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41 votes
1 answer
10k views

Why not a Roadmap for Homotopy Theory and Spectra?

MO has seen plenty of roadmap questions but oddly enough I haven't seen one for homotopy theory. As an algebraic geometer who's fond of derived categories I would like some guidance on how to build up ...
John Salvatierrez's user avatar
28 votes
2 answers
2k views

Has anyone seen a nice map of multiplicative cohomology theories?

I have seen lots of descriptions of this map in the literature but never seen it nicely drawn anywhere. I could try to do it myself but I really lack expertise, hence am afraid to miss something or ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
26 votes
1 answer
1k views

From the perspective of bordism categories, where does the ring structure on Thom spectra come from?

To fix ideas, let's consider the Thom spectrum of framed bordism $M$, the spectrum whose homotopy groups are the framed bordism groups. $M$ has a ring spectrum structure inducing the product of ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
777 views

Idempotent ring spectrum

Is there a lot of ring spectrum which are idempotent in the sense that the multiplication map $R \wedge R \rightarrow R$ is an equivalence ? The sphere spectrum $\mathbb{S}$ and the $0$ spectrum are ...
Simon Henry's user avatar
  • 42.4k
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are Thom spectra MU, MSO and K-theory spectra KU, KO modules over some truncations of the sphere spectrum?

The Thom spectrum MO is a module over the ring spectrum π≤0S=HZ, where S is the sphere spectrum. In particular, MO is equivalent to the Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum Hπ*(MO). On the other hand, MU and ...
Dmitri Pavlov's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
738 views

Truncations of E_infinity algebras

In section 4.1 of Lurie's DAG VIII, he implies the existence of an $E_\infty$-ring spectrum $A$ such that the coconnective truncation $\tau_{\leq 0} (A)$ does not admit the structure of an $E_\infty$-...
user49450's user avatar
  • 143
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

Connective spectra and infinite loop spaces

It seems to be standard that connective spectra are "the same" as infinite loop space. However, I do not understand the reason why the associated spectrum is connective. For me, an infinite loop ...
Matthias Ludewig's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
317 views

Are there non-obvious finite $E_\infty$ ring spectra?

I see two "obvious" classes of nonzero finite $E_\infty$ ring spectra $R$: $R = \Sigma^\infty_+ (S^1)^{\times n}$ $R = D\Sigma^\infty_+ X$ ($X$ a finite space) Questions: Are there any others? In ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why did Ravenel define a ring spectrum to be flat if its smash-square splits into copies of itself?

In appendix A.2 of the orange book, Ravenel defines a ring spectrum $E$ to be flat if $E\wedge E$ is equivalent to a coproduct of suspensions of $E$. (Call this definition (1).) I've seen this ...
Doron Grossman-Naples's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
300 views

What can I say about an $E_\infty$ ring spectrum with an odd invertible element?

I have an $E_\infty$ ring spectrum $R$. I suspect it is trivial, but I'm not sure. What I do know is that there is an $R$-linear equivalence $R \simeq \Sigma R$. Unless I am very confused, this ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
328 views

Did the Goerss-Hopkins manuscript "Multiplicative stable homotopy theory" ever appear?

A citation to "M. J. Hopkins and P. Goerss, Multiplicative stable homotopy theory, unpublished manuscript, 1996" appears in the Hill, Hopkins, Ravenel Annals paper on the Kervaire invariant. It was ...
David White's user avatar
  • 30.3k
7 votes
1 answer
247 views

Module spectrum maps up to stable homotopy

Let $R$ be a commutative ring spectrum, $M$ and $N$ be a $R$-module spectra. Let us consider $R$-module maps from $M$ to $N$ up to stable homotopy, that is maps $M \to N$ such that the composites $R \...
Ann's user avatar
  • 151
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Ring structures on algebraic K-theory spectrum, and its non-connective counterpart

I have a few naive questions on the algebraic K-theory spectrum construction, but whose answers I couldn't figure out using the internet. I'm mostly interested in the case of a commutative ring, but I ...
xir's user avatar
  • 2,054
6 votes
1 answer
578 views

Two definitions of power operations --- how do they relate?

Below are two different stories about power operations for $\mathbb{E}_\infty$-ring spectra, and I am struggling to see how they relate. In the following we let $R$ be an $\mathbb{E}_\infty$-ring ...
Mr. Palomar's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
390 views

What is the topological Hochschild cohomology of $\mathbb{F}_p$?

Following the computation of the THH (topological Hochschild homology) of $\mathbb{F}_p$ as outlined in Krause-Nikolaus. We use the fact that $\mathbb{F}_p$ is initial $E_2$ ring with $0=p$ to compute ...
Andy Jiang's user avatar
  • 2,356
5 votes
1 answer
348 views

$KO_*$ groups of $\mathbb{R}P^\infty$, "Snaiths" theorem for $KO$

I posted this question some days ago at math.stackexchange, but didn't receive an answer. I have two questions: I wonder whether anyone has taken the time to compute $KO_*(\mathbb{R}P^\infty)$? The ...
Excalibur's user avatar
  • 301
5 votes
1 answer
444 views

endomorphisms of modules over symmetric ring spectra

I have a probably very basic question about modules over symmetric ring spectra: Let $R$ be a commutative symmetric ring spectrum and let $M$ and $N$ be module spectra over $R$. Moreover, let $\...
Ulrich Pennig's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
322 views

Is there a model structure for S-modules such that cofibrant operad-algebras forget to cofibrant S-modules?

In 1997, Elmendorf, Kriz, Mandell, and May wrote a book Rings, Modules, and Algebras in Stable Homotopy Theory in which they introduced the category of $S$-modules as a model for the stable homotopy ...
David White's user avatar
  • 30.3k
5 votes
1 answer
480 views

Stable Dold-Kan correspondence and symmetric group actions

There exists a Quillen equivalence between $HRModSpectra$ (model category of ring spectra over Eilenberg-MacLane spectra $EM(R)$, where $R$ is a commutative ring, with stable model structure) and $Ch$ ...
iron feliks's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
173 views

Uniqueness of complex topological $K$-theory as an $S$-algebra

This might be well-known or trivial, but I could not figure out how to fill in the details: For an $S$-algebra $K$ denote its associated multiplicative cohomology theory by $h^*_K$. Suppose that I ...
Ulrich Pennig's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
438 views

If a t-truncation of the unit object in a stable homotopy category is a ring object up to homotopy, can it be lifted to a ring spectrum? What about the Postnikov t-truncations of the sphere spectrum?

Let $S$ be the unit object in a monoidal stable homotopy category $SH$ (we demand that the multiplication $S\times S\to S$ is commutative and associative on the level of spectra, and not just up to ...
Mikhail Bondarko's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
624 views

Homotopy colimit commutes with homotopy groups

I'm interested in something built upon the construction laid out in nlab article on Snaith's theorem Let $(E, \mu, \iota)$ be a ring spectrum. For $\beta \in \pi_n(E)$ an element of the $n$th stable ...
Excalibur's user avatar
  • 301
3 votes
0 answers
434 views

Units of a ring spectrum

Is there a good notion of the spectrum of units $R^\ast$ in a (possibly non-connective) $E_\infty$-ring spectrum $R$? A standard definition (see section 1.2 in http://arxiv.org/abs/0810.4535) seems ...
unit's user avatar
  • 31