nLab cohomological integration

Contents

Context

Integration theory

Cohomology

cohomology

Special and general types

Special notions

Variants

Extra structure

Operations

Theorems

Contents

Idea

Under suitable circumstances, forming the integral of a differential form may be understood as passing to the cohomology-equivalence class of that differential form in a suitable chain complex.

Examples of this appear in the constructions discussed at Lie integration and at BV-BRST formalism, where cohomological integration is used as a way to formalize the idea of the path integral. (See at The BV-complex and homological (path-)integration)

While the idea has been around (as witnessed by the references at Lie integration and BV-BRST formalism) a comprehensive and dedicated theory, or a published account thereof, currently seems to be missing. But see the References below.

References

Last revised on December 8, 2013 at 05:09:19. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.