Hello everybody, This is the first installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Feedback is welcomed. Instructions for subscribing or unsubscribing to this list, as well as getting the papers on the list, are at the end of this message. Please tell me if I am using an out-of-date e-mail address for you. Papers uploaded to Hopf between Dec. 20, 1994 and Jan. 1, 1995: 1. Hopkins-Ravenel-Wilson/moravaktheory Morava Hopf algebras and spaces K(n) equivalent to finite Postnikov systems, by Michael J. Hopkins, Douglas C. Ravenel, and W. Stephen Wilson. We have three somewhat independent sets of results. Our first results are a mixed blessing. We show that Morava $K$-theories don't see $k$-invariants for homotopy commutative $H$-spaces which are finite Postnikov systems, i.e. for those with only a finite number of homotopy groups. Since $k$-invariants are what holds the space together, this suggests that Morava $K$-theories will not be of much use around such spaces. On the other hand, this gives us the Morava $K$-theory of a wide class of spaces which is bound to be useful. In particular, this work allows the recent work in \cite{RWY} to be applied to compute the Brown-Peterson cohomology of all such spaces. Their Brown-Peterson cohomology turns out to be all in even degrees (as is their Morava $K$-theory) and flat as a $BP^{*}$ module for the category of finitely presented $BP^{*}(BP)$ modules. Thus these examples have extremely nice Brown-Peterson cohomology which is as good as a Hopf algebra. Our second set of results produces a large family of spaces which behave as if they were finite Postnikov systems from the point of view of Morava $K$-theory even though they are not. This allows us to apply the above results to an even wider class of spaces than finite Postnikov systems. These examples come from spaces in omega spectra with certain properties. There are many well known examples with these properties. In particular, we compute the $K(n)$ homology of all the spaces in the $\Omega$-spectra for $P(q)$ and $k(q)$ where $q > n$. In order to prove our results on finite Postnikov systems we need our third set of results; a beginning of an analysis of bicommutative Hopf algebras over $K(n)_*$. 2. JPMay/completions Completions in algebra and topology by J.P.C. Greenlees and J.P. May Abstract We discuss algebraic completions at ideals and localizations away from ideals in a commutative ring, and we use the framework of ``Modern foundations for stable homotopy theory'' to show how this algebra can be mimicked topologically for ideals in the coefficient ring of an E infinity ring spectrum. The algebraic fact that completion is not exact forces us to work with the derived functors of completion, and we explain how topological completions of spectra mimic an algebraic description of these derived functors in terms of ``local homology groups''. These constructs are relevant to cohomology theories. The dual constructs relevant to homology theories involve Grothendieck's ``local cohomology groups''. There are concomitant notions of ``\v{C}ech homology and cohomology groups'', which fit into algebraic fibre sequences that we mimic by fibre sequences of spectra. These lead to a new theory of localizations of spectra away from ideals. When specialized to MU-modules, these localizations shed light on the chromatic filtration and the chromatic convergence theorem. Contents: Algebraic definitions: local and \v{C}ech cohomology and homology Connections with derived functors; calculational tools Topological analogues of the algebraic definitions Completion at ideals and Bousfield localization Localization away from ideals and Bousfield localization The specialization to ideals in $MU_*$ This paper is to appear in ``The handbook of Algebraic Topology'', edited by Ioan James. 3. JPMay/derived_categories Derived categories in algebra and topology by J.P. May Abstract An analogy between the derived category of modules over a commutative ring and the stable homotopy category of spectra is elaborated to a much closer analogy between the derived category of E infinity modules over an E infinity algebra and the derived category of E infinity module spectra over an E infinity ring spectrum. In both the algebraic and topological contexts, these new derived categories allow one to study ``modules up to homotopy'' over ``commutative algebras up to homotopy'' in much the same way that one studies ordinary modules in classical homological algebra. There are many applications in algebraic topology, algebraic K-theory, and algebraic geometry. This expository note explains the ideas and gives a brief summary of the relevant definitions in both contexts. This paper will appear in the proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Topology, Trieste, 1993. 4. JPMay/equivariant_theory Equivariant stable homotopy theory by J.P.C. Greenlees and J.P. May Abstract After sketching the basic concepts of space level equivariant homotopy theory, we introduce the basic ideas and constructions of spectrum level equivariant homotopy theory, combining earlier work of Lewis and May with the framework of ``Modern foundations for stable homotopy theory''. We then illustrate ideas by explaining the fundamental localization and completion theorems that relate equivariant to nonequivariant homology and cohomology. A key idea is that ``completion theorems'' in cohomology are sometimes consequences of results that deserve to be called ``localization theorems'' in homology. For example, for finite groups G, the Atiyah-Segal completion theorem that computes the K cohomology of BG is a consequence of a localization theorem that computes the K homology of BG. We describe a recent result that gives the same kind of localization and completion theorems for the spectrum MU(G) that represents a stabilized version of equivariant complex cobordism and for all module spectra over MU(G). For example, this applies to equivariant versions of Brown-Peterson and Morava homology and cohomology theories. We also discuss equivariant cohomotopy, a theory for which the cohomological completion theorem is true, by Carlsson's proof of the Segal conjecture, but the homological localization theorem is false. Contents: Equivariant homotopy The equivariant stable homotopy category Homology and cohomology theories and fixed point spectra Change of groups and duality theory Mackey functors, $K(M,n)'s$ and $RO(G)$-graded cohomology Philosophy of localization and completion theorems How to prove localization and completion theorems Examples of localization and completion theorems This paper is to appear in ``The handbook of Algebraic Topology'', edited by Ioan James. 5. JPMay/modern_foundations Modern foundations for stable homotopy theory by A.D. Elmendorf, I. Kriz, and J.P. May} Abstract We describe the foundations of stable homotopy theory to be established in our monograph ``Rings, algebras, and modules in stable homotopy theory'', in preparation, which will have Michael Mandell as a fourth author. Contents: Spectra and the stable homotopy category Smash products and twisted half-smash products The category of S-modules and its derived category The smash product of S-modules A infinity and E infinity ring spectra and their modules The smash product of R-modules and function R-modules Tor and Ext in topology and algebra Universal coefficient and Kunneth spectral sequences Algebraic constructions in the derived category of R-modules Algebra structures on localizations and on quotients by ideals The specialization to MU-modules and algebras The paper is already slightly obsolete, in that the definitive treatment will be based on a modified category of S-modules with a smash product that is not only commutative and associative but also unital. This paper is to appear in ``The handbook of Algebraic Topology'', edited by Ioan James. 6. JPMay/operads_motives Operads, algebras, modules, and motives by Igor Kriz and J.P. May Abstract With motivation from algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, and string theory, we study various topics in differential homological algebra. The work is divided into five largely independent Parts: Definitions and examples of operads and their actions Partial algebraic structures and conversion theorems Derived categories from a topological point of view Rational derived categories and mixed Tate motives Derived categories of modules over $E_{\infty}$ algebras In differential algebra, operads are systems of parameter chain complexes for multiplication on various types of differential graded algebras ``up to homotopy", for example commutative algebras, n-Lie algebras, n-braid algebras, etc. Our primary focus is the development of the concomitant theory of modules up to homotopy and the study of both classical derived categories of modules over DGA's and derived categories of modules up to homotopy over DGA's up to homotopy. Examples of such derived categories provide the appropriate setting for one approach to mixed Tate motives in algebraic geometry, both rational and integral. This monograph will appear in Asterisque. -------------------------- Hello everybody, This is the second installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Messages: 1. If you got this message from me (hovey---math.mit.edu) then you are currently subscribed. I am sure that not every one who wants to be on this list is on it, so I encourage subscribers to forward this to others who are not on it and are interested. Current graduate students in particular should know about it. 2. Last time the papers in the JPMay directory were not actually ready to be downloaded. They are now. I will try to prevent this kind of mistake from happening in the future. 3. The WWW web interface for the archive has improved. Open the URL http://hopf.math.purdue.edu/pub/hopf.html using Lynx, Mosaic, or Netscape. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between Jan. 2 and Jan. 18, 1995: 1. /pub/Nakano-Palmieri/nakano-palmieri.dvi D.K. Nakano and J.H. Palmieri, Support varieties for the Steenrod algebra In this paper we study the cohomological varieties associated to the finite-dimensional sub-Hopf algebras of the Steenrod algebra. A stratification theorem like the Quillen/Avrunin-Scott stratification theorem for finite groups is proven. With this stratification one can then invoke results from restricted Lie algebra cohomology to study these cohomological varieties. As a result, we get a description of the cohomology of these Hopf algebras, modulo nilpotence; we also prove a conjecture of Margolis about $P^{s}_{t}$-homology of a tensor product of modules. 