The Balmer spectrum of the equivariant homotopy category of a finite abelian group (Q1741577): Difference between revisions

In this paper, the authors identify the Balmer spectrum of the subcategory of compact objects in the homotopy category of genuine $G$-equivariant spectra for any finite abelian group $G$. \par To explain this in more detail, we recall that following \textit{P. Balmer} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 588, 149--168 (2005; Zbl 1080.18007)], a prime ideal in a tensor triangulated category $\mathcal T$ is a proper full subcategory $\mathfrak p$ that is closed under completing triangles, retracts, and tensoring with arbitrary objects and that has the property that whenever $A \otimes B \in \mathfrak p$, then $A$ or $B$ is in $\mathfrak p$. The set of prime ideals supporting the objects in $\mathcal T$ generate a topology on the set $\mathrm{Spc}(\mathcal T)$ of prime ideals in $\mathcal T$. The paper under review is concerned with the case where the triangulated category in question is the category $\mathrm{Sp}_G^{\omega}$ of compact objects in the homotopy category of genuine $G$-spectra for a finite abelian group $G$. \textit{P. Balmer} and \textit{B. Sanders} [Invent. Math. 208, No. 1, 283--326 (2017; Zbl 1373.18016)] have identified the underlying set of the spectrum of $\mathrm{Sp}_G^{\omega}$ by describing it in terms of the images of the geometric fixed point functors $\Phi^H : \mathrm{Sp}_G^{\omega}\to \mathrm{Sp}^{\omega}$ for varying subgroups $H \subseteq G$ and the known structure of the spectrum of the non-equivariant stable homotopy category. Using results about blue-shift in Tate cohomology by Hovey-Sadofsky and Kuhn, Balmer-Sanders [loc. cit.] also completely described the topology of $\mathrm{Spc}(\mathrm{Sp}_G^{\omega})$ in the case where the order of $G$ is square-free. Moreover, they reduced the description of the topology for general finite abelian $G$ to a question about the inclusions between certain prime ideals $\mathcal P(H,p,n)$ in the case where $G$ is a $p$-group, $H \subseteq G$ is a subgroup, and $1 \leq n \leq \infty$. \par In the paper under review, the authors determine the inclusion relations between these prime ideals and thereby complete the description of the topology of $\mathrm{Spc}(\mathrm{Sp}_G^{\omega})$ for a finite abelian group $G$. More specifically, they introduce the ``$n$th blue-shift number'' associated with $ 1 \leq n \leq \infty$ and a pair of subgroups $K \subseteq H$ of a finite $p$-group $G$. These blue-shift numbers determine the above mentioned inclusions of prime ideals and thus the topology of $\mathrm{Spc}(\mathrm{Sp}_G^{\omega})$. The authors show that they are given by the $p$-ranks of the quotients $H/K$ when $G$ is an abelian $p$-group and $ 1 \leq n < \infty$. This identification agrees with what Balmer-Sanders conjectured when $G$ is an elementary abelian $p$-group, and differs otherwise. \par The strategy of proof is to establish an upper bound for the blue shift numbers by proving a blue-shift theorem for Lubin-Tate spectra, to establish a lower bound for the blue shift numbers using certain equivariant finite complexes constructed using partition complexes, and to show that these upper and lower bounds coincide.