The big Chern classes and the Chern character

TL;DR

This paper explores the algebraic structures underlying Chern classes and the Chern character on smooth schemes, revealing how certain algebraic maps fail to commute and interpreting Chern classes via universal enveloping algebras.

Contribution

It establishes the universal enveloping algebra structure of polydifferential operators and links Chern classes to representation theory of a shifted tangent bundle.

Findings

The symmetrization map's failure to commute with multiplication is quantified.

The Hochschild-Kostant-Rosenberg map's non-commutativity is measured.

Explicit formulas relate big Chern classes to the Chern character components.

Abstract

Let $X$ be a smooth scheme over a field of characteristic 0. Let $\dd^{\bullet}(X)$ be the complex of polydifferential operators on $X$ equipped with Hochschild co-boundary. Let $L(\dd^1(X))$ be the free Lie algebra generated over $\strc$ by $\dd^1(X)$ concentrated in degree 1 equipped with Hochschild co-boundary. We have a symmetrization map $I: \oplus_k \sss^k(L(\dd^1(X))) \rar \dd^{\bullet}(X)$. Theorem 1 of this paper measures how the map $I$ fails to commute with multiplication. A consequence of Theorem 1 and Theorem 2 is Corollary 1, a result "dual" to Theorem 1 of Markarian [3] that measures how the Hochschild-Kostant-Rosenberg quasi-isomorphism fails to commute with multiplication. In order to understand Theorem 1 conceptually, we prove a theorem (Theorem 3) stating that $\dd^{\bullet}(X)$ is the universal enveloping algebra of $T_X[-1]$ in $\dcat$. An easy consequence of Theorem 3 is Theorem 4, which interprets the Chern character $E$ as the "character of the representation $E$ of $T_X[-1]$" and gives a description of the big Chern classes of $E$. Finally, Theorem 4 along with Theorem 1 is used to give an explicit formula (Theorem 5) expressing the big Chern classes of $E$ in terms of the components of the Chern character of $E$.