2. /pub/Palmieri/palmieri-quasi.dvi A note on the cohomology of finite dimensional cocommutative Hopf algebras John H. Palmieri In the context of finite dimensional cocommutative Hopf algebras, we prove versions of various group cohomology results: the Quillen-Venkov theorem on detecting nilpotence in group cohomology, Chouinard's theorem on determining whether a $kG$-module is projective by restricting to elementary abelian $p$-subgroups of $G$, and Quillen's theorem which identifies the cohomology of $G$, ``modulo nilpotent elements.'' This last result is only proved for graded connected Hopf algebras. ----------------- Hello everybody, This is the third installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. New Message: Those with a World-Wide Web browser will notice some changes at http://hopf.math.purdue.edu/pub/hopf.html . In particular, there is now a link to a home page for the Purdue math department, which list seminars and colloquia happening there. There are also some conference announcements on the hopf.html page, including the Great Lakes K-theory conference in March, the Midwest topology seminar in February, the Lehigh conference in June, and the SUNY Geometry festival in April. There is also a link to the K-theory calendar of events, maintained by Dan Grayson at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. 2. If you have a Mac, you may be interested in /pub/macweb1.00A3.sea.hqx, which a BinHexed Stuffit archive of MacWeb, a WWW-browser similar to Mosaic and Netscape. Old message: If you got this message from me (hovey---math.mit.edu) then you are currently subscribed. I am sure that not every one who wants to be on this list is on it, so I encourage subscribers to forward this to others who are not on it and are interested. Current graduate students in particular should know about it. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between Jan. 18 and Feb. 2, 1995: 1. /pub/Ravenel-Wilson/pnhopfring.dvi \title{The Hopf ring for $P(n)$} \author{Douglas C. Ravenel \thanks{Partially supported by the National Science Foundation} \\University of Rochester\\Rochester, New York 14627\\ {\small drav---troi.cc.rochester.edu} \and W. Stephen Wilson \\Johns Hopkins University\\Baltimore, Maryland 21218\\ {\small wsw---math.jhu.edu}} \maketitle \begin{abstract} We show that $E_*(\pn{n}{*})$, the $E$-homology of the $\Omega$-spectrum for $P(n)$, is an $E_*$ free Hopf ring for $E$ a complex oriented theory with $I_n$ sent to $0$. This covers the cases $P(q)_*(\pn{n}{*})$ and $K(q)_*(\pn{n}{*})$, $q \geq n$. The generators of the Hopf ring are those necessary for the stable result. The motivation for this paper is to show that $P(n)$ satisfies all of the conditions for the machinery of unstable cohomology operations set up in Boardman-Johnson-Wilson. This can then be used to produce splittings analogous to those for $BP$. \end{abstract} 2. /pub/Jardine/README (Note from Hovey: Jardine has set up his own home page. I will not be announcing which papers he has there unless he uploads them to Hopf. If you are using a WWW-browser, go to /pub/Jardine and you will see a link to his home page.) If you've got a web browser like mosaic or lynx, go to Jardine's subdirectory on the UWO Math. Dept. WWW server, which is right here.

Alternatively, Jardine's preprints are available by anonymous ftp at jardine.math.uwo.ca in the subdirectory /pub/papers/jardine. ------------------ This is the fourth installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. It seems to me that everyone will have their own home page on the WWW within five years or so. However, not everyone has WWW access at the moment, so please continue putting papers on the Hopf archive even if you do set up your own home page. It would be helpful as well, if you develop your own home page, to put abstracts as well as dvi files there and to make sure to date the papers by time of last modification. Clarence is willing to put a simple html document on the archive with a pointer to your home page, like the one Jardine put on hopf (/pub/Jardine/jardine.html). Don Davis has his own home page now: http://www.lehigh.edu/dmd1/public/www-data/dmd1.html Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between Feb. 3 and Feb. 16, 1995: 1. /pub/Bendersky-DDavis-Mahowald/spn.dvi v1-periodic homotopy groups of Sp(n) Martin Bendersky Donald M. Davis Mark Mahowald In this paper we calculate the 2-primary v1-periodic homotopy groups of the symplectic groups Sp(n). The proof utilizes new methods of calculating the unstable Novikov spectral sequence. One corollary is that some homotopy group of Sp(n) contains an element of order 2^{2n-1} . 2. /pub/Bousfield-DDavis/bous.dvi The unstable Adams spectral sequence of $SO$ and $U$, and a splitting of unstable Ext groups by A.K. Bousfield and Donald M. Davis We construct algebraic spectral sequences which are conjectured to agree with the unstable Adams spectral sequences for the infinite unitary and special orthogonal groups $U$ and $SO$. A closely related conjecture is that the unstable Ext groups of $H^*(\Sigma CP^\infty)$ and $H^*(RP^\infty)$ split as direct sums of the unstable Ext groups for their subquotients consisting of classes whose degrees have a fixed number of 1's in their binary expansions. 3. /pub/DDavis/harp.dvi Equivalences of some v1-telescopes DONALD M. DAVIS Abstract.Certain naturally occurring spaces have isomorphic v1-periodic homotopy groups. To each is associated a mapping telescope whose ordi- nary homotopy groups equal the v1-periodic homotopy groups of the space. It is proved that the mapping telescopes of the spaces are homotopy equivalent. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015 4. /pub/DDavis/survey.dvi Computing v1 -periodic homotopy groups of spheres and some compact Lie groups Donald M. Davis Contents 1.Introduction 2.Definition of v1-periodic homotopy groups 3.The isomorphism v11ss (S2n+1) ss v11sss2n1 (Bqn) 4.J-homology 5.The v1-periodic homotopy groups of spectra 6.The v1-periodic UNSS for spheres 7.v1-periodic homotopy groups of SU(n) 8.v1-periodic homotopy groups of some Lie groups References HANDBOOK OF ALGEBRAIC TOPOLOGY Edited by I.M. James 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved 5. /pub/DDavis-Yang/huaj.dvi Tractable formulas for $v_{1}$-periodic homotopy groups of $SU(n)$ when $n \leq p^{2}-p+1$. by Donald M. Davis and Huajian Yang Let $p$ be a fixed odd prime. In \cite{Davis}, it was proved that for $\epsilon=0$ and 1, $v_1^{-1}\pi_{2k-\epsilon}(SU(n))$ has order $p^{e(k,n)}$, where $e(k,n)=\min\{\nu_p(j!S(k,j)):n\le j\le k\}$, with $S(k,j)$ the Stirling number of the second kind. In this paper, we give a more tractable formula for $e(k,n)$ when $n\le p^2-p+1$ by calculating the unstable Novikov spectral sequence. We also determine the abelian group structure when $\epsilon=1$; it was known to be cyclic when $\epsilon=0$. 6. /pub/Hovey-Sadofsky/tate-bousfield-class.dvi Tate Cohomology Lowers Chromatic Bousfield Classes By Mark Hovey and Hal Sadofsky Let $G$ be a finite group. We use the results of \cite{greenlees-sadofsky} to show that the Tate homology of $E(n)$-local spectra with respect to $G$ produces $E(n-1)$ local spectra. We also show that the Bousfield class of the Tate homology of $L_{n}X$ (for $X$ finite) is the same as that of $L_{n-1}X$. To be precise, recall that Tate homology is a functor from $G$-spectra to $G$-spectra. To produce a functor $P_{G}$ from spectra to spectra, we look at a spectrum as a naive $G$-spectrum on which $G$ acts trivially, apply Tate homology, and take $G$-fixed points. This composite is the functor we shall actually study, and we'll prove that $\langle P_{G}(L_{n}X)\rangle = \langle L_{n-1}X \rangle$ when $X$ is finite. When $G=\Sigma_{p}$, the symmetric group on $p$ letters, this is related to a conjecture of Hopkins and Mahowald (usually framed in terms of Mahowald's functor $RP_{-\infty}(-)).$ ------------------------ This is the fifth installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between Feb. 17 and Mar. 9, 1995: 1. /pub/Aguade-Broto-Notbohm/cookemod2.abstract A mod two analogue of a conjecture of Cooke by J. Aguad\'e, C. Broto and D. Notbohm Abstract: We study spaces whose mod 2 cohomology has the form: Poly(x)\otimes Exterior(Sq^1x). We prove: Theorem: There is a space X with this cohomology if and only if x has degree 2, 4 or 8. The 'only if' part can be considered as the mod 2 version of a conjecture of Cooke. Its proof is similar to the proof for old primes (contained in Cooke.dvi) but one should be slightly more careful in small degrees. The most interesting goal of this paper is probably the construction of what we think to be remarkable space X with H*(X;F_2) = F_2[x_8] \otimes E(Sq^1x_8) 2. /pub/Boardman/stabop.abstract DVI FILE: stabop.dvi TITLE: Stable operations in generalized cohomology AUTHOR: J. Michael Boardman TO APPEAR: Handbook of Algebraic Topology, ed. I.M.James, Elsevier (Amsterdam, 1995). We describe the structure of the stable operations on E-cohomology following Adams, in a manner that generalizes to unstable operations. The appropriate context is the language of comonads and coalgebras over a comonad. The necessary category theory is developed in detail. Five examples are presented: ordinary mod p cohomology, unitary cobordism MU, Brown- Peterson cohomology BP, complex K-theory KU, and Morava K-theory K(n). 3. /pub/Boardman-Johnson-Wilson/bjw.abs DVI FILE: bjw.dvi TITLE: Unstable operations in generalized cohomology AUTHORS: J. Michael Boardman, David Copeland Johnson, W. Stephen Wilson TO APPEAR: Handbook of Algebraic Topology, ed. I.M.James, Elsevier (Amsterdam, 1995). We describe the structure of the unstable operations on E-cohomology in terms of comonads, in the style of the companion paper on stable operations. There are two variants, depending on whether we consider only the additive operations, or all unstable operations. For practical use, we unpack the comonad information and express it in terms of Hopf rings. Five examples are discussed: ordinary mod p cohomology, unitary cobordism MU, Brown-Peterson BP-cohomology, complex K-theory KU, and Morava K-theory K(n). We give two applications to BP-cohomology. The first shows that the presence of unstable operations imposes dimensional restrictions on the Landweber filtration of the BP-cohomology of a finite complex. The second constructs idempotent operations in degree k that recover the known unstable splittings of BP-cohomology. 