arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Michael J. Hopkins.
Using a global version of the equivariant Chern character, we describe the complexified twisted equivariant K-theory of a space with a compact Lie group action in terms of fixed-point data. We apply this to the case of a compact Lie group acting on itself by conjugation, and relate the result to the Verlinde algebra and to the Kac numerator at q=1. Verlinde's formula is also discussed in this context.
This is the third paper of a series relating the equivariant twisted $K$-theory of a compact Lie group $G$ to the ``Verlinde space'' of isomorphism classes of projective lowest-weight representations of the loop groups. Here, we treat arbitrary compact Lie groups. In addition, we discuss the relation to semi-infinite cohomology, the fusion product of Conformal Field theory, the rôle of energy and the topological Peter-Weyl theorem.
In "Elliptic spectra, the Witten genus, and the Theorem of the cube" (Invent. Math. 146 (2001)), the authors constructed a natural map from the Thom spectrum MU<6> to any elliptic spectrum, called the "sigma orientation". MU<6> is an H-infinity ring spectrum, and in this paper we show that if E is a K(2)-local H-infinity elliptic spectrum, then the sigma orientation is a map of H-infinity spectra.
Modular forms appear in many facets of mathematics, and have played important roles in geometry, mathematical physics, number theory, representation theory, topology, and other areas. Around 1994, motivated by technical issues in homotopy theory, Mark Mahowald, Haynes Miller and I constructed a topological refinement of modular forms, which we call {\em topological modular forms}. At the Zurich ICM I sketched a program designed to relate topological modular forms to invariants of manifolds, homotopy groups of spheres, and ordinary modular forms. This program has recently been completed and new directions have emerged. In this talk I will describe this recent work and how it informs our understanding of both algebraic topology and modular forms.
The geometry of the Lubin-Tate space of deformations of a formal group is studied via an étale, rigid analytic map from the deformation space to projective space. This leads to a simple description of the equivariant canonical bundle of the deformation space which, in turn, yields a formula for the dualizing complex in stable homotopy theory.