Singular cohomology of symplectic quotients by circle actions and Kirwan surjectivity
Let $M$ be a symplectic manifold carrying a Hamiltonian $S^1$-action with momentum map $J:M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ and consider the corresponding symplectic quotient $\mathcal{M}_0:=J^{-1}(0)/S^1$. We extend Sjamaar's complex of differential forms on $\mathcal{M}_0$, whose cohomology is isomorphic to the singular cohomology $H(\mathcal{M}_0;\mathbb{R})$ of $\mathcal{M}_0$ with real coefficients, to a complex of differential forms on $\mathcal{M}_0$ associated with a partial desingularization $\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_0$, which we call resolution differential forms. The cohomology of that complex turns out to be isomorphic to the de Rham cohomology $H(\widetilde{ \mathcal{M}}_0)$ of $\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_0$. Based on this, we derive a long exact sequence involving both $H(\mathcal{M}_0;\mathbb{R})$ and $H(\widetilde{ \mathcal{M}}_0)$ and give conditions for its splitting. We then define a Kirwan map $\mathcal{K}:H_{S^1}(M) \rightarrow H(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_0)$ from the equivariant cohomology $H_{S^1}(M)$ of $M$ to $H(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_0)$ and show that its image contains the image of $H(\mathcal{M}_0;\mathbb{R})$ in $H(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_0)$ under the natural inclusion. Combining both results in the case that all fixed point components of $M$ have vanishing odd cohomology we obtain a surjection $\check \kappa:H^\textrm{ev}_{S^1}(M) \rightarrow H^\textrm{ev}(\mathcal{M}_0;\mathbb{R})$ in even degrees, while already simple examples show that a similar surjection in odd degrees does not exist in general. As an interesting class of examples we study abelian polygon spaces.