4. /pub/Shipley/convergence.new (This is a significantly revised version of a paper already on the archive. I reproduce here an abstract followed by a brief description of the changes--Mark.) We produce new convergence conditions for the homology spectral sequence of a cosimplicial space by requiring that each codegree of the cosimplicial space has finite type mod $p$ homology. Specifically, we find conditions which ensure strong convergence if and only if the total space has $p$-good components. We also find exotic convergence conditions for cosimplicial spaces not covered by the strong convergence conditions. These results give new convergence conditions, for example, for the Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence and for mapping spaces. This new version contains several generalizations of the old results. Specifically, the requirement of a non-empty total space is no longer needed. Also, Corollary 10.3 is a new strong convergence result requiring p-complete codegrees instead of p-nilpotent codegrees. Of course, there have been other minor changes and corrections. 5. /pub/MWeiss/betticurv.abstract Curvature and Finite Domination, by Michael Weiss. Abstract. Gromov obtained an upper bound on the Betti numbers of a closed Riemannian manifold in terms of a lower bound on the sectional curvature. It is shown that Gromov's upper bound is an upper bound on the minimum number of cells in CW-spaces dominating the manifold. 6. /pub/MWeiss/embed.abstract Calculus of Embeddings, by Michael Weiss Abstract. This is a study of spaces of smooth embeddings emb(M,N) in the spirit of immersion theory, and in the spirit of "Calculus". It leads to very efficient calculations of emb(M,N) when dim(M) is small compared to dim(N). Immersion theory appears as the "first derivative" of embedding theory, and the game is to find the higher derivatives, i.e. the "Taylor Series". The Taylor series converges when the codimension, dim(N)-dim(M), is at least 3. This follows from a multiple disjunction lemma proved recently by Goodwillie (not in his thesis). It's an announcement - no proofs. 7. /pub/MWeiss/ortho.abstract Orthogonal Calculus, by Michael Weiss Abstract. Orthogonal calculus is a way to explore spaces equipped with a filtration indexed by the finite dimensional linear subspaces V of an infinite dimensional euclidean space. Example: BO, filtered by subspaces BO(V), or BTOP, filtered by subspaces BTOP(V). Those who like to split big spaces may be interested, and the hardy ones who still like surgery theory may also be interested, since many of the moduli spaces in surgery theory come with such a filtration. Orthogonal calculus is modelled on Goodwillie calculus: Among the spaces equipped with a filtration of the type above, some are "polynomial of degree n", and the game is to approximate arbitrary ones by polynomial ones (Taylor approximation). First order approximations in orthogonal calculus have been used heavily by Bruce Williams and me in papers related to surgery. They look like generalized total Stiefel-Whitney classes, and second order approximations look like generalized total Pontryagin classes plus generalized total Stiefel-Whitney classes. ------------ This is the sixth installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Note that there is a new directory, /pub/pictures, containing pictures of topologists in gif and jpeg format. You need some kind of viewing program to see these, like xv (Unix), lview.exe (Windows), or JPEGView (Mac). With Netscape or Mosaic you can just click on them by first going to the usual spot, http://hopf.math.purdue.edu/pub/hopf.html . The file INDEX gives some information about who is in the pictures. Also note that the papers by J. P. May and coauthors announced in the first installment of this list are now in more appropriate directories. That is, there are now directories like Kriz-May and Greenlees-May, whereas before they were all in JPMay. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between Mar. 10 and May 3, 1995: 1. /pub/RBruner/newQ8.abstract Real connective $K$-theory and the quaternion group Dilip Bayen and Robert R. Bruner Mathematics Department Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan, 48202 dbayen---math.wayne.edu rrb---math.wayne.edu April, 1995 Let ko be the real connective K theory spectrum. We compute ko_*BG and ko^*BG for groups G whose Sylow 2-subgroup is quaternion of order 8. Using this we compute the coefficients t(ko)^G_* of the G fixed points of the Tate spectrum t(ko) for G = Sl_2(3) and G = Q_8. The results provide a counterexample to the optimistic conjecture of Greenlees and May [Generalized Tate Cohomology, Conj 13.4], by showing, in particular, that t(ko)^G is not a wedge of Eilenberg-Maclane spectra, as occurs for groups of prime order. --------- This is the seventh installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between May 3 and May 13, 1995: 1. /pub/Blanc/Blanc_hspace.abstract % % Homotopy operations and the obstructions to being an H-space % David Blanc % % November 14, 1994 % The question of whether a given space X possesses such an H-space structure has been studied from a variety of viewpoints. Here we address this question from the aspect of homotopy operations. This is done by reformulating the question in terms of the realizability of a certain morphism of abelian \Pi-algebras, which translates in turn (using the author's obstruction theory for realization of such morphisms) into the requirement that a certain sequence of higher homotopy operations, taking values in \pi_{\star} X, vanishes coherently. We illustrate the theory by a couple of examples: it can be used to calculate the obstruction to CP^2 being an H-space rationally; we also show that the "torsion Whitehead product" (which we define) may be thought of as ``the first higher order obstruction'' to being an H-space, and give another example. 2. /pub/Blanc/Blanc_loop.abstract % % Loop spaces and homotopy operations % David Blanc % % April 27, 1995 % We describe two obstruction theories for a given topological space X to be a loop space, both defined in terms of higher homotopy operations: First, we explain how an H-space structure on X can be used to define the action of the primary homotopy operations on the shifted homotopy groups \pi_{\star-1} X (which are isomorphic to \pi_{\star} Y if X\simeq\Omega Y). \ This action will behave properly with respect to composition of operations if X is homotopy-associative, and will lift to a topological action of the monoid of all maps between spheres if and only if X is a loop space. The obstructions to having such a topological action may be stated in terms of the author's obstruction theories for realizing Pi-algebras and their morphisms. A more concrete approach, which does not require a given H-space structure on X, yields the following: Theorem A: If X is a CW complex such that all Whitehead products vanish in \pi_{\star} X, then X is homotopy equivalent to a loop space if and only if a certain collection of higher homotopy operations vanish coherently. The higher homotopy operations in question depend only on maps between wedges of spheres, and take value in homotopy groups of spheres. They are constructed by means of a certain collection of convex polyhedra which may be of independent interest. 3. /pub/Blanc/model.abstract % % New Model Categories from Old % David Blanc % % (revision: January 25, 1995) % Model categories, first introduced by Quillen, have proved useful in a number of areas - most notably in his treatment of rational homotopy, and in defining homology and other derived functors in non-abelian categories. From a homotopy theorist's point of view, one interesting example of such non-abelian derived functors is the E^2-term of the mod p unstable Adams spectral sequence of Bousfield and Kan. They identify this E^2-term as a sort of Ext in the category CA of unstable coalgebras over the mod p Steenrod algebra. The original purpose of this note was to provide an element in this identification which appears to be missing from the literature: namely, an explicit model category structure for the category cCA of cosimplicial coalgebras as above. What one would really like is a model category for arbitrary categories of cosimplicial universal coalgebras, analogous to Quillen's treatment of simplicial universal algebras, which is based on Quillen's ``small object argument'', and implicitly uses a procedure for transfering model category structures by means of adjoint functors (in the direction of the left adjoint; the procedure is made explicit in the paper). Unfortunately, Quillen's procedure cannot be dualized, in the categorical sense. The reason is essentially set-theoretic: more can be said about maps into a sequential colimit of sets than about maps out of a sequential limit (and thus, for example, colim is exact, for R-modules, while lim is not). Therefore, for our purposes we describe alternative (and less elegant) conditions for using adjoint functors to create new model category structures. The dual version then allows us to define model category structures for certain categories of cosimplicial universal coalgebras - including cCA. ======================== 4. /pub/Blanc/towers.abstract % % Colimits for the Pro category of towers of simplicial sets % David Blanc % % January 18, 1995 % The Pro category of towers of spaces (and of other categories) has been studied in several contexts, and used for a variety of applications in homotopy theory, shape theory, geometric topology, and algebraic geometry - as well as in the study of v_n-periodicity in unstable homotopy theory. One problem in the usual version of the Pro category of towers is that, while finite limits and colimits exist, and may be constructed in a straightforward (levelwise) manner, the same does not hold for infinite colimits; and these were needed for the application to v_n-periodicity. The construction presented here embeds a suitable subcategory of the Pro category Tow of towers of simplicial sets in a certain category Net of strict Ind-towers, in which we have explicit constructions for all colimits, as well as finite limits. This category Net can thus be thought of as a cocompletion of the Pro category of towers of spaces. There are other cocomplete categories in which Tow may be embedded - for example, the category of all pro-simplicial sets, or the full category of all inductive systems of towers. One advantage of the approach described here is that one obtains a smaller, and more mangeable, cocompletion, in this special case, and the construction of the colimits may be made quite explicitly. A side effect of our approach is the elimination of certain ``phantom phenomena'' from the Pro category of towers. 