SU-bordism: structure results and geometric representatives

Abstract

In the first part of this survey we give a modernised exposition of the structure of the special unitary bordism ring, by combining the classical geometric methods of Conner-Floyd, Wall and Stong with the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence and formal group law techniques that emerged after the fundamental 1967 work of Novikov. In the second part we use toric topology to describe geometric representatives in SU -bordism classes, including toric, quasitoric and Calabi-Yau manifolds.