Let $G$ be a profinite group, $X$ a discrete $G$-spectrum with trivial action, and $X^{hG}$ the continuous homotopy fixed points. For any $N \trianglelefteq_o G$ ("$o$" for open), $X = X^N$ is a $G/N$-spectrum with trivial action. We construct a zigzag $\text{colim}\,_N \,X^{hG/N} \buildrelΦ\over\longrightarrow \text{colim}\,_N \,(X^{hN})^{hG/N} \buildrelΨ\over\longleftarrow X^{hG}$, where $Ψ$ is a weak equivalence. When $Φ$ is a weak equivalence, this zigzag gives an interesting model for $X^{hG}$ (for example, its Spanier-Whitehead dual is $\text{holim}\,_N \,F(X^{hG/N}, S^0)$). We prove that this happens in the following cases: (1) $|G| < \infty$; (2) $X$ is bounded above; (3) there exists $\{U\}$ cofinal in $\{N\}$, such that for each $U$, $H^s_c(U, π_\ast(X)) = 0$, for $s > 0$. Given (3), for each $U$, there is a weak equivalence $X \buildrel\simeq\over\longrightarrow X^{hU}$ and $X^{hG} \simeq X^{hG/U}$. For case (3), we give a series of corollaries and examples. As one instance of a family of examples, if $p$ is a prime, $K(n_p,p)$ the $n_p$th Morava $K$-theory $K(n_p)$ at $p$ for some $n_p \geq 1$, and $\mathbb{Z}_p$ the $p$-adic integers, then for each $m \geq 2$, (3) is satisfied when $G \leqslant \prod_{p \leq m} \mathbb{Z}_p$ is closed, $X = \bigvee_{p > m} (H\mathbb{Q} \vee K(n_p,p))$, and $\{U\} := \{N_G \mid N_G \trianglelefteq_o G\}$.
We study a natural generalization of inverse systems of finite regular covering spaces. A limit of such a system is a fibration whose fibres are profinite topological groups. However, as shown in a previous paper (Conner-Herfort-Pavesic: Some anomalous examples of lifting spaces), there are many fibrations whose fibres are profinite groups, which are far from being inverse limits of coverings. We characterize profinite fibrations among a large class of fibrations and relate the profinite topology on the fundamental group of the base with the action of the fundamental group on the fibre, and de…
Profinite etale cobordism is a cohomology theory for smooth schemes of finite type over a field. Using an idea of Friedlander, it is constructed as an etale topological analog of the algebraic cobordism theories of Voevodsky and Levine-Morel. With finite coefficients, profinite etale cobordism has a converging Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence starting from etale cohomology. There are interesting comparison maps from algebraic to profinite etale cobordism. We conjecture that algebraic and etale cobordism with finite coefficients are isomorphic after inverting a Bott element. For the developm…
We extend the theory of equivariant orthogonal spectra from finite groups to profinite groups, and more generally from compact Lie groups to compact Hausdorff groups. The G-homotopy theory is "pieced together" from the G/U-homotopy theories for suitable quotient groups G/U of G; a motivation is the way continuous group cohomology of a profinite group is built out of the cohomology of its finite quotient groups. In the model category of equivariant spectra Postnikov towers are studied from a general perspective. We introduce pro-G-spectra and construct various model structures on them. A key pr…
Complementing and extending the Inventiones work of Benson, Grodal, Henke [Group cohomology and control of p-fusion, Invent. Math. 197 (2014), 491--507] we give criteria for a space to have cohomology (strongly) F-isomorphic in the sense of Quillen to the stable elements. We extend results about groups models to fusion systems over discrete $p$-toral groups and profinite groups and provide various applications to the Kan-Thurston Theorem.
For a profinite group $G$, let $(\text{-})^{hG}$, $(\text{-})^{h_dG}$, and $(\text{-})^{h'G}$ denote continuous homotopy fixed points for profinite $G$-spectra, discrete $G$-spectra, and continuous $G$-spectra (coming from towers of discrete $G$-spectra), respectively. We establish some connections between the first two notions, and by using Postnikov towers, for $K \vartriangleleft_c G$ (a closed normal subgroup), give various conditions for when the iterated homotopy fixed points $(X^{hK})^{hG/K}$ exist and are $X^{hG}$. For the Lubin-Tate spectrum $E_n$ and $G <_c G_n$, the extended Morava …
We compare the description of the M-theory form fields via cohomotopy versus that via integral cohomology. The conditions for lifting the latter to the former are identified using obstruction theory in the form of Postnikov towers, where torsion plays a central role. A subset of these conditions is shown to correspond compatibly to existing consistency conditions, while the rest are new and point to further consistency requirements for M-theory. Bringing in the geometry leads to a differential refinement of the Postnikov tower, which should be of independent interest. This provides another con…
Let C be a coalgebra over a field k and A its dual algebra. The category of C-comodules is equivalent to a category of A-modules. We use this to interpret the cotensor product M \square N of two comodules in terms of the appropriate Hochschild cohomology of the A-bimodule M \otimes N, when A is finite-dimensional, profinite, graded or differential-graded. The main applications are to Galois cohomology, comodules over the Steenrod algebra, and the homology of induced fibrations.
