For a finite group G acting on a smooth projective variety X, we construct two new G-equivariant rings: first the stringy K-theory of X, and second the stringy cohomology of X. For a smooth Deligne-Mumford stack Y we also construct a new ring called the full orbifold K-theory of Y. For a global quotient Y=[X/G], the ring of G-invariants of the stringy K-theory of X is a subalgebra of the full orbifold K-theory of the the stack Y and is linearly isomorphic to the ``orbifold K-theory'' of Adem-Ruan (and hence Atiyah-Segal), but carries a different, ``quantum,'' product, which respects the natural group grading. We prove there is a ring isomorphism, the stringy Chern character, from stringy K-theory to stringy cohomology, and a ring homomorphism from full orbifold K-theory to Chen-Ruan orbifold cohomology. These Chern characters satisfy Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch for etale maps. We prove that stringy cohomology is isomorphic to Fantechi and Goettsche's construction. Since our constructions do not use complex curves, stable maps, admissible covers, or moduli spaces, our results simplify the definitions of Fantechi-Goettsche's ring, of Chen-Ruan's orbifold cohomology, and of Abramovich-Graber-Vistoli's orbifold Chow. We conclude by showing that a K-theoretic version of Ruan's Hyper-Kaehler Resolution Conjecture holds for symmetric products. Our results hold both in the algebro-geometric category and in the topological category for equivariant almost complex manifolds.; Comment: Exposition improved and additional details provided. To appear in Inventiones Mathematicae

The purpose of this foundational paper is to introduce various notions and constructions in order to develop the homotopy theory for differential graded operads over any ring. The main new idea is to consider the action of the symmetric groups as part of the defining structure of an operad and not as the underlying category. We introduce a new dual category of higher cooperads, a new higher bar-cobar adjunction with the category of operads, and a new higher notion of homotopy operads, for which we establish the relevant homotopy properties. For instance, the higher bar-cobar construction provides us with a cofibrant replacement functor for operads over any ring. All these constructions are produced conceptually by applying the curved Koszul duality for colored operads. This paper is a first step toward a new Koszul duality theory for operads, where the action of the symmetric groups is properly taken into account.; Comment: 40 pages. Comments are welcome

A brief survey of some basic ideas of the so-called Idempotent Mathematics is presented; an "idempotent" version of the representation theory is discussed. The Idempotent Mathematics can be treated as a result of a dequantization of the traditional mathematics over numerical fields in the limit of the vanishing "imaginary Planck constant"; there is a correspondence, in the spirit of N. Bohr's correspondence principle, between constructions and results in traditional mathematics over the fields of real and complex numbers and similar constructions and results over idempotent semirings. In particular, there is an "idempotent" version of the theory of linear representations of groups. Some basic concepts and results of the "idempotent" representation theory are presented. In the framework of this theory the well-known Legendre transform can be treated as an idempotent version of the traditional Fourier transform. Some unexpected versions of the Engel theorem are given.; Comment: 10 pages

In nature, one observes that a K-theory of an object is defined in two steps. First a "structured" category is associated to the object. Second, a K-theory machine is applied to the latter category to produce an infinite loop space. We develop a general framework that deals with the first step of this process. The K-theory of an object is defined via a category of "locally trivial" objects with respect to a pretopology. We study conditions ensuring an exact structure on such categories. We also consider morphisms in K-theory that such contexts naturally provide. We end by defining various K-theories of schemes and morphisms between them.; Comment: 31 pages

We formulate a refinement of SU(N) Chern-Simons theory on a three-manifold via the refined topological string and the (2,0) theory on N M5 branes. The refined Chern-Simons theory is defined on any three-manifold with a semi-free circle action. We give an explicit solution of the theory, in terms of a one-parameter refinement of the S and T matrices of Chern-Simons theory, related to the theory of Macdonald polynomials. The ordinary and refined Chern-Simons theory are similar in many ways; for example, the Verlinde formula holds in both. We obtain new topological invariants of Seifert three-manifolds and torus knots inside them. We conjecture that the knot invariants we compute are the Poincare polynomials of the sl(n) knot homology theory. The latter includes the Khovanov-Rozansky knot homology, as a special case. The conjecture passes a number of nontrivial checks. We show that, for a large number of torus knots colored with the fundamental representation of SU(N), our knot invariants agree with the Poincare polynomials of Khovanov-Rozansky homology. As a byproduct, we show that our theory on S^3 has a large-N dual which is the refined topological string on X=O(-1)+O(-1)->P^1; this supports the conjecture by Gukov, Schwarz and Vafa relating the spectrum of BPS states on X to sl(n) knot homology. We also provide a matrix model description of some amplitudes of the refined Chern-Simons theory on S^3.; Comment: 73 pages...

