# HG changeset patch # User Scott Morrison # Date 1290533325 28800 # Node ID 1cfa95e6b8bbef692efce40815f90185a0982bf1 # Parent 001fc6183d1979fedcdd710c562f7a19b7eb6d75# Parent ee1c43e7785b7b0153318b1ea9f168d181a69301 Automated merge with https://tqft.net/hg/blob/ diff -r ee1c43e7785b -r 1cfa95e6b8bb pnas/pnas.tex --- a/pnas/pnas.tex Tue Nov 23 09:28:41 2010 -0800 +++ b/pnas/pnas.tex Tue Nov 23 09:28:45 2010 -0800 @@ -136,8 +136,9 @@ \begin{article} \begin{abstract} +\nn{needs revision} We explain the need for new axioms for topological quantum field theories that include ideas from derived -categories and homotopy theory. We summarize our axioms for higher categories, and describe the `blob complex'. +categories and homotopy theory. We summarize our axioms for higher categories, and describe the ``blob complex". Fixing an $n$-category $\cC$, the blob complex associates a chain complex $\bc_*(W;\cC)$ to any $n$-manifold $W$. The $0$-th homology of this chain complex recovers the usual TQFT invariants of $W$. The higher homology groups should be viewed as generalizations of Hochschild homology. @@ -184,14 +185,14 @@ Thus a TQFT assigns to each closed $n$-manifold $Y$ a vector space $A(Y)$, and to each $(n{+}1)$-manifold $W$ an element of $A(\bd W)^*$. For the remainder of this paper we will in fact be interested in so-called $(n{+}\epsilon)$-dimensional -TQFTs, which are slightly weaker structures and do not assign anything to general $(n{+}1)$-manifolds, -but only to mapping cylinders. +TQFTs, which are slightly weaker structures in that they assign +invariants to mapping cylinders of homeomorphisms between $n$-manifolds, but not to general $(n{+}1)$-manifolds. -When $k=n-1$ we have a linear 1-category $A(S)$ for each $(n{-}1)$-manifold $S$, +When $k=n{-}1$ we have a linear 1-category $A(S)$ for each $(n{-}1)$-manifold $S$, and a representation of $A(\bd Y)$ for each $n$-manifold $Y$. The TQFT gluing rule in dimension $n$ states that $A(Y_1\cup_S Y_2) \cong A(Y_1) \ot_{A(S)} A(Y_2)$, -where $Y_1$ and $Y_2$ and $n$-manifolds with common boundary $S$. +where $Y_1$ and $Y_2$ are $n$-manifolds with common boundary $S$. When $k=0$ we have an $n$-category $A(pt)$. This can be thought of as the local part of the TQFT, and the full TQFT can be reconstructed from $A(pt)$ @@ -207,7 +208,7 @@ extended all the way down to dimension 0.) For other non-semisimple TQFT-like invariants, however, the above framework seems to be inadequate. -For example, the gluing rule for 3-manifolds in Ozsv\'{a}th-Szab\'{o}/Seiberg-Witten theory +For example, the gluing rule for 3-manifolds in Ozsv\'ath-Szab\'o/Seiberg-Witten theory involves a tensor product over an $A_\infty$ 1-category associated to 2-manifolds \cite{1003.0598,1005.1248}. Long exact sequences are important computational tools in these theories, and also in Khovanov homology, but the colimit construction breaks exactness. @@ -236,13 +237,14 @@ yields a higher categorical and higher dimensional generalization of Deligne's conjecture on Hochschild cochains and the little 2-disks operad. +\nn{needs revision} Of course, there are currently many interesting alternative notions of $n$-category and of TQFT. We note that our $n$-categories are both more and less general than the ``fully dualizable" ones which play a prominent role in \cite{0905.0465}. They are more general in that we make no duality assumptions in the top dimension $n{+}1$. They are less general in that we impose stronger duality requirements in dimensions 0 through $n$. -Thus our $n$-categories correspond to $(n{+}\epsilon)$-dimensional unoriented or oriented TQFTs, while -Lurie's (fully dualizable) $n$-categories correspond to $(n{+}1)$-dimensional framed TQFTs. +Thus our $n$-categories correspond to $(n{+}\epsilon)$-dimensional {\it unoriented} or {\it oriented} TQFTs, while +Lurie's (fully dualizable) $n$-categories correspond to $(n{+}1)$-dimensional {\it framed} TQFTs. At several points we only sketch an argument briefly; full details can be found in \cite{1009.5025}. In this paper we attempt to give a clear view of the big picture without getting @@ -271,10 +273,10 @@ %More specifically, life is easier when working with maximal, rather than minimal, collections of axioms.} We will define two variations simultaneously, as all but one of the axioms are identical in the two cases. -These variations are `isotopy $n$-categories', where homeomorphisms fixing the boundary +These variations are ``plain $n$-categories", where homeomorphisms fixing the boundary act trivially on the sets associated to $n$-balls (and these sets are usually vector spaces or more generally modules over a commutative ring) -and `$A_\infty$ $n$-categories', where there is a homotopy action of +and ``$A_\infty$ $n$-categories", where there is a homotopy action of $k$-parameter families of homeomorphisms on these sets (which are usually chain complexes or topological spaces). @@ -318,12 +320,12 @@ Note that the functoriality in the above axiom allows us to operate via homeomorphisms which are not the identity on the boundary of the $k$-ball. The action of these homeomorphisms gives the ``strong duality" structure. -As such, we don't subdivide the boundary of a morphism -into domain and range --- the duality operations can convert between domain and range. +For this reason we don't subdivide the boundary of a morphism +into domain and range in the next axiom --- the duality operations can convert between domain and range. Later we inductively define an extension of the functors $\cC_k$ to functors $\cl{\cC}_k$ -from arbitrary manifolds to sets. We need these functors for $k$-spheres, -for $k