ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Atiyah–Bott formula

The atiyah-bott formula is a way to count certain mathematical objects called holomorphic vector bundles on a special kind of space called a complex manifold. Imagine you have a piece of paper that you can bend and stretch. A complex manifold is like that piece of paper, but with some extra mathematical structure.

Now, a holomorphic vector bundle is like a special kind of rubber band that you can put on this piece of paper. It's special because it stays nice and smooth even when you stretch and bend the paper. You can imagine that these rubber bands have numbers attached to them, like little name tags. The atiyah-bott formula tells us how to count these rubber bands by counting the name tags.

But how do we count them? Well, the formula says that we can count them by looking at the curvature of the rubber bands. Curvature is like a measure of how much the rubber band is bending or twisting at each point on the paper. The formula tells us that if we know the curvature of the rubber band, we can find its name tag and count it.

So how does the formula actually work? Well, it involves some fancy math called differential geometry. Differential geometry is like a special language that mathematicians use to talk about bending, stretching, and curving things.

In order to use the atiyah-bott formula, we need to know a few things. First, we need to know the topology of the complex manifold. Topology is like a way to describe the shape of the piece of paper. For example, it tells us if the paper has any holes or if it's flat like a table.

Second, we need to know the Chern classes of the holomorphic vector bundle. Chern classes are like special numbers that tell us about the curvature of the rubber bands. Just like the curvature tells us how much the rubber band is bending or twisting, the Chern classes tell us how much the rubber band is curving in different directions.

Finally, we need to know the Todd class of the complex manifold. The Todd class is another special number that tells us how the piece of paper is bending and stretching overall. It's like a measure of the overall curvature of the paper.

Once we know all of these things, we can combine them using the atiyah-bott formula to count the holomorphic vector bundles. The formula gives us a formula to calculate the name tags based on the curvature, Chern classes, and Todd class.

In summary, the atiyah-bott formula is a fancy math formula that helps us count holomorphic vector bundles on a complex manifold. It uses information about the curvature, Chern classes, and Todd class to calculate the name tags of the rubber bands and count them.