5./pub/Elmendorf-Kriz-Mandell-May/ekmm.abstract Title: Rings, modules, and algebras in stable homotopy theory Authors: A. D. Elmendorf, I. Kriz, M. A. Mandell, and J. P. May address: Purdue University Calumet, Hammond IN 46323 email: aelmendo---math.purdue.edu address: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003 email: ikriz---math.lsa.umich.edu address: The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 email: mandell---math.uchicago.edu address: The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 email: may---math.uchicago.edu Let $S$ be the sphere spectrum. We construct an associative, commutative, and unital smash product in a complete and cocomplete category $\sM_S$ of ``$S$-modules'' whose derived category $\sD_S$ is equivalent to the classical stable homotopy category. This allows a simple and algebraically manageable definition of ``$S$-algebras'' and ``commutative $S$-algebras'' in terms of associative, or associative and commutative, products $R\sma_S R \darrow R$. These notions are essentially equivalent to the earlier notions of $A_\infty$ and $E_\infty$ ring spectra, and the older notions feed naturally into the new framework to provide plentiful examples. There is an equally simple definition of $R$-modules in terms of maps $R\sma_S M\darrow M$. When $R$ is commutative, the category $\sM_R$ of $R$-modules also has an associative, commutative, and unital smash product, and its derived category $\sD_R$ has properties just like the stable homotopy category. Working in the derived category $\sD_R$, we construct spectral sequences that specialize to give generalized universal coefficient and K\"{u}nneth spectral sequences. Classical torsion products and Ext groups are obtained by specializing our constructions to Eilenberg-Mac~Lane spectra and passing to homotopy groups, and the derived category of a discrete ring $R$ is equivalent to the derived category of its associated Eilenberg-Mac~Lane $S$-algebra. We also develop a homotopical theory of $R$-ring spectra in $\sD_R$, analogous to the classical theory of ring spectra in the stable homotopy category, and we use it to give new constructions as $MU$-ring spectra of a host of fundamentally important spectra whose earlier constructions were both more difficult and less precise. Working in the module category $\sM_R$, we show that the category of finite cell modules over an $S$-algebra $R$ gives rise to an associated algebraic $K$-theory spectrum $KR$. Specialized to the Eilenberg-Mac~Lane spectra of discrete rings, this recovers Quillen's algebraic $K$-theory of rings. Specialized to suspension spectra $\Sigma^{\infty}(\Omega X)_+$ of loop spaces, it recovers Waldhausen's algebraic $K$-theory of spaces. Replacing our ground ring $S$ by a commutative $S$-algebra $R$, we define $R$-algebras and commutative $R$-algebras in terms of maps $A\sma_R A\darrow A$, and we show that the categories of $R$-modules, $R$-algebras, and commutative $R$-algebras are all topological model categories. We use the model structures to study Bousfield localizations of $R$-modules and $R$-algebras. In particular, we prove that $KO$ and $KU$ are commutative $ko$ and $ku$-algebras and therefore commutative $S$-algebras. We define the topological Hochschild homology $R$-module $THH^R(A;M)$ of $A$ with coefficients in an $(A,A)$-bimodule $M$ and give spectral sequences for the calculation of its homotopy and homology groups. Again, classical Hochschild homology and cohomology groups are obtained by specializing the constructions to Eilenberg-Mac~Lane spectra and passing to homotopy groups. 6. /pub/Green-Leary/extra.abstract Chern classes and extraspecial groups David J. Green and Ian J. Leary djg---math.uchicago.edu leary---mpim-bonn.mpg.de Abstract: The mod-$p$ cohomology ring of the extraspecial $p$-group of exponent~$p$ is studied for odd~$p$. We investigate the subquotient~$ch(G)$ generated by Chern classes modulo the nilradical. The subring of~$ch(G)$ generated by Chern classes of one-dimensional representations was studied by Tezuka and Yagita. The subring generated by the Chern classes of the faithful irreducible representations is a polynomial algebra. We study the interplay between these two families of generators, and obtain some relations between them. ---------- This is the eighth installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. This list is maintained by Mark Hovey (hovey---math.mit.edu). Instructions at the end. Perhaps I should mention that generally I find out about new papers on hopf the day or day after Clarence makes them available. The erratic schedule of this list is due to variability in when people put new papers on the archive. New business: 1. I have decided to distribute this list through Don Davis' topology mailing list. The effect of this on you should be minimal, except that you will receive the other submissions to Don's list as well as my mailings. This means that you should subscribe and unsubscribe through Don, not me. The instructions at the end are suitably revised to reflect this. Let me know your reactions to this, if any. 2. I now have a home page on the world-wide web!!! It contains the back issues of these mailings, and my own papers, as well as some various computer and Emacs-related links. No graphics though. The URL is http://www.mit.edu:8001/afs/athena.mit.edu/user/h/o/hovey/Public/homepage.html Add it to your bookmarks so you don't have to type it more than once! Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between May 13 and July 10, 1995: 1. /pub/DJGreen/m24.abstract Author: David J Green Title : The 3-local cohomology of the Mathieu group M_24 Status: To appear in Glasgow Math. J. Date : Submitted 8th August 1994. Resubmitted 11th November 1994. Abstract: The localisation at the prime 3 of the integral cohomology ring of the Mathieu group $M_{24}$ is calculated. The Chern classes of the Todd representation in $GL_{11} (F_2)$ generate the even-degree part of this ring. The mod-3 cohomology ring is also calculated. [These results have been used by C. B. Thomas to prove that the elliptic cohomology of the classifying space $BM_{24}$ is generated by Chern classes, and is therefore concentrated in even dimensions.] 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 20J06 (primary), 20D08 2. /pub/DJGreen/p5.abstract Author: David J Green Title : Chern classes and extraspecial groups of order $p^5$ Date : 7th June 1995 A presentation is obtained for the Chern subring modulo nilradical of both extraspecial $p$-groups of order $p^5$, for $p$ an odd prime. Moreover, it is proved that, for every extraspecial $p$-group of exponent $p$, the top Chern classes of the irreducible representations do not generate the Chern subring modulo nilradical. Finally, a related question about symplectic invariants is discussed, and solved for $Sp_4 (F_p)$. The main innovation in this work is to consider extraspecial groups as central products, and to partition the maximal elementary abelian subgroups of the central product into those which lift to abelian subgroups of the corresponding direct product, and those which do not. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 20J06 3. /pub/Henderson/Ext_Mon_HA.abstract (I think this is an updated version of a paper that was already on the archive-- Mark) Hopf Algebra Extensions of Monogenic Hopf Algebras Gregory D. Henderson Pennsylvania State University William M. Singer has described a cohomology theory of connected Hopf algebras which classifies extensions of a cocommutative Hopf algebra by a commutative Hopf algebra in much the same way as the cohomology of groups classifies extensions of a group by an abelian group. We compute these cohomology groups for monogenic Hopf algebras, construct an action of the base ring on the cohomology groups in the case of trivial matched pairs, and use these results to further study Singer's cohomology. 4. /pub/Thomason/thomason_SymMon_equals_Spectra.abstract Symmetric monoidal categories model all connective spectra R. W. Thomason The classical infinite loopspace machines in fact induce an equivalence of categories between a localization of the category of symmetric monoidal categories and the stable homotopy category of -1-connective spectra. 5. /pub/Welker-Ziegler-Zivaljevic/compare.abstract Abstract : Comparison Lemmas and Applications for Diagrams of Spaces V. Welker, G.M. Ziegler, R.Zivaljevic We provide a ``toolkit'' of basic lemmas for the comparison of homotopy types of (homotopy) limits of diagrams of spaces over finite partially ordered sets, among them several new ones. In the setting of this paper, we obtain simple inductive proofs that provide explicit homotopy equivalences. (In an appendix we provide the link to the general setting of diagrams of spaces over an arbitrary small category.) We show how this toolkit of old and new diagram lemmas can be used on quite different fields of applications. In this paper we demonstrate this with respect to * the ``generalized homotopy-complementation formula'' by Bj\"orner * the topology of toric varieties (which turn out to be homeomorphic to homotopy limits, and for which the homotopy limit construction provides a suitable spectral sequence), * in the study of homotopy types of arrangements of subspaces, where we establish a new, general combinatorial formula for the homotopy types of ``Grassmannian'' arrangements, and * in the analysis of homotopy types of subgroup complexes. 6. /pub/Wolbert/current.abstract Toward an algebraic classification of module spectra by J. Wolbert Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA Abstract: The category of modules over an $S$-algebra (\Ai\ or \Ei\ ring spectrum) has many of the good properties of the category of spectra. When the homotopy groups of the $S$-algebra in question form a sufficiently nice ring, it is possible to see the deviation of the category of modules over an $S$-algebra from the corresponding algebraic module category. In particular, many algebraic modules are realized as homotopy groups of topological modules over $S$-algebras. Examples studied include real and complex $K$-theory, both connective and periodic. Further, Bousfield localization by a smashing spectrum is shown to yield a category of modules over the localized sphere. For periodic $K$-theory, these methods yield an algebraic criterion to determine when a local spectrum is a module over the $K$-theory $S$-algebra, real or complex. ------- This is the ninth installment of a mailing list of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. This list is maintained by Mark Hovey (hovey---math.mit.edu). Instructions at the end. Papers uploaded to Hopf between July 11 and July 16, 1995: 1. /pub/Hovey-Palmieri-Strickland/axiomatic.abstract Axiomatic Stable Homotopy Theory Mark Hovey, John Palmieri and Neil Strickland We define and investigate a class of categories with formal properties similar to those of the homotopy category of spectra. This class includes suitable versions of the derived category of modules over a commutative ring, or of comodules over a commutative Hopf algebra, and is closed under Bousfield localization. We study various notions of smallness, questions about representability of (co)homology functors, and various kinds of localization. We prove some theorems analogous to those of Hopkins and Smith about detection of nilpotence and classification of thick subcategories. We define the class of Noetherian stable homotopy categories, and investigate their special properties. Finally, we prove that a number of categories occurring in nature (including those mentioned above) satisfy our axioms. (Note from Mark: For a hyperlinked dvi version of this file (for use with xhdvi) see my home page, whose URL is in the instructions at the end). 