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Michael S. Weiss

Publications and source records attributed to Michael S. Weiss.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2024

The torus trick for configuration categories

We show that in codimension at least 3, spaces of locally flat topological embeddings of manifolds are correctly modelled by derived spaces of maps between their configuration categories (under mild smoothability conditions). That general claim was reduced in an earlier paper to the special cases where the manifolds in question are euclidean spaces. We deal with these special cases by comparing to other special cases where the manifolds have the form "torus" and "torus times euclidean space" respectively, and by setting up a torus trick for configuration categories.

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arXiv2024

Presentations of configuration categories

The configuration category of a manifold is a topological category which we view as a Segal space, via the nerve construction. Our main result is that the unordered configuration category, suitably truncated, admits a finite presentation as a complete Segal space if the manifold in question is the interior of a compact manifold.

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arXiv2020

Dalian notes on rational Pontryagin classes

The rational Pontryagin classes, evaluated on fiber bundles where the fiber is a 2n-dimensional euclidean space, can be nonzero in cohomology dimensions much greater than 4n. This makes a striking contrast with the Pontryagin classes of vector bundles.

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arXiv2018

Truncated operads and simplicial spaces

It was shown in a recent paper by Boavida de Brito and Weiss that a well-known construction which to a plain (=monochromatic) topological operad associates a topological category and a functor from it to the category of finite sets is homotopically fully faithful, under mild conditions on the operads. The main result here is a generalization of that statement to k-truncated plain topological operads. A k-truncated operad is a weaker version of operad where all operations have arity at most k.

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arXiv2017

The configuration category of a product

A construction related to the Boardman-Vogt tensor product of operads allows us to describe the configuration category of a product manifold $M\times N$ in terms of the configuration categories of the factors $M$ and $N$.

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arXiv2017

Spaces of smooth embeddings and configuration categories

In the homotopical study of spaces of smooth embeddings, the functor calculus method (Goodwillie-Klein-Weiss manifold calculus) has opened up important connections to operad theory. Using this and a few simplifying observations, we arrive at an operadic description of the obstructions to deforming smooth immersions into smooth embeddings. We give an application which in some respects improves on recent results of Arone-Turchin and Dwyer-Hess concerning high-dimensional variants of spaces of long knots.

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arXiv2016

Occupants in manifolds

Let K be a subset of a smooth manifold M. In some cases functor calculus methods lead to a homotopical formula for M minus K in terms of the subspaces M minus S, where S runs through the finite subsets of K.

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arXiv2015

Rational Pontryagin classes and functor calculus

It is known that in the integral cohomology of BSO(2m), the square of the Euler class is the same as the Pontryagin class in degree 4m. Given that the Pontryagin classes extend rationally to the cohomology of BSTOP(2m), it is reasonable to ask whether the same relation between the Euler class and the Pontryagin class in degree 4m is still valid in the rational cohomology of BSTOP(2m). In this paper we use smoothing theory and tools from homotopy theory to reformulate the hypothesis, and variants, in a differential topology setting and in a functor calculus setting.

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arXiv2013

Functor calculus and the discriminant method

The discriminant method is a tool for describing the cohomology, or the homotopy type, of certain spaces of smooth maps with uncomplicated singularities from a smooth compact manifold L to R^k. We recast some of it in the language of functor calculus. This reformulation allows us to use the discriminant method in a setting where we wish to impose conditions on the multilocal behavior of smooth maps f from L to R^k.

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arXiv2013

Automorphisms of Manifolds and Algebraic K-Theory: Part III

The structure space S(M) of a closed topological m-manifold M classifies bundles whose fibers are closed m-manifolds equipped with a homotopy equivalence to M. We construct a highly connected map from S(M) to a concoction of algebraic L-theory and algebraic K-theory spaces associated with M. The construction refines the well-known surgery theoretic analysis of the block structure space of M in terms of L-theory.

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arXiv2013

Manifold calculus and homotopy sheaves

Manifold calculus is a form of functor calculus concerned with functors from some category of manifolds to spaces. A weakness in the original formulation is that it is not continuous in the sense that it does not handle well the natural enrichments. In this paper, we correct this by defining an enriched version of manifold calculus which essentially extends the discrete setting. Along the way, we recast the Taylor tower as a tower of homotopy sheafifications. As a spin-off we obtain a natural connection to operads: the limit of the Taylor tower is a certain (derived) space of right module maps over the framed little discs operad.

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arXiv2011

Smooth maps to the plane and Pontryagin classes, Part I: Local aspects

We classify the most common local forms of smooth maps from a smooth manifold L to the plane. The word "local" can refer to locations in the source L, but also to locations in the target. The first point of view leads us to a classification of certain germs of maps, which we review here although it is very well known. The second point of view leads us to a classification of certain multigerms of maps.

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arXiv2004

The stable moduli space of Riemann surfaces: Mumford's conjecture

The main result of this paper amounts to a complete evaluation of the integral cohomological structure of the stable mapping class group. In particular it verifies the conjecture of D.Mumford about the rational cohomology of the stable mapping class group.

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arXiv2000

Automorphisms of manifolds

This is a survey paper on spaces of automorphisms of manifolds and spaces of manifolds in a fixed homotopy type. It describes the main theorems of traditional surgery theory, but also the main theorems of pseudoisotopy theory, alias concordance theory, Waldhausen style. It culminates in (an outline of) a synthesis of these two theories, producing algebraic models, valid in a stable range, for spaces of manifolds in a fixed homotopy type. This is inspired by earlier work of Burghelea-Lashof and Hatcher. The algebraic models are a mix of algebraic L-theory and algebraic K-theory.

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