Questions tagged [orbifolds]

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What is meant by smooth orbifold?

There seems to be some confusion over what the tangent space to a singular point of an orbifold is. On the one hand there is the obvious notion that smooth structures on orbifolds lift to smooth $G$-...
AndrewLMarshall's user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
2k views

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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27 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is there a Chern-Gauss-Bonnet theorem for orbifolds?

There's a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for compact 2-orbifolds(due to Satake, I think), which gives a relation between the curvature of a Riemannian orbifold and the orbifold topology(i.e. taking into account ...
Gordon Craig's user avatar
  • 1,625
24 votes
5 answers
5k views

How should one understand orbifold fundamental groups?

I am studying orbifold fundamental group (or more generally orbifold homotopy groups). In a nutshell, my questions is: what are they intuitively? In what follows I give definitions and more precise ...
Michel's user avatar
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24 votes
3 answers
2k views

What tools cannot work for orbifolds?

Consider all of your basic constructions/tools/theorems for manifolds: fundamental group, Euler characteristic, triangulations, orientation, smoothness, bundle structure, cobordisms, etc.. Viewing ...
Chris Gerig's user avatar
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23 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is every rational realized as the Euler characteristic of some manifold or orbifold?

Let me first ask the question for two-dimensional compact, connected manifolds and orbifolds. Then, if the answer is No, one can remove various conditions on the dimension, and allow non-compact ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
22 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is an example of an orbifold which is not a topological manifold?

In Thurston's book The Geometry and Topology of Three-Manifolds it is proven that the underlying space of a two-dimensional orbifold is always a topological surface. Are there any easy examples of ...
user88649's user avatar
  • 271
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Homotopy theory of topological stacks/orbifolds

Motivation $\newcommand{\T}{\mathscr{T}}$ I have many times found myself saying some variant of the following. Let $\T_g$ be the Teichmüller space of a surface of genus $g$, and $\Gamma_g$ its ...
Dan Petersen's user avatar
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16 votes
10 answers
3k views

Orbifold fundamental group in terms of loops?

In chapter 13 in his notes on 3-manifolds, Thurston defines the orbifold fundamental group to be the group of deck transformations of the universal cover of the orbifold. He also makes a statement "...
j.c.'s user avatar
  • 13.5k
16 votes
2 answers
601 views

why most of the angles are right

The Coxeter–Dynkin diagrams tell us that in a spherical Coxeter simplex most of the dihedral angles are right. Say among $\tfrac{n{\cdot}(n+1)}2$ dihedral angles we can have at most $n$ angles which ...
Anton Petrunin's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why isn't the orbifold cohomology of $pt/G$ equal to the cohomology of $BG$?

The classifying space of a group $G$ is given by taking a contractible space $E$ equipped with a free $G$-action, and looking at the quotient, which we dub $BG$. The homotopy type of this space (and ...
Simon Rose's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Orbifold fundamental group and configuration space

I'm not very familiar with (even simple examples of) orbifolds, so my first question is: Let $C_2$ be $\mathbb{C}$ with one cone singularity at 0 of index 2. What is the fundamental group of $C_2$ ...
Adrien's user avatar
  • 8,244
12 votes
0 answers
264 views

If two group actions lead to the same orbifold, are they conjugate?

In The Geometry and Topology of Three-Manifolds, Thurston says: "In these examples, it was not hard to construct the quotient space from the group action. In order to go in the opposite direction, we ...
Kiran Parkhe's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
3k views

What is the intuition behind the inertia orbifold (or stack)?

I am studying orbifolds with view towards Chen-Ruan cohomology. I have been struggling with inertia orbifolds but have no intuition about them at this point. I would appreciate your motivating me by ...
Kim's user avatar
  • 397
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is there a contractible hyperbolic 3-orbifold of finite volume?

Let $\mathbb{H}^3:=\operatorname{SO}(3,1)/\operatorname{O(3)}$. Is there a lattice $\Gamma$ in $\operatorname{SO}(3,1)$ such that \begin{equation} X:=\mathbb{H}^3/\Gamma \end{equation} is contractible?...
David.D's user avatar
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11 votes
4 answers
2k views

What is the "right" definition of the homology(cohomology) of an orbifold?

