De Rham Cohomology of Manifolds

Abstract

In this chapter, we study the topology of C ^∞-manifolds. We define the de Rham cohomology of a manifold, which is the vector space of closed differential forms modulo exact forms. After sheafifying the construction, we see that the de Rham complex forms a so-called acyclic resolution of the constant sheaf ℝ. We prove a general result that sheaf cohomology can be computed using such resolutions, and deduce a version of de Rham’s theorem that de Rham cohomology is sheaf cohomology with coefficients in ℝ. It follows that de Rham cohomology depends only on the underlying topology. Using a different acyclic resolution that is dual to the de Rham complex, we prove Poincaré duality. This duality makes cohomology, which is normally contravariant, into a covariant theory. We devote a section to explaining these somewhat mysterious covariant maps, called Gysin maps. We end this chapter with the remarkable Lefschetz trace formula, which in principle, calculates the number of fixed points for a map of a manifold to itself.