24 pages. In this version (hopefully the last), I've added an appendix which explains the classification of quadratic homotopy functors from spectra to spectra (I learned about these ideas from Goodwillie and Kuhn). The classification can be used to give a more concrete description of the main invariant in the paper
For a 1-connected spectrum E, we study the moduli space of suspension spectra which come equipped with a weak equivalence to E. We construct a spectral sequence converging to the homotopy of the moduli space in positive degrees. In the metastable range, we get a complete homotopical classification of the path components of the moduli space. Our main tool is Goodwillie's calculus of homotopy functors.
We study the slice filtration and associated spectral sequence for a family of $RO(C_{p^{n}})$-graded suspensions of the Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum for the constant Mackey functor $\underline{\mathbb Z}$. Since $H\underline{\mathbb Z}$ is the zero slice of the sphere spectrum, this begins an analysis of how one can describe the slices of a suspension in terms of the original slices.
We define and study a homological version of Sullivan's rational de Rham complex for simplicial sets. This new functor can be generalised to simplicial symmetric spectra and in that context it has excellent categorical properties which promise to make a number of interesting applications much more straightforward.
We prove that the stabilization of spaces functor---the classical construction of associating a spectrum to a pointed space by tensoring with the sphere spectrum---satisfies homotopical descent on objects and morphisms. This is the stabilization analog of the Quillen-Sullivan theory main result that the rational chains (resp. cochains) functor participates in a derived equivalence with certain coalgebra (resp. algebra) complexes, after restriction to 1-connected spaces up to rational equivalence. In more detail, we prove that the stabilization of spaces functor participates in a derived equiva…
We study completion with respect to the iterated suspension functor on $\mathcal{O}$-algebras, where $\mathcal{O}$ is a reduced operad in symmetric spectra. This completion is the unit of a derived adjunction comparing $\mathcal{O}$-algebras with coalgebras over the associated iterated suspension-loop homotopical comonad via the iterated suspension functor. We prove that this derived adjunction becomes a derived equivalence when restricted to 0-connected $\mathcal{O}$-algebras and $r$-connected $\tildeΣ^r \tildeΩ^r$-coalgebras. We also consider the dual picture, using iterated loops to build a…
This note provides a reference for some properties of the Thom spectrum $Mξ$ over $ΩΣ\CPi$. Some of this material is used in recent work of Kitchloo and Morava. We determine the $Mξ$-cohomology of $\CPi$ and show that $Mξ^*(\CPi)$ injects into power series over the algebra of non-symmetric functions. We show that $Mξ$ gives rise to a commutative formal group law over the non-commutative ring $π_*Mξ$. We also discuss how $Mξ$ and some real and quaternionic analogues behave with respect to spectra that are related to these Thom spectra by splittings and by maps.
In a companion paper [ABS1] we introduced the stable $\infty$-category of noncommutative CW-spectra, which we denoted $\mathtt{NSp}$. Let $\mathcal{M}$ denote the full spectrally enriched subcategory of $\mathtt{NSp}$ whose objects are the non-commutative suspension spectra of matrix algebras. In [ABS1] we proved that $\mathtt{NSp}$ is equivalent to the $\infty$-category of spectral presheaves on $\mathcal{M}$. In this paper we investigate the structure of $\mathcal{M}$, and derive some consequences regarding the structure of $\mathtt{NSp}$. To begin with, we introduce a rank filtration of $\m…
The recent proof by Madsen and Weiss of Mumford's conjecture on the stable cohomology of moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, was a dramatic example of an important stability theorem about the topology of moduli spaces. In this article we give a survey of families of classifying spaces and moduli spaces where "stability phenomena" occur in their topologies. Such stability theorems have been proved in many situations in the history of topology and geometry, and the payoff has often been quite remarkable. In this paper we discuss classical stability theorems such as the Freudenthal suspension theo…
The note identifies which which couniversal spaces have suspension spectra equivalent to commutative orthogonal ring G-spectra for a compact Lie group G. These are precisely those whose cofamily is closed under passage to finite index subgroups. Equivalently these are the couniversal spaces admitting an action of an equivariant E infinity operad.
The notion of Hochschild homology of a dg algebra admits a natural dualization, the coHochschild homology of a dg coalgebra, introduced in arXiv:0711.1023 by Hess, Parent, and Scott as a tool to study free loop spaces. In this article we prove "agreement" for coHochschild homology, i.e., that the coHochschild homology of a dg coalgebra $C$ is isomorphic to the Hochschild homology of the dg category of appropriately compact $C$-comodules, from which Morita invariance of coHochschild homology follows. Generalizing the dg case, we define the topological coHochschild homology (coTHH) of coalgebra …
The Goodwillie derivatives of the identity functor on pointed spaces form an operad in spectra. Adapting a definition of Behrens, we introduce mod 2 homology operations for algebras over this operad and prove these operations account for all the mod 2 homology of free algebras on suspension spectra of simply-connected spaces.