What is the "right" analog in the orbifold case of a singular homology of a topological space? We can not just take the homology of the underlying space, because it does not contain much information. ...
Lin Jianfeng's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
675 views

Stable homotopy theory of orbifolds

Is there a notion of stable homotopy, spectrum, or a stable homotopy category which corresponds to orbifolds and orbispaces, in the same way that classical stable homotopy theory corresponds to ...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
  • 65.1k
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Orbifolds vs. branched covers

Forgive me if this is a basic question. I'm just learning about orbifolds, and covering spaces are my happy place for thinking about group actions. If $M$ is a manifold and $G$ is a group acting ...
Taylor McNeill's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
263 views

Flat spherical orbifolds

What is known about existence and classification of flat spherical orbifolds?. Here I mean orbifolds that admit a flat Riemannian metric (Euclidean orbifolds) and whose underlying topological space (...
Urs Schreiber's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
943 views

Equivariant and orbifold Chern classes

Edit. After thinking about this problem a bit longer, I am not so sure anymore that the Bredon cohomology proposed by Adem and Ruan gives me the invariants I am looking for. I have therefore moved ...
Sebastian Goette's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
3k views

Euler characteristic of orbifolds

Hello, Suppose $M$ is a compact oriented smooth manifold and $G$ is a finite group acting on it. Then it is well-known, although I have yet to find a proof or derivation of it, that the (normal ...
miramo's user avatar
  • 515
10 votes
3 answers
892 views

What is the official definition of $\mathcal{M}_g$ as an orbifold, and how much can I ignore it?

There is a well-known description of $\mathcal{M}_g$ as $\mathcal{T}_g/\Gamma$ where $\mathcal{T}_g$ is the Teichmuller space and $\Gamma$ is the mapping class group. Teichmuller space is homeomorphic ...
Kim's user avatar
  • 4,114
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Condensed / pyknotic approach to orbifolds?

Does condensed / pyknotic mathematics afford an (yet!) another approach to orbifold theory? Let me admit up-front that I don't know much about either condensed / pyknotic mathematics or about orbifold ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 61.5k
10 votes
3 answers
2k views

Groupoids vs Pseudogroups

(Warning: I'm not an expert in the topic) Let's work in a "geometric" category, for example the category $\mathfrak{Diff}$ of "manifolds" (without the requirements of connectedness and second ...
Qfwfq's user avatar
  • 22.7k
9 votes
5 answers
502 views

A terminological question concerning orbifolds.

The notion of orbifold is quite well established by now. I would like to ask how one should call a point of an orbifold with non-trivial stabilizer? Should one call this a singular point? Of something ...
9 votes
1 answer
526 views

3-orbifolds with a Seifert geometry that are not actually Seifert fibered

It is well-known that Seifert fibered $3$--manifolds are geometric: they admit one of the Thurston geometries $S^2 \times R$, $R^3$, $H^2 \times R$, $S^3$, $Nil$, and $PSL(2,R)$. Furthermore, the ...
Dave Futer's user avatar
  • 1,329
9 votes
1 answer
950 views

tangent bundles of orbifolds

Hello, I want to take a unit $n$-ball $B_n$ and quotient it by some subgroup $G \subset \mathbb{Z}_2^n$. Here is a sketch of the construction: take the obvious inscribed $n$-hypercube of $B_n$; we ...
Yan X Zhang's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
679 views

Duality between orbifold and quasi-Hopf algebra (twisted quantum doubles)

A quick Question: Is there some duality known between the quasi Hopf algebra $D^\omega(H)$ of a finite group $H$ to an orbifold model (such as SU(2)/$G$ or SO(3)/$G$ orbifold of some group $G$)? What ...
wonderich's user avatar
  • 10.3k
9 votes
0 answers
167 views

Configuration space of 4 points as an orbifold

Setup: Consider the braid group $B_n$. One way to define this is as the fundamental group of the unordered configuration space $UC_n(\mathbb{C}) = \{\{z_1,\dotsc,z_n\}\subset \mathbb{C} \mid z_i \not= ...
Ethan Dlugie's user avatar
  • 1,267
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is the Čech cohomology of an orbifold isomorphic to its singular cohomology?

Let $\mathcal{O}$ be a finite-dimensional, paracompact, Hausdorff, smooth (and compact, if it helps) orbifold. Is there an isomorphism between the real Čech cohomology and singular cohomology of the ...
Caramello's user avatar
  • 382
8 votes
4 answers
821 views

Conditions for underlying space of an orbifold $\Bbb T^n/\Gamma$ to be a sphere?

Given a $n$-dimensional torus, is it always possible to find a discrete action to produce an orbifold such that its underlying space is the $n$-dimensional sphere? Or does it only happens for specific ...
arivero's user avatar
  • 437
8 votes
2 answers
315 views

Smooth rank one foliations with closed leaves

Let $F$ be a smooth rank one foliation on a manifold $M$. Suppose that all leaves of $F$ are compact (that is, circles). Then its leaf space (edit: when additional assumptions are taken) is an ...
Misha Verbitsky's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
257 views

Does geometrization of Alexandrov 3-spaces follow from that of 3-orbifolds?