2. /pub/Kashiwabara-Strickland-PTurner/dlk.abstract The Morava K-Theory Hopf Ring for BP Takuji Kashiwabara, Neil Strickland and Paul Turner Let $K$ be a $p$-local complex-oriented homology theory. The $K$-homology of the even spaces in the $\Omega$-spectrum for $BP$ form a Hopf ring. In~\cite{rawi:hrc} Ravenel and Wilson chararacterise this Hopf ring by a purely algebraic universal property, and also prove that the $K$-homology of each component of each even space is polynomial under the star product. The star-indecomposables in this Hopf ring form an algebra under the circle product. In this paper we take $K$ to be 2-periodic Morava $K$-theory, and study the resulting ring $R$ of indecomposables. In propositions~\ref{pr:pres} and~\ref{pr:iso} we give an algebraic universal property which characterises $R$, and relate this to a better-known description of the stable ring $K_*(BP)$. In theorem~\ref{th:split} we nearly provide a splitting of $R$ as a product of indecomposable factors, each of which is isomorphic modulo nilpotents to $K_*(BP)$. In the case $n=1$, there are no nilpotents and $R$ is the subring of an infinite product of copies of $K_*(BP)$ defined by a certain asymptotic condition; this is proved as theorem~\ref{th:tauiso}. We give a very simple description of the Dyer-Lashof operation on $R$ in these terms. 3. /pub/Strickland/fpfp.abstract Functorial Philosophy for Formal Phenomena Neil Strickland The purpose of this paper is to introduce the ``schematic viewpoint'' in algebraic topology. This seems to be the most natural framework in which to discuss the algebraic structures which arise from complex-oriented cohomology theories. Many of the parts which are original are joint work with Mike Hopkins and Matthew Ando. We give a definition of (formal) schemes which is well adapted to the particular technicalities which arise in the study of Morava K-theory and completed E(n)-theory. We show how to interpret the generalised (co)homology of $CP^\infty$, $Z\times BU$, $B\Sigma_{p^m}$, projective bundles and Thom spaces of complex vector bundles, and various other spaces, using the language of formal group theory. 4. /pub/Strickland/sigma4.abstract Notes on K(B\Sigma_4) at q=4 Neil Strickland In this document we describe the Morava $K$ theory (with $n=p=2$) of $\Sigma_4$ and its subgroups in excruciating detail. We use Chern classes and their transfers as generators, and describe the ring structure and all transfer and restriction maps. Much of the calculation was done using Mathematica. 5. /pub/Strickland/subgp.abstract Finite Subgroups of Formal Groups Neil Strickland In this paper we discuss various moduli problems involving the classification of finite subgroups or related structures on formal groups of finite height. Analogous problems for elliptic curves have of course been widely studied. The moduli spaces which we consider turn out to be surprisingly well-behaved. They are all Cohen-Macaulay, and most of them are smooth. The original motivation for this work came from algebraic topology, in particular the study of power operations in certain homology theories constructed by Morava. I learnt most of what I know about these questions from Mike Hopkins, and a great deal of the theory presented here was developed in discussions with him. See section~\ref{se:at} for a brief discussion of how moduli problems arise in algebraic topology. 6. /pub/Strickland/rme.abstract Rational Morava E-theory and DS^0 Neil Strickland and Paul Turner The extended-power spectrum $DS^0$ has two coproducts and two products, which interact in an intricate way. Given an $H_\infty$ ring spectrum $E$, the resulting algebraic structure on $E^*(DS^0)$ gives a framework in which to encode information about power operations. (However, we will not study power operations in this paper). Fix a prime $p$ and an integer $n>0$. We shall take $E$ to be a suitable completed and extended version of $E(n)$, which we shall call Morava $E$-theory. It is represented by a spectrum which we shall also call $E$. It is known (by unpublished work of Miller and Hopkins) that $E$ is an $E_\infty$ ring spectrum (but we shall not use this fact). In the present work, we discuss the ring $L(\ds)$ obtained from $E^0(DS^0)$ by making a certain algebraic extension and inverting $p$. Let $\Lambda$ be the group $(Q_p/Z_p)^n$, and $\Lambda^* = \Hom(\Lambda,Q/Z) = Z_p^n$ its dual. Write $\burn$ for the Burnside semiring of $\Lambda^*$, in other words the semiring of isomorphism classes of finite sets with an action of $\Lambda^*$. Write $F(\burn,L)$ for the set of functions from $\burn$ to $L$. Our central result is to give an isomorphism of $L(DS^0)$ with $F(\burn,L)$, and show that this respects all structure in sight. --------- This is the tenth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Papers uploaded to Hopf between July 16 and July 28, 1995: 1. /pub/Monks/bases TITLE: Change of basis, monomial relations, and $P_t^s$ bases for the Steenrod algebra AUTHOR: Ken Monks Department of Mathematics University of Scranton Scranton, PA 18510 email: monks---uofs.edu FILENAME: BASES.DVI ABSTRACT: The relationship between several common bases for the mod 2 Steenrod algebra is explored and a new family of bases consisting of monomials in distinct $P_t^s$'s is developed. A recursive change of basis formula is produced to convert between the Milnor basis and each of the bases for which the change of basis matrix in every grading is upper triangular. In particular, it is shown that the basis of admissible monomials, the new $P_t^s$ bases, and two bases due to D. Arnon, are all bases having this property, and the corresponding change of basis formula is produced for each of them. Some monomial relations for the mod 2 Steenrod algebra are then obtained by exploring the change of basis transformations. 2. /pub/Monks/polymods TITLE: Polynomial Modules Over the Steenrod Algebra and Conjugation in the Milnor Basis AUTHOR: Ken Monks Department of Mathematics University of Scranton Scranton, PA 18510 email: monks---uofs.edu FILENAME: polymods.dvi ABSTRACT: Let $P_s=\Bbb F_2\left[ x_1,\ldots ,x_s\right]$ be the mod 2 cohomology of the $s $-fold product of $\Bbb R\text{P}^\infty $ with the usual structure as a module over the Steenrod algebra. A monomial in $P_s$ is said to be hit if it is in the image of the action $\overline{A} \otimes P_s\rightarrow P_s$ where $ \overline{A}$ is the augmentation ideal of $A$. We extend a result of Wood to determine a new family of hit monomials in $P_s$. We then use similar methods to obtain a generalization of antiautomorphism formulas of Davis and Gallant. 3. /pub/Monks/pstpaper TITLE: The nilpotence height of $P_t^s$ AUTHOR: Ken Monks Department of Mathematics University of Scranton Scranton, PA 18510 email: monks---uofs.edu FILENAME: PSTHEIGHT.DVI ABSTRACT: The method of Walker and Wood is used to completely determine the nilpotence height of the elements $\Pst$ in the Steenrod algebra at the prime 2. In particular, it is shown that $(\Pst)^{2\lfloor s/t \rfloor+2}=0$ for all $s\ge 0$, $t\ge 1$. In addition, several interesting relations in $A$ are developed in order to carry out the proof. ---------- This is the eleventh installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Papers uploaded to Hopf between July 29 and August 9, 1995: 1. /pub/Benson-Greenlees/Liegroupca.abstract \title{Commutative algebra for cohomology rings of classifying spaces of compact Lie groups.} \author{D.~J.~Benson} \address{Department of Mathematics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA} \email{djb---byrd.math.uga.edu} \author{J.~P.~C.~Greenlees } \address{School of Mathematics and Statistics, Hicks Building, Sheffield S3 7RH. UK.} \email{j.greenlees---sheffield.ac.uk} \date{} \begin{abstract} We apply the techniques of highly structured ring and module spectra to prove a duality theorem for the cohomology ring of the classifying space of a compact Lie group. This generalizes results of Benson--Carlson \cite{bc3,bc5} and Greenlees \cite{groupca} in the case of finite groups. In particular, we prove a functional equation for the Poincar\'e series in the oriented Cohen--Macaulay case. We make essential use of the theorem of Elmendorf--May \cite{em} that Borel cohomology is represented by a highly structured ring spectrum. \end{abstract} 2. /pub/Bisson-Joyal/cr_one.abstract CRone.abstract The Dyer-Lashof Algebra in Bordism Terrence Bisson and Andr\'e Joyal (June 1995. To Appear, C.R.Math.Rep.Acad.Sci.Canada) We present a theory of Dyer-Lashof operations in unoriented bordism (the canonical splitting $N_*(X)\simeq N_*\otimes H_*(X)$, where $N_*(\ )$ is unoriented bordism and $H_*(\ )$ is homology mod 2, does not respect these operations). For any finite covering space we define a ``polynomial functor'' from the category of topological spaces to itself. If the covering space is a closed manifold we obtain an operation defined on the bordism of any $E_\infty$-space. A certain sequence of operations called squaring operations are defined from two-fold coverings; they satisfy the Cartan formula and also a generalization of the Adem relations that is formulated by using Lubin's theory of isogenies of formal group laws. We call a ring equipped with such a sequence of squaring operations a $D$-{\it ring}, and observe that the bordism ring of any free $E_\infty$-space is free as a $D$-ring. In particular, the bordism ring of finite covering manifolds is the free $D$-ring on one generator. In a second compte-rendu we discuss the (Nishida) relations between the Landweber-Novikov and the Dyer-Lashof operations, and show how to represent the Dyer-Lashof operations in terms of their actions on the characteristic numbers of manifolds. 