This very rough sketch is a sequel to arXiv:1808.08587; it presents evidence that operations on lifts of the functors K(n) to cohomology theories with values in modules over valuation rings of local number fields, indexed by Lubin-Tate groups of such fields, are extensions of the groups of automorphisms of the indexing group laws, by the exterior algebras on the normal bundle to the orbits of the group laws in the space of lifts.
We prove that the $p$-completed Brown-Peterson spectrum is a retract of a product of Morava $E$-theory spectra. As a consequence, we generalize results of Ravenel-Wilson-Yagita and Kashiwabara from spaces to spectra and deduce that the notion of good group is determined by Brown-Peterson cohomology. Furthermore, we show that rational factorizations of the Morava $E$-theory of certain finite groups hold integrally up to bounded torsion with height-independent exponent, thereby lifting these factorizations to the rationalized Brown-Peterson cohomology of such groups.
The study of the action of the Steenrod algebra on the mod $p$ cohomology of spaces has many applications to the topological structure of those spaces. In this paper we present combinatorial formulas for the action of Steenrod operations on the cohomology of Grassmannians, both in the Borel and the Schubert picture. We consider integral lifts of Steenrod operations, which lie in a certain Hopf algebra of differential operators. The latter has been considered recently as a realization of the Landweber-Novikov algebra in complex cobordism theory; it also has connections with the action of the Vi…
For a connected Noetherian unstable algebra $R$ over the mod $p$ Steenrod algebra, we prove versions of theorems of Duflot and Carlson on the depth of $R$, originally proved when $R$ is the mod $p$ cohomology ring of a finite group. This recovers the aforementioned results, and also proves versions of them when $R$ is the mod $p$ cohomology ring of a compact Lie group, a profinite group with Noetherian cohomology, a Kac--Moody group, a discrete group of finite virtual cohomological dimension, as well as for certain other discrete groups. More generally, our results apply to certain finitely ge…
$S^1$-localisation by pseudocycles, lifts to $S^1$-localisation of moduli spaces, and application to invariants of $S^1$-equivariant symplectic cohomology
We show that Shipley's "detection functor" for symmetric spectra generalizes to motivic symmetric spectra. As an application, we construct motivic strict ring spectra representing morphic cohomology, semi-topological $K$-theory, and semi-topological cobordism for complex varieties. As a further application to semi-topological cobordism, we show that it is related to semi-topological $K$-theory via a Conner-Floyd type isomorphism and that after inverting a lift of the Friedlander-Mazur $s$-element in morphic cohomology, semi-topological cobordism becomes isomorphic to periodic complex cobordism…
We show that the third cohomology of the finite general linear group $GL_6(\mathbb{F}_2)$ with trivial mod 2 coefficients is non-zero. The necessarily unique non-trivial element restricts to the third Milgram-Priddy class.
We give a Type $B$ analog of Whitehouse's lifts of the Eulerian representations from $S_n$ to $S_{n+1}$ by introducing a family of $B_{n}$-representations that lift to $B_{n+1}$. As in Type $A$, we interpret these representations combinatorially via a family of orthogonal idempotents in the Mantaci-Reutenauer algebra, and topologically as the graded pieces of the cohomology of a certain $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$-orbit configuration space of $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. We show that the lifted $B_{n+1}$-representations also have a configuration space interpretation, and further parallel the Type $A$ story by givin…
We investigate the topological nilpotence degree, in the sense of Henn-Lannes-Schwartz, of a connected Noetherian unstable algebra $R$. When $R$ is the mod $p$ cohomology ring of a compact Lie group, Kuhn showed how this invariant is controlled by centralizers of elementary abelian $p$-subgroups. By replacing centralizers of elementary abelian $p$-subgroups with components of Lannes' $T$-functor, and utilizing the techniques of unstable algebras over the Steenrod algebra, we are able to generalize Kuhn's result to a large class of connected Noetherian unstable algebras. We show how this genera…
We show that the group cohomology of the diffeomorphisms of the disk with $n$ punctures has the cohomology of the braid group of $n$ strands as the summand. As an application of this method, we also prove that there is no cohomological obstruction to lifting the "standard" embedding $\mathrm{Br}_{2g+2}\hookrightarrow \mathrm{Mod}_{g,2}$ to a group homomorphism between diffeomorphism groups.
We prove a topological version of the section conjecture for the profinite completion of the fundamental group of finite CW-complexes equipped with the action of a group of prime order $p$ whose $p$-torsion cohomology can be killed by finite covers. As an application we derive the section conjecture for the real points of a large class of varieties defined over the field of real numbers and the natural analogue of the section conjecture for fixed points of finite group actions on projective curves of positive genus defined over the field of complex numbers.