We develop and exposit some general algebra useful for working with certain algebraic structures that arise in stable homotopy theory, such as those encoding well-behaved theories of power operations for $\mathbb{E}_\infty$ ring spectra. In particular, we consider Quillen cohomology in the context of algebras over algebraic theories, plethories, and Koszul resolutions for algebras over additive theories. By combining this general algebra with obstruction-theoretic machinery, we obtain tools for computing with $\mathbb{E}_\infty$ algebras over $\mathbb{F}_p$ and over Lubin-Tate spectra. As an application, we demonstrate the existence of $\mathbb{E}_\infty$ periodic complex orientations at heights $h\leq 2$.
Badzioch and Bergner proved a rigidification theorem saying that each homotopy simplicial algebra is weakly equivalent to a simplicial algebra. The question is whether this result can be extended from algebraic theories to finite limit theories and from simplicial sets to more general monoidal model categories. We will present some answers to this question.
Generalizing a result of Dwyer and Kan for simplicial categories, we characterize the morphisms of multi-sorted simplicial algebraic theories and simplicial coloured operads which induce a Quillen equivalence between the corresponding categories of algebras.
I exhibit a pair of non-symmetric operads that, although not themselves isomorphic, induce isomorphic monads. The existence of such a pair implies that if `algebraic theory' is understood as meaning `monad', operads cannot be regarded as algebraic theories of a special kind.
We adapt the notion of an algebraic theory to work in the setting of quasicategories developed recently by Joyal and Lurie. We develop the general theory at some length. We study one extended example in detail: the theory of commutative monoids (which turns out to be essentially just a 2-category). This gives a straightforward, combinatorially explicit, and instructive notion of a commutative monoid. We prove that this definition is equivalent (in appropriate senses) both to the classical concept of an E-infinity monoid and to Lurie's concept of a commutative algebra object.
We adapt the classical framework of algebraic theories to work in the setting of (infinity,1)-categories developed by Joyal and Lurie. This gives a suitable approach for describing highly structured objects from homotopy theory. A central example, treated at length, is the theory of E_infinity spaces: this has a tidy combinatorial description in terms of span diagrams of finite sets. We introduce a theory of distributive laws, allowing us to describe objects with two distributing E_infinity stuctures. From this we produce a theory of E_infinity ring spaces. We also study grouplike objects, and…
The paper examines machines of the type of the $Γ$-spaces of Segal which describe homotopy structures on topological spaces. The main result of the paper shows that for any such machine one can find an algebraic theory characterizing the same structure on spaces as the original machine.
We show that the derived center of the category of simplicial algebras over every algebraic theory is homotopically discrete, with the abelian monoid of components isomorphic to the center of the category of discrete algebras. For example, in the case of commutative algebras in characteristic $p$, this center is freely generated by Frobenius. Our proof involves the calculation of homotopy coherent centers of categories of simplicial presheaves as well as of Bousfield localizations. Numerous other classes of examples are discussed.
An algebraic theory $T$ is a category with objects $t_0,t_2...$ such that for each $n$ the object $t_n$ is an $n$-fold categorical product of $t_1$. A strict $T$-algebra is a product preserving functor $A: T\to Spaces$. Lawvere showed that for a suitable choice of T giving such an algebra amounts to providing the space $A(t_1)$ with a familiar structure of a monoid group, ring, Lie algebra... Given a functor $X: T\to Spaces$ which preserves products up to a weak equivalence we show that $X$ is more or less canonically weakly equivalent to a strict $T$-algebra $LX$. Thus any `homotopy' algebrai…
We consider operations between two multiplicative, complex orientable cohomology theories. Under suitable hypotheses, we construct a map from unstable to stable operations, left-inverse to the usual map from stable to unstable operations. In the main example, where the target theory is one of the Morava K-theories, this provides a simple and explicit description of a splitting arising from the Bousfield-Kuhn functor
In this article we construct Symmetric operations for all primes (previously known only for p=2). These unstable operations are more subtle than the Landweber-Novikov operations, and encode all p-primary divisibilities of characteristic numbers. Thus, taken together (for all primes) they plug the gap left by the Hurewitz map L ---> Z[b_1,b_2,...], providing an important structure on Algebraic Cobordism. Applications include: questions of rationality of Chow group elements - see [11], and the structure of the Graded Algebraic Cobordism. We also construct Steenrod operations of T.tom Dieck-style…
In these proceedings we summarize previous work where we formalize a general concept of algebraic field theories using operads. After giving a gentle reminder of algebraic quantum field theory, operads and their algebras, we construct field theory operads, whose algebras are exactly algebraic field theories. Specifically, they satisfy a suitable version of the Einstein causality axiom. From this construction we get adjunctions between different types of field theories, including adjunctions related to local-to-global extensions and the time-slice axiom, and a quantization functor for linear fi…
The notion of (symmetric) coloured operad or "multicategory" can be obtained from the notion of commutative algebra through a certain general process which we call "theorization" (where our term comes from an analogy with William Lawvere's notion of algebraic theory). By exploiting the inductivity in the structure of higher associativity, we obtain the notion of "$n$-theory" for every integer $n\ge 0$, which inductively "theorizes" $n$ times, the notion of commutative algebra. As a result, (coloured) morphism between $n$-theories is a "graded" and "enriched" generalization of ($n-1$)-theory. T…
We extend earlier work of Waldhausen which defines operations on the algebraic $K$-theory of the one-point space. For a connected simplicial abelian group $X$ and symmetric groups $Σ_n$, we define operations $θ^n \colon A(X) \rightarrow A(X{\times}BΣ_n)$ in the algebraic $K$-theory of spaces. We show that our operations can be given the structure of $E_{\infty}$-maps. Let $ϕ_n \colon A(X{\times}BΣ_n) \rightarrow A(X{\times}EΣ_n) \simeq A(X)$ be the $Σ_n$-transfer. We also develop an inductive procedure to compute the compositions $ϕ_n \circ θ^n$, and outline some applications.
