On the cohomology of varieties of chord diagrams

Abstract

We study the space of codimension two subalgebras in $C^\infty(S^1, {\mathbb R})$ defined by pairs of conditions $f(\varphi)=f(\psi)$, $\varphi \neq \psi \in S^1$, or by their limits. We compute the mod 2 cohomology ring of this space, and also the Stiefel--Whitney classes of the tautological vector bundle on it.