3. /pub/Bisson-Joyal/cr_two.abstract CRtwo.abstract Nishida Relations in Bordism and Homology Terrence Bisson and Andr\'e Joyal (June 1995. To Appear, C.R.Math.Rep.Acad.Sci.Canada) This is the second of a series of Compte Rendus. In the first [1] we have presented a theory of Dyer-Lashof operations in unoriented bordism. Here we shall discuss the (Nishida) relations between Dyer-Lashof and Landweber-Novikov operations. They are used to represent the algebra $N_*\Sigma$ of covering manifolds in terms of their homology characteristic numbers. The proofs are based on the properties of the covering space operations and the notions of $D$-ring and $Q$-ring introduced in [1]. 4. /pub/Elmendorf-May/SGalgebras.abstract Algebras over equivariant sphere spectra by A.D.Elmendorf and J.P.May Abstract: We study algebras over the sphere spectrum S_G of a compact Lie group G. In particular, we show how to construct S_G algebras from S-algebras, where S is the nonequivariant sphere spectrum. This gives a reservoir of equivariant examples to which recently developed algebraic techniques in stable homotopy theory can be applied. A special case will be used in a companion paper of Benson and Greenlees to study the ordinary cohomology of the classifying space BG. 5. /pub/Greenlees-May/gmMU.abstract Localization and completion theorems for MU-module spectra by J.P.C.Greenlees and J.P.May Abstract: Let G be a finite extension of a torus. Working with highly structured ring and module spectra, let M be any module over MU; examples include all the standard homotopical MU-modules, such as the Brown-Peterson and Morava K-theory spectra. We prove localization and completion theorems for the computation of M_*(BG) and M^*(BG). The G-spectrum MU_G that represents stablilized equivariant complex cobordism is an algebra over the equivariant sphere spectrum S_G and there is an MU_G module M_G whose underlying MU-module is M. This allows the use of topological analogues of constructions in commutative algebra. The computation of M_*(BG) and M^*(BG) is expressed in terms of spectral sequences whose respective E_2 terms are computable in terms of local cohomology and local homology groups that are constructed from the coefficient ring MU_*^G and its module M_*^G. The central feature of the proof is a new norm map in equivariant stable homotopy theory, the construction of which involves the new concept of a global I_*-functor with smash product. -------- This is the twelfth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Let me request that all submitters to the Hopf archive remember that your abstracts should be in human readable form. The first of the following abstracts had to be heavily edited by me to make it at all readable. My apologies for any errors thereby introduced. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between August 9 and August 16, 1995: 1. /pub/Lindenstrauss/thh6.abstract (This paper is a revised version of thh3.dvi previously on the archive-Mark) Topological Hochschild Homology of Extensions of Z/pZ by Polynomials, and of Z[x]/(xn) and Z[x]/(xn-1) Ayelet Lindenstrauss Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 Introduction The Dennis trace is a map from the algebraic K-theory of a ring into Hochschild homology. The Hochschild homology groups are easier to calculate,but they are relatively simple. The chance of finding invariants which have interesting pullbacks to K-theory increases if we succeed in factoring the Dennis trace map through intermediate groups, and obtaining trace maps which land in groups with more structure. The K-groups of a ring R are homotopy groups of BGL +(R). The Hochschild homology groups are homotopy groups of a space CH(R),the realization as a simplicial space of the standard (bar) complex used to calculate Hochschild homology. The Dennis trace map is the map on homotopy groups induced by a continuous map BGL +(R) --> CH(R) ; which can be factored through a space called THH(0)(R), which is the 0th space in the topological Hochschild homology spectrum THH(R). The existence of this intermediate step was conjectured by Goodwillie,and shown by Bokstedt in [2]. Topological Hochschild homology is constructed analogously to the bar complex CH(R), with Eilenberg-MacLane spectra K(R;m) and smash products substituted for the ring R and tensor products. The factoring of the Dennis trace (which is explained for example in [4]) consists of a map BGL +(R) --> THH (0)(R) which is the 0-level part of a spectrum version of the Dennis trace, and a map THH (0)(R) --> CH(R) induced by the component map . Bokstedt calculated the homotopy type of this spectrum (which actually is an spectrum) for R = Z and R = Z/pZ. Thus the Dennis trace map can be made to factor through ss (THH (0)(R)) = ssS(THH (R)): Bokstedt used his calculations of THH(Z) to obtain results concerning the algebraic K-theory of Z. Perhaps it is also possible to factor the Dennis trace map through an object similar both to cyclic homology and to topological Hochschild homology- a sort of `cyclic topological Hochschild homology'. Bokstedt,Hsiang and Madsen (see [4]) succeeded in creating such a theory in a different context which involves objects that can be treated using the same FSP formalism as the functor X 7! R[X] which we will use here, and indeed constructed spectra which were p-equivalent to the K-theory spectrum for any given prime p. The first part of this paper briefly describes the construction of topological Hochschild homology, following [2], and the method and results of Bokstedt's calculation of THH(Z) and THH(Z/pZ) in [3]. The second part of the paper calculates HS(THH(R);Z/pZ) for any ring R which is of the form Z/qZ[x]/(f(x)) (q prime,f(x) in Z/qZ[x]),and for the rings Z[x]/(xn) and Z[x]/(xn-1). The calculation uses the same kind of spectral sequence Bokstedt used in [2]. The result of these calculations is a splitting HS (THH(R); Z/pZ) = HH(R; Z/pZ) cross HS(THH(Z);Z/pZ) of the ring of stable homology classes,where the multiplication is induced by a shuffle-product. The third part of this paper describes the explicit form of the homotopy type of THH(R) for the rings Z/qZ[x]/(f(x)) (for any polynomial f), Z[x]/(xn), and Z[x]=(xn-1). 2. /pub/JPMay/modnew.abstract Equivariant and nonequivariant module spectra by J.P. May Abstract: Let $G$ be a compact Lie group, let $R_G$ be a commutative algebra over the sphere $G$-spectrum $S_G$, and let $R$ be its underlying nonequivariant algebra over the sphere spectrum $S$. When $R_G$ is split as an algebra, as holds for example for $R_G=MU_G$, we show how to ``extend scalars'' to construct a split $R_G$-module $R_G\sma_R M$ from an $R$-module $M$. This allows the wholesale construction of highly structured equivariant module spectra from highly structured nonequivariant module spectra. In particular, it applies to construct $MU_G$-modules from $MU$-modules and therefore gives conceptual constructions of equivariant Brown-Peterson and Morava $K$-theory spectra. ----------- This is the thirteenth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between August 16 and August 30, 1995: 1. /pub/GLewis/eqv_splt_sptr SPLITTING THEOREMS FOR CERTAIN EQUIVARIANT SPECTRA L. Gaunce Lewis, Jr. Let $\Gamma $ be a compact Lie group, $\Pi $ be a normal subgroup of $\Gamma $, $G=\Gamma / \Pi $, $X$ be a $G$-space and $Y$ be a $\Gamma $-space. There are a number of results in the literature giving a direct sum decomposition of the group of $\Gamma $-equivariant stable homotopy classes of maps from the suspension spectrum of $X$ to the suspension spectrum of $Y$. Here, these results are extended to a decomposition of the group $[B,C]_\Gamma $ of equivariant stable homotopy classes of maps from an arbitrary $G$-spectrum $B$ to any $\Gamma $-spectrum $C$ carrying a cosplitting (a new type of structure introduced here). Any naive $\Gamma $-spectrum, and any spectrum derived from such by a change of universe functor, carries a cosplitting. This decomposition of $[B,C]_\Gamma $ is a consequence of the fact that, if $C$ is cosplit and $({\scr{F}}^\prime ,\scr{F})$ is any pair of families of subgroups of $\Gamma $, then there is a splitting of the cofibre sequence $$(E{\scr{F}}_+ \wedge C)^\Pi \rightarrow (E{\scr{F}}^\prime _+ \wedge C)^\Pi \rightarrow (E({\scr{F}}^\prime ,\scr{F}) \wedge C)^\Pi $$ constructed from the universal spaces for the families. Both the decomposition of the group $[B,C]_\Gamma $ and the splitting of the cofibre sequence are proven here not just for complete $\Gamma $-universes, but for arbitrary $\Gamma $-universes. Various technical results about incomplete $\Gamma $-universes that should be of independent interest are included in this paper. These include versions of the Adams and Wirthm\"uller isomorphisms for incomplete universes. Also included is a vanishing theorem for the fixed point spectrum $(E({\scr{F}}^\prime ,\scr{F} ) \wedge C)^\Pi $ which gives computational force to the intuition that what really matters about a $\Gamma $-universe $U$ is which orbits $\Gamma /\Lambda $ embed as $\Gamma $-spaces in $U$. -------------- This is the fourteenth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between August 30 and September 9, 1995: 1. /pub/Henn/kmod COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA OF UNSTABLE $K$ - MODULES, LANNES' $T$ - FUNCTOR AND EQUIVARIANT MOD - P COHOMOLOGY by Hans--Werner Henn Let $p$ be a fixed prime and let $K$ be an unstable algebra over the mod - $p$ Steenrod algebra $A$ such that $K$ is finitely generated as graded $\FF_p$ - algebra. Let $K_{fg}-\Ua$ denote the abelian category of finitely generated $K$ - modules with a compatible unstable $A$ - module structure. We study various concepts of commutative algebra in this setting. The r\^ole of the prime ideal spectrum of a commutative ring is here taken by a category $\Rav (K)$ which, roughly speaking, consists of the $A$ - invariant prime ideals of $K$ together with certain ``Galois information''; sheafs will correspond to functors on this category, and the r\^ole of the sheaf associated to a module will be taken by the components of Lannes' $T$ - functor. We discuss the notions of support, of ${ \gl a}$ - torsion modules (for an invariant ideal ${ \gl a}$ of $K$) and of localization away from the Serre subcategory $\Ta ors ({ \gl a})$ of ${ \gl a}$ - torsion modules in our setting. We show that the category $K_{fg}-\Ua$ has enough injectives and use these injectives to study these localizations and their derived functors; they are closely related to the derived functors of the ${ \gl a}$ - torsion functor $F_{{ \gl a}}$. Our results are formally analogous to Grothendieck's results in the classical situation of modules over a noetherian commutative ring R [Gr]. Important for applications is the case $K=H^*BG$, the mod - $p$ cohomology of a classifying space of a compact Lie group (or a suitable discrete group), and $M=H^*_GX$ where $X$ is a (suitable) $G$ - $CW$ - complex. In these cases the category $\Rav (K)$ and the functor on $\Rav (K)$ associated to $H^*_GX$ can be described in terms of group theoretic and geometric data, and our theory yields a far-reaching generalization of a result of Jackowski and McClure [JM] resp. of Dwyer and Wilkerson [DW2]. As a concrete application of our theory we describe the size of the kernel of the restriction map from the unknown mod - $2$ cohomology of the $S$ - arithmetic group $GL(n,\Z[1/2])$ to the known cohomology of its subgroup $D_n$ of diagonal matrices. 