Rigidity in equivariant stable homotopy theory (Q312397): Difference between revisions

Spectra are the representing objects for cohomology theories and have a very rich homotopy theory. The homotopy category of spectra is known as the stable homotopy category and is an enormously complicated triangulated category. Schwede showed that this triangulated category is so well-structured that it determines the homotopy theory of spectra: any model category \(C\) whose homotopy category is triangulated equivalent to the stable homotopy category is Quillen equivalent to spectra. We package this as saying that the stable homotopy category is `rigid'. An earlier version of this result was that the 2-local stable homotopy category (i.e. the homotopy category of 2-local spectra) is rigid. The 2-local case has a much simpler proof than the general case and relies on the fact that multiplication by 2 on the mod 2 Moore spectrum is non-trivial. This paper shows an analogous rigidity result for the 2-local \(G\)-equivariant stable homotopy category, for \(G\) a finite group. The \(G\)-equivariant stable homotopy category is the homotopy category for \(G\)-spectra: the representing objects for \(G\)-equivariant cohomology theories. The \(G\)-stable homotopy category is an even more complicated triangulated category as it contains topological complexity coming from the stable homotopy category but also equivariant information (such as the Burnside ring) coming from \(G\). In more detail, the homotopy theory of 2-local \(G\)-equivariant spectra, for \(G\) a finite group, is determined by homotopy cofibre sequences, suspensions and the stable Burnside category. The approach is based to the earlier work of Schwede, one takes a model category \(C\) (satisfying some reasonable assumptions) with an equivalence of triangulated categories between \(Ho(C)\) and the 2-local \(G\)-stable homotopy category (that `preserves' the stable Burnside category). Using this equivalence one can build a self-functor \(F\) of the 2-local \(G\)-equivariant stable homotopy category. The Quillen equivalence will follow from showing that \(F\) is an equivalence of triangulated categories. The proof that \(F\) is a triangulated equivalence is built inductively from the simpler case of free \(G\)-spectra, which are essentially spectra with \(G\)-action and hence have a much simpler homotopy theory. The induction uses the classical machinery of stable homotopy theory: the double coset formula, the Wirthmüller isomorphism, geometric fixed points, tom-Dieck splitting and isotropy separation (using families of subgroups of \(G\)). It is conjectured that the rigidity result holds for the full \(G\)-equivariant stable homotopy theory, but it is noted that the calculations for the general case are substantially more complicated.