Realization of Abel's universal formal group law (Q1601782)

An Abel formal group law is one whose exponential series is of the form \[ \frac{1}{(\alpha - \beta)} (e^{\alpha x} - e^{\beta x}) \] for constants \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\). Such formal group laws were introduced and studied by \textit{V. M. Bukhshtaber} and \textit{A. N. Kholodov} [Math. USSR, Sb. 69, No. 1, 77-97 (1991); translation from Mat. Sb. 181, No. 1, 75-94 (1990; Zbl 0694.55008)]. The paper under review proves that there is a complex oriented cohomology theory \(Ab^* (\enskip)\) whose associated formal group law is universal for Abel formal group laws. The paper begins with a summary of algebraic results about Abel formal group laws from the Bukhstaber-Kholodov paper. (It should be noted that this summary contains what is needed to prove the main theorem and is not comprehensive. In particular the earlier paper gives a closed form formula for the coefficients of an Abel formal group law in terms of \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\).) The paper then establishes a binomial coefficient lemma concerning the gcd of the sequence \((\binom {n}{k}, \binom {n}{k+1},\cdots,\binom {n}{n-k})\). Using this for \(k=2\), a regular sequence of generators is constructed for the ideal \(A_L\) in the Lazard ring \(L\) for which \(L/A_L\) is the coefficient ring of the universal Abel formal group law. The existence of \(Ab^*(\cdot)\) now follows using the Baas-Sullivan results concerning bordism of manifolds with singularities. The author also shows that the theory constructed has a commutative product.