arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Pitsch.
For compact hyperbolic 3-manifolds we lift the Bloch invariant defined by Neumann and Yang to an integral class in K_3(C) Applying the Borel and the Bloch regulators, one gets back the volume and the Chern-Simons invariant of the manifold. We also discuss the non-compact case, in which there appears a Z/2-ambiguity.
We study the relationship between trivial cocycles on the Torelli group and invariants of oriented integral homology 3-spheres. We give ncecessary and sufficient conditions for a function defined on the union of the Torelli groups to be an invariant of homology spheres. We apply this study to give a new purely algebraic construction of the Casson invariant and prove in this setting its surgery properties. As a by-product we get a new 2-torsion cohomology class in the second integral cohomology of the Torelli group.
For closed oriented manifolds, we establish oriented homotopy invariance of higher signatures that come from the fundamental group of a large class of orientable 3-manifolds, including the ``piecewise geometric'' ones in the sense of Thurston. In particular, this class, that will be carefully described, is the class of all orientable 3-manifolds if the Thurston Geometrization Conjecture is true. In fact, for this type of groups, we show that the Baum-Connes Conjecture With Coefficients holds. The non-oriented case is also discussed.
We give a proof of the Jardine-Tillmann generalized group completion theorem. It is much in the spirit of the original homology fibration approach by McDuff and Segal, but follows a modern treatment of homotopy colimits, using as little simplicial technology as possible. We compare simplicial and topological definitions of homology fibrations.