SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2603.21431

Cocycles and positive functionals in higher cohomology

Abstract

We establish and explore the correspondence between positive functionals and cocycles in higher unitary cohomology. We generalize the classical cocycle version of the Gelfand-Naimark-Segal construction to higher degrees and apply it to characterize vanishing of higher unitary cohomology as an extension property for positive functionals. We also prove that under mild conditions the algebraic spectral gap for the one sided Laplacian characterizes cohomological vanishing instead of reducedness of unitary cohomology

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Antonio López Neumann, Piotr W. Nowak. 2026-03-22. Cocycles and positive functionals in higher cohomology. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21431

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Homogeneous Milnor fibers and Kato--Matsumoto bounds via simplicial multiwedges

For every $n\geq 3$ and $s\geq 2$, we construct a homogeneous polynomial of degree $n(n+1)/2$ whose Milnor fiber is exactly $2s$-connected and whose rational cohomology contains a strictly defined nontrivial $n$-fold Massey product on classes of degree $2s+1$, implying that the Milnor fiber is non-formal, while attaining the Kato--Matsumoto connectivity bound. Our construction is based on the simplicial multiwedges of the nerve complexes of simple polytopes introduced by Limonchenko, combined with Suciu's realization of weighted homogeneous Milnor fibers. We thereby answer two problems posed by Suciu.

math.AT

The homotopy types of directed path and trace spaces

We construct a saturated directed space with a Hausdorff $\Delta$-generated underlying space and two distinct points such that the trace space between them is homeomorphic to a square, whereas the directed path space has a nontrivial fundamental group. In particular, the canonical quotient map is not a weak homotopy equivalence. The same conclusion holds for regular directed paths modulo increasing homeomorphisms.

math.AT

Moduli spaces of geometric functorial field theories

We develop tools to compute moduli spaces of geometric functorial field theories as mapping spaces of equivariant simplicial presheaves. Given a d-dimensional geometric structure F, presented as a presheaf on the site of smooth families of d-manifolds, we define its Cartesian realization, which is an O(d)-equivariant simplicial presheaf on the site of Cartesian spaces. We use Cartesian realizations to present the moduli space of functorial field theories with geometric structure F as a mapping space between O(d)-equivariant simplicial presheaves. In a companion paper, we use this result to compute the moduli space of smooth one-dimensional oriented Riemannian functorial field theories valued in an arbitrary smooth symmetric monoidal infinity-category.

math.AT