Equivariant extensions of differential forms for non-compact Lie groups

Abstract

Consider a manifold endowed with the action of a Lie group. We study the relation between the cohomology of the Cartan complex and the equivariant cohomology by using the equivariant De Rham complex developed by Getzler, and we show that the cohomology of the Cartan complex lies on the 0-th row of the second page of a spectral sequence converging to the equivariant cohomology. We use this result to generalize a result of Witten on the equivalence of absence of anomalies in gauge WZW actions on compact Lie groups to the existence of equivariant extension of the WZW term, to the case on which the gauge group is the special linear group with real coefficients.