Galaz-Garcia and Guijarro proved the geometrization of closed (compact, boundaryless) Alexandrov 3-spaces. Part of the strategy was to use the so-called ramified double cover $\tilde{X}$ of the space $...
Rp2s2's user avatar
  • 83
8 votes
2 answers
570 views

Seifert Fibrations and their associated Spectral Sequence

In a somewhat limited setting, a Seifert Fibre Space is a 3-manifold $M$ with a "nice" decomposition into circles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seifert_fiber_space). That is, $M$ is decomposed into ...
Jamie Walton's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
421 views

Gluing of orbifolds

Suppose that $P$ and $Q$ are $n$-dimensional orbifolds, with boundaries. Suppose also that there is an isomorphism $f \colon \partial P \rightarrow \partial Q$ (as orbifolds). Is there a way to glue $...
Hao Yu's user avatar
  • 771
8 votes
1 answer
569 views

Smoothing of a Kähler orbifold metric on a complex surface

Let $S$ be a smooth complex projective surface and $D\subset S$ be a smooth complex curve. Fix an integer $m>1$ and consider $(S,D,m)$ as an orbifold with orbi-locus $D$ with stabilizer $\mathbb ...
aglearner's user avatar
  • 14k
8 votes
0 answers
175 views

Smooth sub-orbifolds in the language of stacks

In most geometric categories, "monomorphism" is too general to describe useful notions of "embedding". This is the case e.g. for schemes, complex manifolds, and differentiable manifolds. So "embedding"...
Qfwfq's user avatar
  • 22.7k
7 votes
4 answers
5k views

Cotangent bundle of a differentiable stack

If you ever wanted to construct the tangent bundle of a differentiable stack, it's relatively simple: First, if $\mathbf{X}$ is a stack coming from a Lie groupoid $\mathcal{G}$, you could just say $\...
David Carchedi's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
866 views

Is there a topological Chevalley-Shephard-Todd Theorem?

Is the following true: For a representation of a finite group $G$ on $\mathbb{C}^n$, the quotient $\mathbb{C}^n/G$ is a topological manifold if and only if $G$ is generated by pseudo-reflections. ( ...
Nico Bellic's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
164 views

How does the $C^\ast$ algebra of an orbifold grupoid relate to the corresponding orbifold?

My question is in nature a bit vague but let me try to make it concrete. Given a Lie grupoid $G$ that is étale and proper (called an orbifold grupoid) we have an associated orbifold $X$; this is ...
Miguel Moreira's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
384 views

Equivariant De Rham theorem for orbifolds

Recall that the "classical" equivariant De Rham theorem states that, for a compact Lie group $G$ acting on a compact smooth manifold $M$, $$H_G^*(M,\mathbb{R})\cong H^*(\Omega_G(M)),$$ where $H_G^*(M,\...
ventania's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
479 views

manifold branched covering space for orbifolds

An orbifold structure on some topological space $X$ is a covering of $X$ with local quotient charts $V/G$, where $V$ is some connected manifold and $G$ effectively acts on $V$ via a finite group of ...
Mohammad Farajzadeh-Tehrani's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
379 views

When is a compact orbifold Riemann surface a global quotient of a Riemann surface

While reading the paper Seifert Fibred Homology 3-Spheres and the Yang-Mills Equations on Riemann Surfaces with Marked points by M. Furuta and B. Steer, I stumbled upon the following statement: Any ...
Akerbeltz's user avatar
  • 494
6 votes
1 answer
368 views

Homotopy groups of smooth part of moduli space

Let $M_g$ be the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, as described for example in the book of Harris and Morrison - Moduli of curves. As a topological space, or better as orbifold, it has smooth points ...
EdoardoFossati's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

A simple minded Poincare duality for orbifolds?

Suppose $X^n$ is an orientable compact orbifold (without boundary) with stabilisers in codimension 2, and $\bar X^n$ is the underlying topological space. We can assume, moreover, that $X^n$ is a ...
aglearner's user avatar
  • 14k
6 votes
1 answer
259 views

Orbit spaces of crystallographic groups

In their paper "On Three-Dimensional Space Groups", Conway et al. write Although this paper was inspired by the orbifold concept, we did not need to consider the 219 orbifolds of space groups ...
eins6180's user avatar
  • 1,302
6 votes
1 answer
312 views

Geodesic representatives in the orbifold fundamental group

Does every element in the orbifold fundamental group $\pi_1^{orb}(X,x)$ of a closed hyperbolic 2-orbifold $X$ admit a unique geodesic arc representing it? Does every free homotopy class in $X$ admit ...
Sven's user avatar
  • 73
6 votes
2 answers
375 views

how to construct a $C^\infty$ stack from a holomorphic stack

Given a complex manifold, you can `weaken' its structure to give a smooth manifold. Is there an analogous construction that constructs a stack over the category of smooth manifolds from a stack over ...
Brett Parker's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
488 views

Diffeomorphism groups of orbifolds

A lot is known about geometric and topological properties of diffeomorphism groups of surfaces (here, I am mainly thinking about the work of Smale and Eells-Elworthy). Is there anything known for ...
Martin Pinsonnault's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is a good reference (preferably thorough) for the Derived Category of a scheme/orbifold/stack?

I've sort of circled around the idea of derived categories a few times, read a few introductory papers ("Derived Categories for the working mathematician", e.g.), and feel now that this is something ...
Simon Rose's user avatar
  • 6,240