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John Klein
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Local homology of a space of unitary matrices

Let $U(n)$ denote the unitary group (this is a manifold of dimension $n^2$). Let $$ {\cal D} \subset U(n) $$ denote the subspace of those matrices having a non-trivial $(+1)$-eigenspace. It is not hard to show that $\cal D$ has vanishing homology in dimension $n^2$.

It is also not difficult to show that $H_{n^2-1}({\cal D}) \cong \Bbb Z$. (In fact, it is known that ${\cal D}$ has the structure of a finite CW complex of dimension $n^2-1$.)

For $g\in {\cal D}$, define the local homology by $$ H_{n^2-1}({\cal D}\, |\, g;\Bbb Q) := H_{n^2-1}({\cal D},{\cal D} \setminus g;\Bbb Q)\, . $$

Question: Is the rank of this group known?

If yes, can anyone provide a reference?

Remark: Based on a direct computation when $n=2$, it seems reasonable to conjecture that the rank of $H_{n^2-1}({\cal D}\, |\, g;\Bbb Q)$ is equal to the dimension of the $(+1)$-eigenspace of $g$ (i.e., the multiplicity of the eigenvalue +1.

John Klein
  • 18.9k
  • 53
  • 109