On the structure of algebraic cobordism (Q1649335)

For any smooth variety \(X\), the algebraic cobordism ring \(\Omega^*(X)\) has a structure of module over the Lazard ring \(\mathbb L\), and the Landweber-Novikov algebra \(MU_*(MU)\) acts on it; an equivalent way of defining this structure is to view \(\Omega^*(X)\) as a comodule over the Hopf algebroid \((MU_*, MU_*(MU))\). This paper describes this structure with the added action of the symmetric operations \(\Phi\) of Vishik, which are unstable operations on algebraic cobordism. The main result is Theorem 3.13, describing for each \(X\) and \(r\geq 0\) the graded groups \(\Omega^*_{(r)}(X)\) coming from the topological filtration (recalled in section 2.2): they are finitely presented \(\mathbb L\)-modules with a filtration whose factors are isomorphic as graded \(\mathbb L\)-modules to either free or cyclic modules \({\mathbb L}/I(p,n)x\), where \(x\) has degree at least \(\frac{p^n-1}{p-1}\) (here, the \(I(p,n)\) are some specific ideals of \(\mathbb L\) for each prime \(p\) and natural number \(n\) -- see section 2.3). This result is similar -- and a kind of algebraic equivalent -- to the topological one of Boardman-Johnson-Wilson on comodules over the Hopf algebroid \((BP_*, BP_*(BP))\), as the author remarks in the introduction. The structural result for algebraic cobordism comes here as a consequence of similar properties for (algebraic) Brown-Peterson cohomology, a free theory corresponding to the universal \(p\)-typical formal group law over the graded ring \(BP\). The main result in this direction is Corollary 3.12 (describing the \(BP^*_{(r)}(X)\), which are again constructed from the topological filtration) of Proposition 3.11 (whose subject is the so-called \textit{\(\Phi\)-modules}, which are graded cyclic coherent \(BP\)-modules carrying two additive maps that model the action of the symmetric and of the Landweber-Novikov operations.) In section 4, the author applies his structural results to the algebraic cobordism of a smooth surface (Theorem 4.3) and to the \(BP\)-theory of smooth varieties of dimension not greater than \(p\) (Theorem 4.9). Section 5 is dedicated to the proof of the Syzyrgies Conjecture for Algebraic Cobordism of Vishik, stating that (for \(X\) a smooth variety of dimension \(d\)) \(\Omega^*(X)\) has a free \(\mathbb L\)-resolution whose \(j\)-th term has generators in codimensions between \(j\) and \(d\). This appears as Theorem 5.5, and is a strong confirmation of the utility and reach of Theorem 3.13 and its related results.