We describe additive (unstable) operations from a theory A^* obtained from Algebraic Cobordism of M.Levine-F.Morel by change of coefficients to any oriented cohomology theory B^*. We prove that there is 1-to-1 correspondence between the set of operations, and the set of transformations: A^n((P^{\infty})^{\times r}) ---> B^m((P^{\infty})^{\times r}) satisfying certain simple properties. This provides an effective tool of constructing such operations. As an application, we prove that (unstable) additive operations in Algebraic Cobordism are in 1-to-1 correspondence with the L\otimes_Z Q-linear c…
We describe bialgebras of lower-indexed algebraic Steenrod operations over the field with p elements, p an odd prime. These go beyond the operations that can act nontrivially in topology, and their duals are closely related to algebras of polynomial invariants under subgroups of the general linear groups that contain the unipotent upper triangular groups. There are significant differences between these algebras and the analogous one for p=2, in particular in the nature and consequences of the defining Adem relations.
The manuscript is an overview of the motivations and foundations lying behind Voevodsky's ideas of constructing categories similar to the ordinary topological homotopy categories. The objects of these categories are strictly related to algebraic varieties and preserve some of their algebraic invariants.
Steenrod operations have been defined by Voedvodsky in motivic cohomology in order to show the Milnor and Bloch-Kato conjectures. These operations have also been constructed by Brosnan for Chow rings. The purpose of this paper is to provide a setting for the construction of the Steenrod operations in algebraic geometry, for generalized cohomology theories whose formal group law has order two. We adapt the methods used by Bisson-Joyal in studying Steenrod and Dyer-Lashof operations in unoriented cobordism and mod 2 cohomology.
Motivated by gauge theory, we develop a general framework for chain complex valued algebraic quantum field theories. Building upon our recent operadic approach to this subject, we show that the category of such theories carries a canonical model structure and explain the important conceptual and also practical consequences of this result. As a concrete application we provide a derived version of Fredenhagen's universal algebra construction, which is relevant e.g. for the BRST/BV formalism. We further develop a homotopy theoretical generalization of algebraic quantum field theory with a particu…
Relying on results of Hopkins-Morel, we show that, for $X$ a quasi-projective variety over a field of characteristic zero, the canonical map $Ω_n(X)\to MGL_{2n,n}'(X)$ is an isomorphism. Here $Ω_*(X)$ is the theory of algebraic cobordism defined by Levine-Morel, and $MGL_{*,*}'$ is the Borel-Moore homology version of the theory of algebraic cobordism defined via the algebraic Thom complex in the Morel-Voevodsky motivic stable homotopy category.
We first discuss how open/closed chord diagrams, both with and without marked points, act on appropriate Hochschild complexes possibly coupled with the two-sided cobar complex. Then, in the main part of the paper, we introduce the notion of a V_k-algebra and obtain suitable homotopy versions.
We describe all operations from a theory A^* obtained from Algebraic Cobordism of M.Levine-F.Morel by change of coefficients to any oriented cohomology theory B^* (in the case of a field of characteristic zero). We prove that such an operation can be reconstructed out of it's action on the products of projective spaces. This reduces the construction of operations to algebra and extends the additive case done earlier, as well as the topological one obtained by T.Kashiwabara. The key new ingredients which permit us to treat the non-additive operations are: the use of "poly-operations" and the "D…
This paper is to construct unstable, Morita stable and stable bivariant algebraic Kasparov $K$-theory spectra of $k$-algebras. These are shown to be homotopy invariant, excisive in each variable $K$-theories. We prove that the spectra represent universal unstable, Morita stable and stable bivariant homology theories respectively.