2. /pub/Moller/normalizer J.M. Moller: Normalizers of maximal tori Normalizers and p-normalizers of maximal tori in p-compact groups can be characterized by the Euler characteristic of the associated homogeneous spaces. Applied to centralizers of elementary abelian p-groups these criteria show that the normalizer of a maximal torus of the centralizer is given by the centralizer of a preferred homomorphism to the normalizer of the maximal torus; i.e. that ``normalizer'' commutes with ``centralizer''. 3. /pub/Moller/survey J.M. Moller: Homotopy Lie groups This is a survey of Dwyer and Wilkerson's p-compact groups intended for a general mathematical audience. ---------- This is the fifteenth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. My home page appears to be broken. I'll try to fix it, but in any case I have been slow about updating it recently. Sorry about that. In case you are looking for more recent back issues of this list, Don Davis' home page should have them. The URL for his discussion list is http://www.lehigh.edu/dmd1/public/www-data/algtop.html . Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between September 9 and September 23, 1995: 1. /pub/Ando/PowerOpsEll.dvi Power operations in elliptic cohomology and representations of loop groups Matthew Ando The first part of this paper describes power operations in elliptic cohomology in terms of isogenies of the underlying elliptic curve. The second part discusses a relationship between equivariant elliptic cohomology and representations of loop groups. The third part investigates the representation theoretic considerations which give rise to the power operations discussed in the first part. 2. /pub/Lindenstrauss/ram2.ps (Note: At present this file is only available in .ps form--Mark) Abstract of The Topological Hochschild Homology of the Gaussian Integers by Ayelet Lindenstrauss: Topological Hochschild homology is calculated explicitly for the rings ${\bf Z}[\sqrt2]$, ${\bf Z}[\sqrt{-2}]$, and ${\bf Z}[i]$. The 2-torsion of the topological Hochschild homology is calculated for the ring of integers in any quadratic extension of the rationals. 3. /pub/Rudyak/ts.dvi THE SPECTRA k AND kO ARE NOT THOM SPECTRA Yu. B. Rudyak Abstract. Here is proved that neither k nor kO are Thom spectra. This was conjectured by Mahowald in 1979. Mathematisches Institut Universitat Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 288, D-69120 Heidelberg 1, Germany. ---------- This is the sixteenth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between September 24 and October 24, 1995: This time we have updated versions of two papers that were already on the archive: /pub/Ando/PowerOpsEll and /pub/Lindenstrauss/ram2 . The paper by Ando is on power operations, elliptic cohomology, and representations of loop groups, and the paper by Lindenstrauss is about calculating the topological Hochschild homology of the Gaussian integers. I don't know how extensive the revisions are. We also have one new paper: 1. /pub/Henderson/Spec_Seq_Ext_HA.abstract SPECTRAL SEQUENCES FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF EXTENSIONS OF HOPF ALGEBRAS Gregory D. Henderson October 15, 1995 We construct spectral sequences which provide a way to compute the cohomology theory that classifies extensions of graded connected Hopf algebras over a commutative ring as described by William M. Singer. Specifically, for (A,B) an abelian matched pair of graded connected R-Hopf algebras, we construct a pair of spectral sequences relating H^*(B,A) to Ext_B(R,Cotor_A(R,R)). To illustrate these spectral sequences, we examine the special case of B a monogenic graded connected Hopf algebra and also analyze an extension of Hopf algebras given by James P. Lin. ----------- This is the seventeenth installment of abstracts of algebraic topology papers recently uploaded to Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between October 24 and October 31, 1995: We have one new paper: 1. /pub/Dwyer-Mitchell/curves On the $K$-theory spectrum of a smooth curve over a finite field by W. G. Dwyer and S. A. Mitchell We study the algebraic $K$-theory spectrum associated to a smooth curve (either complete or affine) over a finite field, and determine (for instance) - the topological $K$-theory groups of the spectrum - the Bousfield localization of the spectrum with respect to topological $K$-theory - the topological $K$-theory groups of the zero space in the associated $\Omega$-spectrum This determination is done in terms of classical algebraic invariants of the curve. We also prove that the above Bousfield localization of the spectrum is a retract (in positive dimensions) of the spectrum itself. Actually, to obtain the results it is necessary to $\ell$-complete the spectrum at an odd prime $\ell$ which is different from the characteristic of the finite field; similarly, "topological $K$-theory" as used above means $\ell$-completed topological $K$-cohomology. --------- We have one new paper at Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between October 31 and November 7, 1995: 1. /pub/Ravenel-Wilson-Yagita/bpcohfrommork Brown-Peterson cohomology from Morava K-theory Douglas C. Ravenel W. Stephen Wilson and Nobuaki Yagita We give some structure to the Brown-Peterson cohomology (or its $p$-completion) of a wide class of spaces. The class of spaces are those with Morava K-theory even dimensional. We can say that the Brown-Peterson cohomology is even dimensional (concentrated in even degrees) and is flat as a $BP^*$-module for the category of finitely presented $BP^*(BP)$-modules. At first glance this would seem to be a very restricted class of spaces, but the world abounds with naturally occurring examples: Eilenberg-MacLane spaces, loops of finite Postnikov systems, classifying spaces of all finite groups whose Morava K-theory is known (including the symmetric groups), $QS^{2n}$, $BO(n)$, $MO(n)$, $BO$, $\ImJ$, etc. We finish with an explicit algebraic construction of the Brown-Peterson cohomology of a product of Eilenberg-Maclane spaces. (Note from Mark: Actually Igor Kriz has recently given a finite group whose Morava K-theory is not concentrated in even degrees.) --------- We have three new papers at Clarence Wilkerson's archive. Instructions at the end. My home page has moved, and also has been somewhat updated. The new URL is http://www-math.mit.edu/~hovey/ Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between November 7 and November 25, 1995: 1./pub/Dwyer/decompositions Homology decompositions for classifying spaces of finite groups by W. G. Dwyer We look at ways of expressing the classifying space of a finite group G, at least up to mod p homology, as a homotopy colimit of classifying spaces of subgroups of G. What results is a general theory which includes as special cases the decompositions of Jackowski-McClure and of Jackowski-McClure-Oliver. 2. /pub/Slack/tfodd Infinite loop spaces with odd torsion free homology by Michael Slack Abstract: It is shown that an infinite loop space with no odd torsion in its integral homology also has no odd torsion in its homotopy. Combined with known results of Steve Wilson, this gives a complete classification; all such spaces are products of the Wilson spaces, which are the building blocks of the spaces in the omega spectrum for BP. Comments, questions, and corrections are all welcomed. For other papers by Slack (published, preprints, and in progress), you can visit his homepage at http://www.wmich.edu/math-stat/faculty/slack/. 3. /pub/JWu/Simplicial-group-1 On Combinatorial Descriptions of Homotopy Groups of K(ss; 1) Jie Wu November 13, 1995 Abstract We will give a combinatorial description of homotopy groups of K(ss;1). Thus, by Kan-Thurston Theorem, a combinatorial descrip- tion of the homotopy groups of a simply connected suspension space is given.In particular, all of the homotopy groups of the 3-sphere are combinatorially given. 4. /pub/JWu/Wu.copy ON FIBREWISE SIMPLICIAL MONOIDS AND MILNOR-CARLSSON'S CONSTRUCTIONS JIE WU In [?], G. Carlsson introduced a simplicial group construction which gives a generalization of Milnor's F(K) construction [?]. Roughly speaking, if we construct a simplicial group which is a free product of a simplicial group G over a pointed simplicial set X, then we get a simplicial group construction for (BG ^ X), where BG is the classifying space of G. In this article, we give a categorial view of this construction. Let C be a category. A fibrewise simplicial object over C, roughly speaking, is a diagram over C with indices in a simplicial set. This is an abstract view of fibrewise topology [?] or sheaf theory. If the category C has coproducts, then the abstract F-construction is defined to be certain coadjoint functor from the category of fibrewise simplicial objects over C to the category of simplicial objects over C. Suppose that there is a functor T from C to the category of pointed simplicial sets such that T preserves coproducts up to homotopy. Then there is an induced functor T from the category of fibrewise simplicial objects over C to the category of pointed bisimplicial sets. Theorem ?? shows that T is homotopy equivalent to T ffiF. Let C be a category of monoids. Notice that the bar-construction B preserves coproduct up to homotopy [?]. A corollary of this abstract theorem is the Carlsson theorem. An application of Carlsson's construciton to homotopy theory is to give a representation of the homotopy groups of simply connected suspension spaces to certain combinatorial groups as centers [?]