Thom spectra that are symmetric spectra (Q845276): Difference between revisions

Boardman constructed the Thom spectrum associated to a map classified in the \(BO\)-cohomology, which Mahowald applied by generalizing to the one associated to a map classified in the \(BF\)-cohomology. The generalization was investigated in detail by Lewis. As the author writes, the main advantage of the category \(Sp^\Sigma\) of symmetric spectra to ordinary spectra is that it has a symmetric monoidal smash product. He defines the symmetric Thom spectrum functor \(T: {\mathcal I\mathcal U}/BF \to Sp^\Sigma\) for the category \({\mathcal I\mathcal U}/BF\) of \(\mathcal I\)-spaces over \(BF\), and he develops the theory of Thom spectra in the setting of symmetric spectra and establishes the relevant homotopy invariance, as Lewis and May did in ordinary (equivariant) spectra.