The homotopy of the \(K(2)\)-local Moore spectrum at the prime 3 revisited (Q2435108)

Part of the chromatic approach to stable homotopy is to study the \(E(n)\)-local categories as approximations of the stable homotopy category. These in turn are, in a sense, glued from the \(K(n)\)-local stable homotopy categories. The \(E(1)\)-local stable homotopy category is by now rather well-understood and \(\pi_*L_{E(1)}S^0\) is essentially the image of \(J\). Furthermore, \(\pi_*L_{E(2)}S^0\) is known at primes \(\geq 5\) by work of \textit{K. Shimomura} and \textit{A. Yabe} [Topology 34, No. 2, 261--289 (1995; Zbl 0832.55011)], \textit{M. Behrens} [Adv. Math. 230, No. 2, 458--492 (2012; Zbl 1256.55004)]. Therefore, the authors of the present paper turn their attention to the \(K(2)\)-local category at the prime 3 (which we will fix in the following). This paper is actually part of a larger sequence of papers by Goerss, Henn, Karamanov, Mahowald and Rezk aiming at \(\pi_*L_{K(2)}S^0\) and related questions. In a previous paper of this sequence, Goerss, Henn and Mahowald computed \(\pi_*L_{K(2)}V(1)\). Here, \(V(1) = S^0/(3,v_1)\) is the cofiber of a \(v_1\)-self map of the mod \(3\) Moore spectrum \(V(0) = S^0/3\). In the present paper, the authors come one step closer to \(\pi_*L_{K(2)}S^0\) by calculating \(\pi_*L_{K(2)}V(0)\). For this purpose, they use the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence. Its \(E_2\)-term can be identified with certain cohomology groups of the Morava stabilizer group. The bulk of the paper is actually devoted to the computation of these cohomology groups by another spectral sequence, whose \(E_1\)-term is related to modular forms in characteristic 3. The differentials in the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence are essentially determined by comparision to the differentials in the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence for \(EO_2\), the \(K(2)\)-localization of the spectrum of topological modular forms \(TMF\). It should be noted that previous calculations of \(L_{K(2)}V(0)\) have been done by Shimomura, but the calculations in the present paper appear to be more precise and transparent.