In mathematics, Deligne cohomology sometimes called Deligne-Beilinson cohomology is the hypercohomology of the Deligne complex of a complex manifold. It was introduced by Pierre Deligne in unpublished work in about 1972 as a cohomology theory for algebraic varieties that includes both ordinary cohomology and intermediate Jacobians.
For introductory accounts of Deligne cohomology see Brylinski (2008 , section 1.5), Esnault & Viehweg (1988), and Gomi (2009 , section 2).
The analytic Deligne complex Z(p)D, an on a complex analytic manifold X is
where Z(p) = (2π i)pZ. Depending on the context, is either the complex of smooth (i.e., C∞) differential forms or of holomorphic forms, respectively. The Deligne cohomology H q
D,an (X,Z(p)) is the q-th hypercohomology of the Deligne complex. An alternative definition of this complex is given as the homotopy limit [1] of the diagram
Deligne cohomology groups H q
D (X,Z(p)) can be described geometrically, especially in low degrees. For p = 0, it agrees with the q-th singular cohomology group (with Z-coefficients), by definition. For q = 2 and p = 1, it is isomorphic to the group of isomorphism classes of smooth (or holomorphic, depending on the context) principal C×-bundles over X. For p = q = 2, it is the group of isomorphism classes of C×-bundles with connection. For q = 3 and p = 2 or 3, descriptions in terms of gerbes are available (Brylinski (2008)). This has been generalized to a description in higher degrees in terms of iterated classifying spaces and connections on them (Gajer (1997)).
Recall there is a subgroup of integral cohomology classes in called the group of Hodge classes. There is an exact sequence relating Deligne-cohomology, their intermediate Jacobians, and this group of Hodge classes as a short exact sequence
Deligne cohomology is used to formulate Beilinson conjectures on special values of L-functions.
There is an extension of Deligne-cohomology defined for any symmetric spectrum [1] where for odd which can be compared with ordinary Deligne cohomology on complex analytic varieties.