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Steenrod squares on intersection cohomology and a conjecture of M. Goresky and W. Pardon. (English) Zbl 1412.55006

Summary: We prove a conjecture raised by M. Goresky and W. Pardon [Topology 28, No. 3, 325–367 (1989; Zbl 0696.57011)], concerning the range of validity of the perverse degree of Steenrod squares in intersection cohomology. This answer turns out to be of importance for the definition of characteristic classes in the framework of intersection cohomology.
For this purpose, we present a construction of \(\mathrm{cup}_{i}\)-products on the cochain complex, built on the blow-up of some singular simplices and introduced in a previous work. We extend to this setting the classical properties of the associated Steenrod squares, including Adem and Cartan relations, for any loose perversities. In the case of a PL-pseudomanifold and range \(2\bar{p}\), we prove that our definition coincides with Goresky’s definition. We also show that our Steenrod squares are topological invariants which do not depend on the choice of a stratification of \(X\).
Several examples of concrete computation of perverse Steenrod squares are given, including the case of isolated singularities, and more especially, we describe the Steenrod squares on the Thom space of a vector bundle as a function of the Steenrod squares of the base space and the Stiefel-Whitney classes of the bundle. We also detail an example of a nontrivial square, \(\mathrm{Sq}^2: H_{\bar{p}}\to H_{\bar{p}+2}\), whose information is lost if we consider it as taking values in \(H_{2\bar{p}}\), showing the interest of the Goresky-Pardon conjecture.

MSC:

55N33 Intersection homology and cohomology in algebraic topology
55S10 Steenrod algebra
57N80 Stratifications in topological manifolds

Citations:

Zbl 0696.57011
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