A prequantization space $(P,\alpha)$ is a principal $S^1$-bundle with a connection one-form $\alpha$ over a symplectic manifold $(M,\omega),$ with curvature given by the symplectic form. In particular $\alpha$ is a contact form. Using the theory of $Spin ^{c} $ Dirac quantization, we set up natural K-theory invariants of structure group $Cont _{0} (P, \alpha) $ fibrations of prequantization spaces. We further construct twisted K-theory invariants of Hamiltonian $(M, \omega)$ fibrations. As an application we prove that the natural map $BU(r) \to BU$ of classifying spaces factors as $BU(r) \to B \mathcal{Q}(r \to BU,$ where $\mathcal{Q}(r)=Cont_0(S^{2r-1},\alpha_{std})$ for the standard contact form on the odd-dimensional sphere. As a corollary we show that the natural map $BU(r) \rightarrow B\mathcal{Q}(r)$ induces a surjection on complex K-theory and on integral cohomology, strengthening a theorem of Spacil \cite{SpacilThesis,CasalsSpacil} for rational cohomology, and that it induces an injection on integral homology. Furthermore, we improve a theorem of Reznikov, showing the injectivity on homotopy groups of the natural map $BU (r) \to B \text{Ham} (\mathbb{CP} ^{r-1}, \omega )$, in the stable range. Finally, we produce examples of non-trivial $\mathcal{Q}(r)$ and $\text{Ham} (\mathbb{CP} ^{r-1}...

C. Weibel and Thomason-Trobaugh proved (under some assumptions) that algebraic K-theory with coefficients is A1-homotopy invariant. In this article we generalize this result from schemes to the broad setting of dg categories. Along the way, we extend Bass-Quillen's fundamental theorem as well as Stienstra's foundational work on module structures over the big Witt ring to the setting of dg categories. Among other cases, the above A1-homotopy invariance result can now be applied to sheaves of (not necessarily commutative) dg algebras over stacks. As an application, we compute the algebraic K-theory with coefficients of dg cluster categories using solely the kernel and cokernel of the Coxeter matrix. This leads to a complete computation of the algebraic K-theory with coefficients of the Kleinian singularities parametrized by the simply laced Dynkin diagrams. As a byproduct, we obtain some vanishing and divisibility properties of algebraic K-theory (without coefficients).; Comment: 20 pages. Revised version

We view strict ring spectra as generalized rings. The study of their algebraic K-theory is motivated by its applications to the automorphism groups of compact manifolds. Partial calculations of algebraic K-theory for the sphere spectrum are available at regular primes, but we seek more conceptual answers in terms of localization and descent properties. Calculations for ring spectra related to topological K-theory suggest the existence of a motivic cohomology theory for strictly commutative ring spectra, and we present evidence for arithmetic duality in this theory. To tie motivic cohomology to Galois cohomology we wish to spectrally realize ramified extensions, which is only possible after mild forms of localization. One such mild localization is provided by the theory of logarithmic ring spectra, and we outline recent developments in this area.; Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the ICM 2014 in Seoul

The question "What is category theory" is approached by focusing on universal mapping properties and adjoint functors. Category theory organizes mathematics using morphisms that transmit structure and determination. Structures of mathematical interest are usually characterized by some universal mapping property so the general thesis is that category theory is about determination through universals. In recent decades, the notion of adjoint functors has moved to center-stage as category theory's primary tool to characterize what is important and universal in mathematics. Hence our focus here is to present a theory of adjoint functors, a theory which shows that all adjunctions arise from the birepresentations of "chimeras" or "heteromorphisms" between the objects of different categories. Since representations provide universal mapping properties, this theory places adjoints within the framework of determination through universals. The conclusion considers some unreasonably effective analogies between these mathematical concepts and some central philosophical themes.; Comment: 58 pages. Forthcoming in: What is Category Theory? Giandomenico Sica ed., Milan: Polimetrica

In this paper we introduce a new approach to determinant functors which allows us to extend Deligne's determinant functors for exact categories to Waldhausen categories, (strongly) triangulated categories, and derivators. We construct universal determinant functors in all cases by original methods which are interesting even for the known cases. Moreover, we show that the target of each universal determinant functor computes the corresponding $K$-theory in dimensions 0 and 1. As applications, we answer open questions by Maltsiniotis and Neeman on the $K$-theory of (strongly) triangulated categories and a question of Grothendieck to Knudsen on determinant functors. We also prove additivity theorems for low-dimensional $K$-theory and obtain generators and (some) relations for various $K_{1}$-groups.; Comment: 73 pages. We have deeply revised the paper to make it more accessible, it contains now explicit examples and computations. We have removed the part on localization, it was correct but we didn't want to make the paper longer and we thought this part was the less interesting one. Nevertheless it will remain here in the arXiv, in version 1. If you need it in your research, please let us know