We develop homotopical algebraic geometry (see math.AG/0207028) in the special context where the base symmetric monoidal model category is the category S of spectra, i.e. what might be called, after Waldhausen, ``brave new algebraic geometry''. We discuss various model topologies on the model category of commutative algebras in S, the associated theories of geometric S-stacks (a geometric S-stack being an analog of Artin notion of algebraic stack in Algebraic Geometry), and finally show how to define global moduli spaces of associative ring spectra structures and a moduli space related to topo…
We show that the motivic spectrum representing algebraic $K$-theory is a localization of the suspension spectrum of $\mathbb{P}^\infty$, and similarly that the motivic spectrum representing periodic algebraic cobordism is a localization of the suspension spectrum of $BGL$. In particular, working over $\mathbb{C}$ and passing to spaces of $\mathbb{C}$-valued points, we obtain new proofs of the topological versions of these theorems, originally due to the second author. We conclude with a couple of applications: first, we give a short proof of the motivic Conner-Floyd theorem, and second, we sho…
We exhibit a relationship between motivic homotopy theory and spectral algebraic geometry, based on the motivic $τ$-deformation picture of Gheorghe, Isaksen, Wang, Xu. More precisely, we identify cellular motivic spectra over $\mathbf C$ with ind-coherent sheaves (in a slightly non-standard sense) on a certain spectral stack $τ_{\ge 0}(\mathcal M_\mathrm{FG}^\mathrm{or})$. The latter is the connective cover of the non-connective spectral stack $\mathcal M_\mathrm{FG}^\mathrm{or}$, the moduli stack of oriented formal groups, which we have introduced previously and studied in connection with chr…
In this note, we use Curtis's algorithm and the Lambda algebra to compute the algebraic Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence of the suspension spectrum of $\mathbb{R}P^\infty$ with the aid of a computer, which gives us its Adams $E_2$-page in the range of $t<72$. We also compute the transfer map on the Adams $E_2$-pages. These data are used in our computations of the stable homotopy groups of $\mathbb{R}P^\infty$ in [6] and of the stable homotopy groups of spheres in [7].
In this paper we describe and continue the study begun by the author, Jones, and Segal, of the homotopy theory that underlies Floer theory. In that paper the authors addressed the question of realizing a Floer complex as the celluar chain complex of a CW -spectrum or pro-spectrum, where the attaching maps are determined by the compactified moduli spaces of connecting orbits. The basic obstructions to the existence of this realization are the smoothness of these moduli spaces, and the existence of compatible collections of framings of their stable tangent bundles. In this note we describe a gen…
In this paper we identify conditions under which the cohomology $H^*(ΩMξ;\k)$ for the loop space $ΩMξ$ of the Thom space $Mξ$ of a spherical fibration $ξ\downarrow B$ can be a polynomial ring. We use the Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence which has a particularly simple form when the Euler class $e(ξ)\in H^n(B;\k)$ vanishes, or equivalently when an orientation class for the Thom space has trivial square. As a consequence of our homological calculations we are able to show that the suspension spectrum $Σ^\inftyΩMξ$ has a local splitting replacing the James splitting of $ΣΩMξ$ when $Mξ$ is a susp…
We construct a map from the suspension $G$-spectrum $Σ_G^\infty M$ of a smooth compact $G$-manifold to the equivariant $A$-theory spectrum $A_G(M)$, and we show that its fiber is, on fixed points, a wedge of stable $h$-cobordism spectra. This map is constructed as a map of spectral Mackey functors, which is compatible with tom Dieck style splitting formulas on fixed points. In order to synthesize different definitions of the suspension $G$-spectrum as a spectral Mackey functor, we present a new perspective on spectral Mackey functors, viewing them as multifunctors on indexing categories for "r…
This paper starts with an exposition of descent-theoretic techniques in the study of Picard groups of $\mathbf{E}_{\infty}$-ring spectra, which naturally lead to the study of Picard spectra. We then develop tools for the efficient and explicit determination of differentials in the associated descent spectral sequences for the Picard spectra thus obtained. As a major application, we calculate the Picard groups of the periodic spectrum of topological modular forms $TMF$ and the non-periodic and non-connective $Tmf$. We find that $\mathrm{Pic} (TMF)$ is cyclic of order 576, generated by the suspe…
The notion of a K3 spectrum is introduced in analogy with that of an elliptic spectrum and it is shown that there are "enough" K3 spectra in the sense that for all K3 surfaces X in a suitable moduli stack of K3 surfaces there is a K3 spectrum whose underlying ring is isomorphic to the local ring of the moduli stack in X with respect to the étale topology, and similarly for the ring of formal functions on the formal deformation space.
We prove a recognition principle for motivic infinite P1-loop spaces over a perfect field. This is achieved by developing a theory of framed motivic spaces, which is a motivic analogue of the theory of E-infinity-spaces. A framed motivic space is a motivic space equipped with transfers along finite syntomic morphisms with trivialized cotangent complex in K-theory. Our main result is that grouplike framed motivic spaces are equivalent to the full subcategory of motivic spectra generated under colimits by suspension spectra. As a consequence, we deduce some representability results for suspensio…
We give lower bounds for the rank of the first homology group of the real points of the Deligne-Mumford-Knudsen compactification of stable n-pointed curves of genus 0,which coincides with the Chow quotient (RP^1)^n//PGL(2,R).The study has connections with spectral geometry and combinatorics.