Geometric Analysis and Topology Seminar

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Motivic Characteristic Classes for Singular Spaces

Speaker: Jörg Schürmann, Münster

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 813

Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 12:30 p.m.

Synopsis:

The talk gives an introduction to the recent theory of motivic characteristic classes for singular spaces, using the language of Borel-Moore theories due to Levine-Morel. These are universal characteristic class transformations, which can be defined on the relative Grothendieck group of (complex) algebraic varieties. The Hirzebruch class transformation for example unifies the Chern class transformation of MacPherson, the Todd class transformation of Baum-Fulton-MacPherson and the L-class transformation of Cappell-Shaneson.