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Wolfgang Steimle

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Steimle.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The space of metrics of positive scalar curvature

We study the topology of the space of positive scalar curvature metrics on high dimensional spheres and other spin manifolds. Our main result provides elements of infinite order in higher homotopy and homology groups of these spaces, which, in contrast to previous approaches, are of infinite order and survive in the (observer) moduli space of such metrics. Along the way we construct smooth fiber bundles over spheres whose total spaces have non-vanishing A-hat-genera, thus establishing the non-multiplicativity of the A-hat-genus in fibre bundles with simply connected base.

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Non-connective K- and Nil-spectra of additive categorie

We present an elementary construction of the non-connective algebraic K-theory spectrum associated to an additive category following the contracted functor approach due to Bass. It comes with a universal property that easily allows us to identify it with other constructions, for instance with the one of Pedersen-Weibel in terms of Z^i-graded objects and bounded homomorphisms.

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On the map of Bökstedt-Madsen from the cobordism category to $A$-theory

Bökstedt and Madsen defined an infinite loop map from the embedded $d$-dimensional cobordism category of Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann and Weiss to the algebraic $K$-theory of $BO(d)$ in the sense of Waldhausen. The purpose of this paper is to establish two results in relation to this map. The first result is that it extends the universal parametrized $A$-theory Euler characteristic of smooth bundles with compact $d$-dimensional fibers, as defined by Dwyer, Weiss and Williams. The second result is that it actually factors through the canonical unit map $Q(BO(d)_+) \to A(BO(d))$.

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Higher Whitehead torsion and the geometric assembly map

We construct a higher Whitehead torsion map, using algebraic K-theory of spaces, and show that it satisfies the usual properties of the classical Whitehead torsion. This is used to describe a "geometric assembly map" defined on stabilized structure spaces in purely homotopy theoretic terms.

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Homotopy coherent diagrams and approximate fibrations

Let p be a fibration over a finite simplicial complex, whose fibers have the homotopy type of finite simplicial complexes. Then p is equivalent to an approximate fibration whose total space is a compact ENR. The proof uses homotopy coherent diagrams and their homotopy colimits. We also comment on the simple homotopy type of the total space and give an application to the fibering of Hilbert cube manifolds.

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Obstructions to stably fibering manifolds

Is a given map between compact topological manifolds homotopic to the projection map of a fiber bundle? In this paper obstructions to this question are introduced with values in higher algebraic K-theory. Their vanishing implies that the given map fibers stably. The methods also provide results for the corresponding uniqueness question; moreover they apply to the fibering of Hilbert cube manifolds, generalizing results by Chapman-Ferry.

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Obstructions to Fibering a Manifold

Given a map f: M \to M of closed topological manifolds we define torsion obstructions whose vanishing is a necessary condition for f being homotopy equivalent to a projection of a locally trivial fiber bundle. If N = S^1, these torsion obstructions are identified with the ones due to Farrell. We have changed the exposition according to the comments of the referee and corrected some typos. The paper will appear in Geometriae Dedicata.

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Whitehead-Torsion und Faserungen

This work treats on the question whether a given map f: M -> B of smooth closed manifolds is homotopic to a smooth fiber bundle. We define a first obstruction in H^1(B;Wh(π_1(E))) and, provided that this obstruction vanishes and one additional condition is verified, a second obstruction in Wh(π_1(E)) >. Both elements vanish if the answer to the above question is positive. In the case where B is the 1-sphere and the dimension of M exceeds five, we show that the converse is also true, using a relationship with two obstructions defined by Farrell in this particular situation.

math.GT↗