English

Equivariant real cycle class map and Witt-sheaf cohomology of classifying spaces

Algebraic Topology 2026-02-25 v1 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

In this paper, we study equivariant real cycle class maps for group actions on real schemes, with a view toward Witt-sheaf characteristic classes. The cycle class maps take values in singular cohomology of the real points of the quotient stack, which are identified with the homotopy fixed-points of complex conjugation on the complex points. This provides a strong relation between Witt-sheaf cohomology of the geometric classifying space of a real algebraic group and the singular cohomology of the classifying spaces of its strong real forms, which we discuss in a number of examples. As a sample application, we compute the number of Witt-sheaf cohomological invariants of spin groups over the reals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.20367,
  title  = {Equivariant real cycle class map and Witt-sheaf cohomology of classifying spaces},
  author = {Lorenzo Mantovani and Ákos K. Matszangosz and Matthias Wendt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.20367},
  year   = {2026}
}

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65 pages