Let X be a noetherian scheme of finite Krull dimension, having 2 invertible in its ring of regular functions, an ample family of line bundles, and a global bound on the virtual mod-2 cohomological dimensions of its residue fields. We prove that the comparison map from the hermitian K-theory of X to the homotopy fixed points of K-theory under the natural Z/2-action is a 2-adic equivalence in general, and an integral equivalence when X has no formally real residue field. We also show that the comparison map between the higher Grothendieck-Witt (hermitian K-) theory of X and its \'etale version is an isomorphism on homotopy groups in the same range as for the Quillen-Lichtenbaum conjecture in K-theory. Applications compute higher Grothendieck-Witt groups of complex algebraic varieties and rings of 2-integers in number fields, and hence values of Dedekind zeta-functions.; Comment: 17 pages, to appear in Adv. Math

We survey three different ways in which K-theory in all its forms enters quantum field theory. In Part 1 we give a general argument which relates topological field theory in codimension two with twisted K-theory, and we illustrate with some finite models. Part 2 is a review of pfaffians of Dirac operators, anomalies, and the relationship to differential K-theory. Part 3 is a geometric exposition of Dirac charge quantization, which in superstring theories also involves differential K-theory. Parts 2 and 3 are related by the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism. An appendix, joint with Jerry Jenquin, treats the partition function of Rarita-Schwinger fields.; Comment: 56 pages, expanded version of lectures at "Current Developments in Mathematics"

This paper is concerned with the algebraic K-theory of locally convex algebras stabilized by operator ideals, and its comparison with topological K-theory. We show that the obstruction for the comparison map between algebraic and topological K-theory to be an isomorphism is (absolute) algebraic cyclic homology and prove the existence of an 6-term exact sequence. We show that cyclic homology vanishes in the case when J is the ideal of compact operators and L is a Frechet algebra with bounded app. unit. This proves the generalized version of Karoubi's conjecture due to Mariusz Wodzicki and announced in his paper "Algebraic K-theory and functional analysis", First European Congress of Mathematics, Vol. II (Paris, 1992), 485--496, Progr. Math., 120, Birkh\"auser, Basel, 1994. We also consider stabilization with respect to a wider class of operator ideals, called sub-harmonic. We study the algebraic K-theory of the tensor product of a sub-harmonic ideal with an arbitrary complex algebra and prove that the obstruction for the periodicity of algebraic K-theory is again cyclic homology. The main technical tools we use are the diffeotopy invariance theorem of Cuntz and the second author (which we generalize), and the excision theorem for infinitesimal K-theory...

There are different meanings of foundation of mathematics: philosophical, logical, and mathematical. Here foundations are considered as a theory that provides means (concepts, structures, methods etc.) for the development of whole mathematics. Set theory has been for a long time the most popular foundation. However, it was not been able to win completely over its rivals: logic, the theory of algorithms, and theory of categories. Moreover, practical applications of mathematics and its inner problems caused creation of different generalization of sets: multisets, fuzzy sets, rough sets etc. Thus, we encounter a problem: Is it possible to find the most fundamental structure in mathematics? The situation is similar to the quest of physics for the most fundamental "brick" of nature and for a grand unified theory of nature. It is demonstrated that in contrast to physics, which is still in search for a unified theory, in mathematics such a theory exists. It is the theory of named sets.

We show that variants of the classical reflection functors from quiver representation theory exist in any abstract stable homotopy theory, making them available for example over arbitrary ground rings, for quasi-coherent modules on schemes, in the differential-graded context, in stable homotopy theory as well as in the equivariant, motivic, and parametrized variant thereof. As an application of these equivalences we obtain abstract tilting results for trees valid in all these situations, hence generalizing a result of Happel. The main tools introduced for the construction of these reflection functors are homotopical epimorphisms of small categories and one-point extensions of small categories, both of which are inspired by similar concepts in homological algebra.; Comment: To appear in J. Pure Appl. Algebra, it is a sequel to arXiv:1401.6451 and continues the development of abstract tilting theory. Version 2: various improvements in the presentation. Version 3: a detailed explanation added (in Construction 9.13 and Lemma 9.15) for the key fact that both the branches of Figure 2 lead to the same category

