Topological gravity in Minkowski space
Algebraic Topology
2007-05-23 v2 Mathematical Physics
Differential Geometry
math.MP
Abstract
The two-category with three-manifolds as objects, h-cobordisms as morphisms, and diffeomorphisms of these as two-morphisms, is extremely rich; from the point of view of classical physics it defines a nontrivial topological model for general relativity. A rather striking amount of work on pseudoisotopy theory [Hatcher, Waldhausen, Cohen-Carlsson-Goodwillie-Hsiang-Madsen...] can be formulated as a (generalized) TQFT in this framework. The resulting theory is far from trivial even in the case of Minkowski space, when the relevant three-manifold is the standard sphere.
Cite
@article{arxiv.math/0407104,
title = {Topological gravity in Minkowski space},
author = {Jack Morava},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0407104},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
Talk at the 2^o Congreso Latino-Americano de M\'atematicos, Cancun, Quintana Roo, M\'exico; 24 July 2004; updated, with some minimal calculations