For every ring R, we present a pair of model structures on the category of pro-spaces. In the first, the weak equivalences are detected by cohomology with coefficients in R. In the second, the weak equivalences are detected by cohomology with coefficients in all R-modules (or equivalently by pro-homology with coefficients in R). In the second model structure, fibrant replacement is essentially just the Bousfield-Kan R-tower. When R = Z/p, the first homotopy category is equivalent to a homotopy theory defined by Morel but has some convenient categorical advantages.
We study profinite completion of spaces in the model category of profinite spaces and construct a rigidification of the completion functors of Artin-Mazur and Sullivan which extends also to non-connected spaces. Another new aspect is an equivariant profinite completion functor and equivariant fibrant replacement functor for a profinite group acting on a space. This is crucial for applications where, for example, Galois groups are involved, or for profinite Teichmueller theory where equivariant completions are applied. Along the way we collect and survey the most important known results about p…
We prove structural theorems for computing the completion of a G-spectrum at the augmentation ideal of the Burnside ring of a finite group G. First we show that a G-spectrum can be replaced by a spectrum obtained by allowing only isotropy groups of prime power order without changing the homotopy type of the completion. We then show that this completion can be computed as a homotopy colimit of completions of spectra obtained by further restricting isotropy to one prime at a time, and that these completions can be computed in terms of completion at a prime. As an application, we show that the sp…
We prove that completion at a set of primes preserves homotopy fibre squares of connected nilpotent spaces. As a consequence, we deduce the Hasse fracture square associated to a connected nilpotent space. Along the way, we give a quick proof of the well-known result that if the base of a fibre sequence has the homotopy type of a CW complex, then the total space has the homotopy type of a CW complex iff each fibre does.
The category of I-spaces is the diagram category of spaces indexed by finite sets and injections. This is a symmetric monoidal category whose commutative monoids model all E-infinity spaces. Working in the category of I-spaces enables us to simplify and strengthen previous work on group completion and units of E-infinity spaces. As an application we clarify the relation to Gamma-spaces and show how the spectrum of units associated with a commutative symmetric ring spectrum arises through a chain of Quillen adjunctions.
We construct a new spectrum of units for a commutative symmetric ring spectrum that detects the difference between a periodic ring spectrum and its connective cover. It is augmented over the sphere spectrum. The homotopy cofiber of its augmentation map is a non-connected delooping of the usual spectrum of units whose bottom homotopy group detects periodicity. Our approach builds on the graded variant of E-infinity spaces introduced in joint work with Christian Schlichtkrull. We construct a group completion model structure for graded E-infinity spaces and use it to exhibit our spectrum of units…
Working in the Arone-Ching framework for homotopical descent, it follows that the Bousfield-Kan completion map with respect to integral homology is the unit of a derived adjunction. We prove that this derived adjunction, comparing spaces with coalgebra complexes over the associated integral homology comonad, via integral chains, can be turned into a derived equivalence by replacing spaces with the full subcategory of simply connected spaces. In particular, this provides an integral chains characterization of the homotopy type of simply connected spaces.
We study the questions of how to recognize when a simplicial set X is of the form X=map(Y,A) for a given space A, and how to recover Y from X, if so. A full answer is provided when A=K(R,n), for $R=\mathbb{F}_p$ or $\mathbb{Q}$, in terms of a mapping algebra structure on X (defined in terms of product-preserving simplicial functors out of a certain simplicially-enriched sketch). In addition, when A is a suitable infinite loop space for a suitable connective ring spectrum, we can recover Y from map(Y,A) given such a mapping algebra structure. Most importantly, our methods provide a new way of l…
Let $R=\mathbb{F}_p$ or a field of characteristic $0$. For each $R$-good topological space $Y$, we define a collection of higher cohomology operations which, together with the cohomology algebra $H^*(Y;R)$ suffice to determine $Y$ up to $R$-completion. We also provide a similar collection of higher cohomology operations which determine when two maps $f_0,f_1: Z\to Y$ between $R$-good spaces(inducing the same algebraic homomorphism $H^*(Y;R)\to H^*(Z;R)$) are $R$-equivalent.
We give an overview of five rationalization theories for spaces (Bousfield-Kan's $\mathbb Q$-completion; Sullivan's rationalization; Bousfield's homology rationalization; Casacuberta-Peschke's $Ω$-rationalization; Gómez-Tato-Halperin-Tanré's $π_1$-fiberwise rationalization) that extend the classical rationalization of simply connected spaces. We also give an overview of the corresponding rationalization theories for groups ($\mathbb Q$-completion; $H\mathbb Q$-localization; Baumslag rationalization) that extend the classical Malcev completion.
The Sullivan construction associates to each path connected space or connected simplicial set, $X$, a special cdga, its minimal model $(\land V,d)$, and to each such cdga $\land W$ its geometric realisation $\langle \land W\rangle$. The composite of these constructions is the Sullivan completion, $X_{\mathbb Q}$, of $X$. In this paper we give a survey of the main properties of Sullivan completions, and include explicit examples.
The purpose of this note is to clarify some details in McDuff and Segal's proof of the group-completion theorem and to generalize both this and the homology fibration criterion of McDuff to homology with twisted coefficients. This will be used in forthcoming work to identify the limiting homology of "oriented" configuration spaces, which doubly cover the classical configuration spaces of distinct unordered points in a manifold.
In this note we show that a $p$-complete nilpotent space $X$ has a $p$-complete suspension spectrum if and only if its homotopy groups $π_*X$ are bounded $p$-torsion. In contrast, if $π_*X$ is not all bounded $p$-torsion, we locate uncountable rational vector spaces in the integral homology and in the stable homotopy groups of $X$. To prove this, we establish a homological criterion for $p$-completeness of connective spectra. Moreover, we illustrate our results by studying the stable homotopy groups of $K(\mathbb{Z}_p,n)$ via Goodwillie calculus.
The Segal conjecture describes stable maps between classifying spaces in terms of (virtual) bisets for the finite groups in question. Along these lines, we give an algebraic formula for the p-completion functor applied to stable maps between classifying spaces purely in terms of fusion data and Burnside modules.
We prove an equivariant localization theorem over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero for smooth quotient stacks by reductive groups $X/G$ in the setting of derived loop spaces as well as Hochschild homology and its cyclic variants. We show that the derived loop spaces of the stack $X/G$ and its classical $z$-fixed point stack $π_0(X^z)/G^z$ become equivalent after completion along a semisimple parameter $[z] \in G//G$, implying the analogous statement for Hochschild and cyclic homology of the dg category of perfect complexes $\text{Perf}(X/G)$. We then prove an analogue of th…
Given an operad A of topological spaces, we consider A-monads in a topological category C . When A is an A-infinity-operad, any A-monad K : C -> C can be thought of as a monad up to coherent homotopies. We define the completion functor with respect to an A-infinity-monad and prove that it is an A-infinity-monad itself.
We show that the twisted K-theory of the classifying space of a p-local finite group is isomorphic to the completion of the Grothendieck group of twisted representations of the fusion system with respect to the augmentation ideal of the representation ring of the fusion system. We use this result to compute the K-theory of the Ruiz-Viruel exotic 7-local finite groups.
