nLab rational equivariant K-theory

Idea

While the rationalization of complex topological K-theory has lost most interesting information (being just a direct sum of ordinary rational cohomology in every even degree) the rationalization of its enhancement to equivariant cohomology – equivariant K-theory – is still a comparatively rich object, controlled by the rational representation theory of the given equivariance group.

Rational equivariant K-theory appears in a variety of different but equivalent concrete incarnations, such as Bredon cohomology with coefficients in the representation ring/class functions or as Chen-Ruan cohomology (here shown over the complex numbers, see Lück-Oliver 01 for discussion over the rational numbers):

Incarnations of rational equivariant K-theory:

	cohomology theory	definition/equivalence due to
$\simeq K_G^0\big(X; \mathbb{C} \big)$	rational equivariant K-theory
$\simeq H^{ev}\Big( \big(\underset{g \in G}{\coprod} X^g\big)/G; \mathbb{C} \Big)$	delocalized equivariant cohomology	Baum-Connes 89, Thm. 1.19
$\simeq H^{ev}_{CR}\Big( \prec \big( X \!\sslash\! G\big);\, \mathbb{C} \Big)$	Chen-Ruan cohomology of global quotient orbifold	Chen-Ruan 00, Sec. 3.1
$\simeq H^{ev}_G\Big( X; \, \big(G/H \mapsto \mathbb{C} \otimes Rep(H)\big) \Big)$	Bredon cohomology with coefficients in representation ring	Ho88 6.5+Ho90 5.5+Mo02 p. 18, Mislin-Valette 03, Thm. 6.1, Szabo-Valentino 07, Sec. 4.2
$\simeq K_G^0\big(X; \mathbb{C} \big)$	rational equivariant K-theory	Lück-Oliver 01, Thm. 5.5, Mislin-Valette 03, Thm. 6.1

As any Chern-Dold character, the equivariant Chern character on equivariant K-theory takes values in its rationalization. Hence, together with the above variety of presentations of rational equivariant K-theory, there is a corresponding variety of realizations of the equivariant Chern character.

Related concepts

• equivariant Chern character

• rational cohomology, rational Cohomotopy

• Bredon cohomology

• rational equivariant stable homotopy theory

References

See also the references at equivariant Chern character.

• Alain Connes, Paul Baum, Chern character for discrete groups, A Fête of Topology, Papers Dedicated to Itiro Tamura 1988, Pages 163-232 (doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-480440-1.50015-0)

• Wolfgang Lück, Bob Oliver, Section 1 of: Chern characters for the equivariant K-theory of proper G-CW-complexes, In: Aguadé J., Broto C., Casacuberta C. (eds.) Cohomological Methods in Homotopy Theory Progress in Mathematics, vol 196. Birkhäuser 2001 (doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8312-2_15)

• Guido Mislin, Alain Valette, Theorem 6.1 in: Proper Group Actions and the Baum-Connes Conjecture, Advanced Courses in Mathematics CRM Barcelona, Springer 2003 (doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8089-3)

With focus on commutative ring-structures:

• Anna Marie Bohmann, Christy Hazel, Jocelyne Ishak, Magdalena Kędziorek, Clover May, Naive-commutative structure on rational equivariant K-theory for abelian groups (arXiv:2002.01556)

• Anna Marie Bohmann, Christy Hazel, Jocelyne Ishak, Magdalena Kędziorek, Clover May, Genuine-commutative ring structure on rational equivariant K-theory for finite abelian groups (arXiv:2104.01079)