. Applications of Carlsson's construction to minimal simplicial groups are given in [?]. In this paper, we pay more attention to the geometry of the Carlsson construction. The word length filtration is considered. The resulting cofibres are certain smash product pinched out certain reduced diagonal elements (Proposition ??). Our construction in the monoid case is a generalization of the James construction [?]. We construct certain natural map Hn : (Y ^X ) ! n(Y n^ (X(n)=4n )), which is similar to the James-Hopf map,for any path connected CW-complex Y and any pointed CW-complex X, where X(n)is the n-th fold self smash product of X and 4n = f(x1 ^: :^:xn) 2 X(n)j xi= xi+1for some ig (Theorem ??). A direct application of these natural maps is to give a decomposition of H(F P 1^ X) for F =R, C or H. Let F P21= F P 1=F P 1. Research at MSRI is supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9022140. Theorem 0.1. Let F = R,C or H and let X be a pointed space. Suppose that H is a multiplicative homology theory such that (1) both H (F P 1) and H (F P21) are free H (pt)-modules;and (2) the inclusion of the bottom cell Sd !F P 1 induces a monomorphism in the homology. Then there is a product filtration fFrH (F P 1^ X)gr0 of H(F P 1 ^X) such that F0 =H (pt) and Fr=Fr1 = (d1)rH (X (r)=4r); where d = dimR F and is the suspension. Furthermore, this filtration is natural for X. ----------- We have four new papers at Clarence Wilkerson's archive. This is a good time to remind submitters of papers: Abstracts must be readable by humans!! I do some editing to improve readability, but I can only do so much, and this time I didn't even feel like doing that. Instructions at the end. Mark Hovey Papers uploaded to Hopf between November 25 and December 8, 1995: 1./pub/Chacholski/B-M A Generalization of The Triad Theorem of Blakers-Massey. Wojciech Chacholski Let F-->A-->X and H-->A-->E be fibration sequences. Take the homotopy push-out B=hocolim(X<--A-->E), and then take the homotopy pull-back Y=holim(X-->B<--E). There is a natural map q:A-->Y. The main statement of the paper is that if F and H are connected, then the homotopy fiber of the suspenson of q is built from the smash of F and H using homotopy push-outs, wedges and telescopes. 2. /pub/Chacholski/barc CLOSED CLASSES WOJCIECH CHACHOLSKI 1. Introduction A non empty class C of connected spaces is said to be a closed class if it is closed under weak equivalences and pointed homotopy colimits. Aclosed class can be characterized as a non empty class of connected spaces which is closed under weak equivalences and is closed under certain simple operations: arbitrary wedges, homotopy push-outs and homotopy sequential colimits. The notion of a closed class was introduced by E. Dror Farjoun [6]. Two important constructions give rise to examples ofclosed classes. The first one is the Bousfield-Dror periodization functor PA [2]. The class ofthose spaces X, such that PA X is weakly contractible, forms a closed class. By looki* *ng just at the properties of this class wecan prove, for example, that PA X is weakly equivalent toPA X (see [2], [4]). The second construction is E. Dror Farjoun's colocalization functor C WA. The class of those spaces X, for which there exists a space Y, such that X is weakly equivalent toC WAY , forms a closed class. This class is denoted by C(A) and is called the class of A-cellul* *ar spaces. By looking just at the properties ofthe class C (A) we can prove, for example, that CWAX is weakly equivalent to CWA X (see [4], [6]). We say that a closed class C is closed under extensions by fibrations, if for every fibration sequence (Z! E ! B), such that Z andB belong to C, E belongs to C. A closed class C is closed under extensions by fibrations if and only if for every diagram F : I! C ,such that the classifying space BI belongs to C, the unpointed homotopy colimit hocolimIF belongs to C. The purpose of this paper is to understand to what extent a closedclass is closed under extensions by fibrations and under taking unpointed homotopy colimits. We start with proving a theorem that, in particular, implies: fflLet F : I ! Spaces? be a pointed diagram, such that the classifying space BI belongs to C. If for every i 2 I, F (i)b elongs to C , thenso does the unpointed homotopy colimit hocolimIF. fflLet (Z ! E ! B) be a fibration sequence with a section. If Z and B belong to C, then so does E. fflLet F : I ! C andG : I ! C be diagrams and : F ! G be a natural transformation. If hocolimIF belongs to C, then so does hocolimIG. 2 WOJCIECH CHACHOLSKI Surprisingly these and many other results are the consequences of just one statement, see theorem 5.1. We continue with investigating the properties of a base space B (respec- tively of the classifying space BI),which will guarantee that a closed class C * *is closed under extensions by fibrations with base B (respectively C is closed un- der taking the unpointed homotopy colimit of diagrams F : I ! C ). We study the following class: D(C ) =fB I jifF : I ! C isa diagram, then hocolimIF 2 Cg The main result of this paper is: Theorem. The class D(C) is a closed class and it is closedunder extensions by fibrations. 3. /pub/Chacholski/thesis On The Functors CW_{A} and P_{A}. Wojciech Chacholski I am looking at the relation between Bousfield's localization functor P_{A} and Dror Frajoun's colocalization functor CW_{A}. I am studying the question: to what extent the following sequence is exact: Spaces --P_{A}--> Spaces --CW_{A}--> Spaces --P_{A}--> Spaces The image of P_{A} is equal to the kernel of CW_{A}. The correlation between the kernel of P_{A} and the image of CW_{A} is more complicated. I proved that The kernel of P_{A} is the closure of the image of CW_{A} under taking extensions by fibrations. In the paper I am giving algorithms to construct the functor CW_{A} out of P_{A} and vice versa. I am using these algorithms to show that S^{n} is in the image of CW_{\Omega S^{n+1}} if and only if n=1,3,7 and that for every n S^{n} is in the kernel of P_{\Omega S^{n+1}}. 4. /pub/JWu/Min_Simpl_Set \title{On products in the minimal simplicial sets} \author{Jie Wu} It is well known that every fibrant simplicial set~$X$ is homotopy equivalent to a minimal simplicial set~$Y$. If~$X$ is a loop space, then there is an induced multiplication on~$Y$ given by the composite $$Y\times Y\to X\times X\to X\to Y.$$ In this case, $Y$ is a minimal simplicial set together with a multiplication. It is an old story in topology to look for a product in the minimal simplicial sets. J.F.~Adams showed that the two-stage Postnikov system~$X$ with $\pi_n(X)\ne0$ and $\pi_{n+1}(X)\ne0$ is homotopy equivalent to a minimal simplicial group~\cite{A}. J.~Milnor gave a counterexample that $\Omega(S^{n+1}\la n+1,n+2,n+3\ra)$ is not homotopy equivalent to a minimal simplicial group, where $S^{n+1}\la n+1,n+2,n+3\ra$ is the $3$-stage Postnikov system by taking the first three homotopy groups of $S^{n+1}$~\cite{Wu1}. G.~Whitehead gave some non-associative minimal simplicial abelian groupoids. In this paper, we study minimal simplicial $H$-sets, \ie, minimal simplicial sets with multiplications. We always assume that a simplicial $H$-set $X$ has a strict unit element~$e$. A simplicial $H$-set $X$ is called \emph{strong homotopy associative} if \begin{enumerate} \item $\mu\circ(\mu\times1)\simeq\mu\circ(1\times\mu)\colon X\times X\times X\to X\quad\text{rel.\ }e\times X\times X$; \item $\mu\circ(\mu\times1)\simeq\mu\circ(1\times\mu)\colon X\times X\times X\to X\quad\text{rel.\ }X\times e\times X$; and \item $\mu\circ(\mu\times1)\simeq\mu\circ(1\times\mu)\colon X\times X\times X\to X\quad\text{rel.\ }X\times X\times e$, \end{enumerate} where $\mu\colon X\times X\to X$ is the multiplication. It was pointed out by J.~Stasheff that if a multiplication $\mu\colon X\times X\to X$ is homotopy associative, then there exists a multiplication $\mu'\colon X\times X\to X$ which is strong homotopy associative~\cite{Sta}. Notice that the homotopy groups $\pi_*(X)$ can be identified with the cycles in~$X$ if~$X$ is minimal, where $x\in X_n$ is a cycle if $d_jx=*$ for all~$j$. A simplicial $H$-set is said to be \emph{right (left) group-like} if~$X$ has a strict right (left) inverse map. Our main theorem is as follows. \begin{thm} Let $X$ be a connected strong homotopy associative minimal simplicial $H$-set. Then: \begin{enumerate} \item The associativity $$(ab)c=a(bc)$$ holds if one of $a,b,c$ is in $\pi_*(X)$. \item For $a\in X_n$, there exists a unique left inverse~$b$ in~$X_n$ such that $ba=e$ and there exists a unique right inverse~$c$ in~$X_n$ such that $ac=e$. \item The commutativity $$ab=ba$$ holds if $a\in\pi_*(X)$. \item $X$ is generated by $\pi_*(X)$ as a simplicial $H$-set. \item The fibration $$F_n(X)\to P_n(X)\to P_{n+1}(X)$$ is a central extension and it is also a principal $F_n(X)\cong K(\pi_n(X),n)$ bundle, where $\{P_n(X)\}_{n\ge0}$ is the Moore-Postnikov system of~$X$. \item Let $H\colon\pi_*(X)\to\bar H_*(X;Z)$ be the Hurewicz map. Then there exists a (graded) subset~$S$ of~$\pi_*(X)$ such that \begin{enumerate} \item $H(x)\ne0$ for $x\in S$; \item $H(x_1)\ne H(x_2)$ for $x_1\ne x_2$ in~$S$; and \item $X$ is generated by~$S$ as a right (or left) group-like simplicial $H$-set. \end{enumerate} \end{enumerate} \end{thm} Assertions~(1) to~(4) give a general description of the relations between the homotopy groups and the total space. Assertion~(5) shows that the Postnikov system of a connected homotopy associative minimal simplicial $H$-set is very nice. Assertion~(6) gives a relation between the total space and its homology. This supports the Moore conjecture in some sense although it is still very unclear if the exponents of the homotopy groups are related to the homology groups. We should point out that the minimal subcomplex of a loop space is non-associative in general. This paper is our starting work to understand the product structures in the ``minimal models'' for the loop spaces. The understanding of these product structures may help us to study some homotopy problems such as the Freyd conjecture, the Moore conjecture, and the Kavarre invariants problem. As an example, the complete answer when a two-stage Postnikov system~$X$ with $\pi_n(X)=\Z/2$ and $\pi_{n+1}(X)=\Z/2$ is homotopy equivalent to a minimal simplicial group is given as follows. \begin{thm} Let $n,i>0$ and let $X$ be a two-stage Postnikov system with $\pi_n(X)=\Z/2$ and $\pi_{n+i}(X)=\Z/2$. Then~$X$ is homotopy equivalent to a minimal simplicial group if and only if the Postnikov invariant of~$X$ is trivial or~$Sq^{i+1}$. \end{thm} ----------