Related papers: Cohomological invariants of a variation of flat co…

In this note, we extend the theory of Chern-Cheeger-Simons to construct canonical invariants for a one-parameter family of flat connections on a smooth manifold. These invariants lie in degrees $(2p-2)$-cohomology with $\C/\Z$-cohomology,…

A general method for the construction of smooth flat connections on 3-manifolds is introduced. The procedure is strictly connected with the deduction of the fundamental group of a manifold M by means of a Heegaard splitting presentation of…

The main goal of this article is to construct some geometric invariants for the topology of the set $\mathcal{F}$ of flat connections on a principal $G$-bundle $P\,\longrightarrow\, M$. Although the characteristic classes of principal…

We show that a flat principal bundle with compact connected structure group and its adjoint bundles of Lie groups have the same cohomology as the trivial bundle, which is done by proving they satisfy the condition for the Leray-Hirsch…

We define a Chern--Simons invariant of connections on stably trivial vector bundles over smooth manifolds, taking values in $3$-forms modulo closed forms with integral cohomology class. We show an additivity property of this invariant for…

We derive formulas for the classical Chern-Simons invariant of irreducible $SU(n)$-flat connections on negatively curved locally symmetric three-manifolds. We determine the condition for which the theory remains consistent (with basic…

Let $E\to B$ be a smooth vector bundle of rank $n$, and let $P \in I^p(GL(n,\mathbb{R}))$ be a $GL(n,\mathbb{R})$-invariant polynomial of degree $p$ compatible with a universal integral characteristic class $ u \in…

In this note we define Chern-Simons classes of a superconnection $D+L$ on a complex supervector bundle $E$ such that $D$ is flat and preserves the grading, and $L$ is an odd endomorphism of $E$ on a supermanifold. As an application we…

The Chern-Simons invariants of irreducible U(n)- flat connections on compact hyperbolic 3-manifolds of the form {\Gamma}\H^3 are derived. The explicit formula for the Chern-Simons functional is given in terms of Selberg type zeta functions…

Let $\pi\colon P\to M$ be a principal bundle and $p$ an invariant polynomial of degree r on the Lie algebra of the structure group. The theory of Chern-Simons differential characters is exploited to define an homology map $\chi^{k} :…

Let $f: X \to S$ be flat morphism over an algebraically closed field $k$ with a relative normal crossings divisor $Y\subset X$, $(E, \nabla)$ be a bundle with a connection with log poles along $Y$ and curvature with values in…

A new approach to the quantization of Chern-Simons theory has been developed in recent papers of the author. It uses a "simulation" of the moduli space of flat connections modulo the gauge group which reveals to be related to a lattice…

We give a short review of our construction of a higher-loop perturbative invariant of framed 3-manifolds, generalizing the perturbative Chern-Simons invariant of Witten-Axelrod-Singer, associated to an acyclic flat connection, to an…

We define the notion of spectral network on manifolds of dimension $\le 3$. For a manifold $X$ equipped with a spectral network, we construct equivalences between Chern-Simons invariants of flat ${\mathrm {SL}}(2,{\mathbb C})$-bundles over…

This is the first of a series of two technical papers devoted to the analysis of holonomy invariants in strict higher gauge theory with end applications in higher Chern--Simons theory. For a flat 2--connection, we define the 2-holonomy of…

We discretize Chern-Simons couplings in gauge invariant way. We obtain (p+q)-forms representing Chern-Simons couplings on (p + q)-simplexes from wedge products of p- and q-forms on p- and q-simplexes, respectively, where p- and q-simplexes…

This thesis studies moduli spaces of singular connections on 3-manifolds and manifolds with cylindrical ends. A Chern-Simons functional is defined for singular connections on 3-manifolds which are singular along a knot. The critical points…

Given a 3-manifold that can be written as the double of a compression body, we compute the Chern-Simons critical values for arbitrary compact connected structure groups. We also show that the moduli space of flat connections is connected…

Let $M$ be a smooth manifold. We use Chern-Weil theory to study the characteristic classes of principal $G$-bundles built from continuous families of $\pi_{1}(M)$-representations, where $G$ is a compact Lie group. We then relate these…

We consider the geometric quantisation of Chern--Simons theory for closed genus-one surfaces and semisimple complex groups. First we introduce the natural complexified analogue of the Hitchin connection in K\"{a}hler quantisation, with…