Toric Genera

Abstract

Our primary aim is to develop a theory of equivariant genera for stably complex manifolds equipped with compatible actions of a torus T^k. In the case of omnioriented quasitoric manifolds, we present computations that depend only on their defining combinatorial data; these draw inspiration from analogous calculations in toric geometry, which seek to express arithmetic, elliptic, and associated genera of toric varieties in terms only of their fans. Our theory focuses on the universal toric genus \Phi, which was introduced independently by Krichever and Loeffler in 1974, albeit from radically different viewpoints. In fact \Phi is a version of tom Dieck's bundling transformation of 1970, defined on T^k-equivariant complex cobordism classes and taking values in the complex cobordism algebra of the classifying space. We proceed by combining the analytic, the formal group theoretic, and the homotopical approaches to genera, and refer to the index theoretic approach as a recurring source of insight and motivation. The resultant flexibility allows us to identify several distinct genera within our framework, and to introduce parametrised versions that apply to bundles equipped with a stably complex structure on the tangents along their fibres. In the presence of isolated fixed points, we obtain universal localisation formulae, whose applications include the identification of Krichever's generalised elliptic genus as universal amongst genera that are rigid on SU-manifolds. We follow the traditions of toric geometry by working with a variety of illustrative examples wherever possible. For background and prerequisites we attempt to reconcile the literature of east and west, which developed independently for several decades after the 1960s.