO^n(X,Y) &:=& \lim_{i \...
user46652's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
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Lower bounds for Betti numbers of a manifold given its boundary?

Let $B$ be some compact, path connected $n$-manifold without boundary such that its cobordism class is trivial, so that there exists some other $n+1$ manifold $M$ with $\partial M= B$. While there is ...
Ignacio Ruiz García's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Reference request for TQFT, functoriality

I am reading Turaev's blue book Quantum Invariants of Knots and 3-manifolds. It is difficult for me to understand the proof of Theorem 1.9 in chapter 4, which says; The function $(M, \partial_{-}M, \...
Link's user avatar
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11 votes
0 answers
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Natural knot homology

All knot homology theories I've seen share a flaw: their definitions explicitly use some combinatorial choices (such as a diagram presentation). The coin, however, has two sides and the other one is ...
Mikhail Shkolnikov's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
263 views

Madsen-Tillmann spectrum $MTE$ of the group $E$ which is defined in Freed-Hopkins's paper

In Freed-Hopkins's paper, the group $E(d)$ is defined to be the subgroup of $O(d)\times\mathbb{Z}_4$ consisting of the pairs $(A,j)$ such that $\det A=j^2$, where $\mathbb{Z}_4=\{\pm1,\pm\sqrt{-1}\}$ ...
Borromean's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
2k views

Sphere spectrum, Character dual and Anderson dual

The homotopy groups of the sphere spectrum are the stable homotopy groups of spheres. However, could you help me to appreciate the mathematical meanings of the following: What is the significance of ...
wonderich's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
743 views

Is the boundary of a manifold topologically unique? [duplicate]

Let $X$ be a manifold without boundary and let $Y$ and $Z$ be two manifolds with boundary such that $X$ is homeomorphic to their interiors: $X \cong Y^\circ \cong Z^\circ$. Does it follow that $Y \...
ಠ_ಠ's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
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Which sets of Stiefel-Whitney characteristic numbers can be realized as coming from a manifold?

EDIT: The original question was answered very quickly (and very nicely!) but the answer leads to a pretty obvious subsequent question, which I will now ask. The original question is maintained for ...
Dylan Wilson's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
435 views

Is there a closed 5-manifold $M$ with $w_1(M)w_2(M)\ne 0$?

I'm trying to find generating manifolds for the cobordism group $\mathit{MO}_5(K(\mathbb Z/2, 2))\cong (\mathbb Z/2)^4$, which can be represented as the cobordism group of closed 5-manifolds $M$ ...
Arun Debray's user avatar
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