We introduce the idea of *representation stability* (and several variations) for a sequence of representations V_n of groups G_n. A central application of the new viewpoint we introduce here is the importation of representation theory into the study of homological stability. This makes it possible to extend classical theorems of homological stability to a much broader variety of examples. Representation stability also provides a framework in which to find and to predict patterns, from classical representation theory (Littlewood--Richardson and Murnaghan rules, stability of Schur functors), to cohomology of groups (pure braid, Torelli and congruence groups), to Lie algebras and their homology, to the (equivariant) cohomology of flag and Schubert varieties, to combinatorics (the (n+1)^(n-1) conjecture). The majority of this paper is devoted to exposing this phenomenon through examples. In doing this we obtain applications, theorems and conjectures. Beyond the discovery of new phenomena, the viewpoint of representation stability can be useful in solving problems outside the theory. In addition to the applications given in this paper, it is applied in [CEF] to counting problems in number theory and finite group theory. Representation stability is also used in [C] to give broad generalizations and new proofs of classical homological stability theorems for configuration spaces on oriented manifolds.; Comment: 91 pages. v2: minor revisions throughout. v3: final version...

We develop almost ring theory, which is a domain of mathematics somewhere halfway between ring theory and category theory (whence the difficulty of finding appropriate MSC-class numbers). We apply this theory to valuation theory and to p-adic analytic geometry. You should really have a look at the introductions (each chapter has one).; Comment: This is the sixth - and assuredly final - release of "Almost ring theory". It is about 230 page long; it is written in AMSLaTeX and uses XYPic and a few not so standard fonts. Any future corrections (mainly typos, I expect) will be found on my personal web page: http://www.math.u-bordeaux.fr/~ramero/

Homotopy type theory is a new branch of mathematics, based on a recently discovered connection between homotopy theory and type theory, which brings new ideas into the very foundation of mathematics. On the one hand, Voevodsky's subtle and beautiful "univalence axiom" implies that isomorphic structures can be identified. On the other hand, "higher inductive types" provide direct, logical descriptions of some of the basic spaces and constructions of homotopy theory. Both are impossible to capture directly in classical set-theoretic foundations, but when combined in homotopy type theory, they permit an entirely new kind of "logic of homotopy types". This suggests a new conception of foundations of mathematics, with intrinsic homotopical content, an "invariant" conception of the objects of mathematics -- and convenient machine implementations, which can serve as a practical aid to the working mathematician. This book is intended as a first systematic exposition of the basics of the resulting "Univalent Foundations" program, and a collection of examples of this new style of reasoning -- but without requiring the reader to know or learn any formal logic, or to use any computer proof assistant.; Comment: 465 pages. arXiv v1: first-edition-257-g5561b73...

A ghost over a finite p-group G is a map between modular representations of G which is invisible in Tate cohomology. Motivated by the failure of the generating hypothesis---the statement that ghosts between finite-dimensional G-representations factor through a projective---we define the ghost number of kG to be the smallest integer l such that the composition of any l ghosts between finite-dimensional G-representations factors through a projective. In this paper we study ghosts and the ghost numbers of p-groups. We begin by showing that a weaker version of the generating hypothesis, where the target of the ghost is fixed to be the trivial representation k, holds for all p-groups. We then compute the ghost numbers of all cyclic p-groups and all abelian 2-groups with C_2 as a summand. We obtain bounds on the ghost numbers for abelian p-groups and for all 2-groups which have a cyclic subgroup of index 2. Using these bounds we determine the finite abelian groups which have ghost number at most 2. Our methods involve techniques from group theory, representation theory, triangulated category theory, and constructions motivated from homotopy theory.; Comment: 15 pages, final version, to appear in Advances in Mathematics. v4 only makes changes to arxiv meta-data...

Recall that the definition of the $K$-theory of an object C (e.g., a ring or a space) has the following pattern. One first associates to the object C a category A_C that has a suitable structure (exact, Waldhausen, symmetric monoidal, ...). One then applies to the category A_C a "$K$-theory machine", which provides an infinite loop space that is the $K$-theory K(C) of the object C. We study the first step of this process. What are the kinds of objects to be studied via $K$-theory? Given these types of objects, what structured categories should one associate to an object to obtain $K$-theoretic information about it? And how should the morphisms of these objects interact with this correspondence? We propose a unified, conceptual framework for a number of important examples of objects studied in $K$-theory. The structured categories associated to an object C are typically categories of modules in a monoidal (op-)fibred category. The modules considered are "locally trivial" with respect to a given class of trivial modules and a given Grothendieck topology on the object C's category.; Comment: 176 + xi pages. This monograph is a revised and augmented version of my PhD thesis. The official thesis is available at http://library.epfl.ch/en/theses/?nr=4861