A symmetric monoidal and equivariant Segal infinite loop space machine (Q1730876)

For $G$ a finite group, the authors construct a symmetric monoidal infinite loop space machine that builds $G$-spectra from $\mathcal{F}$-$G$-spaces (i.e., functors from $\mathcal{F}$, the category of finite based sets, to $G$-spaces). This extends the previous work [\textit{J. P. May}, \textit{M. Merling} and \textit{A. M. Osorno}, ``Equivariant infinite loop space theory. I: The space level story'', \url{arXiv:1704.03413}]. The crucial point is that this new construction is both homotopically correct and lax symmetric monoidal; it gives a powerful equivariant construction that is a variant of Segal's classical machine in the non-equivariant case. \par This relies on constructing and comparing a number of equivariant infinite loop space machines. One innovation is the usage of monadic bar constructions, as opposed to the categorical bar constructions in earlier work. For instance, taking $\Sigma \subset \mathcal{F}$ the maximal subgroupoid, the adjunction associated to restriction along $\Sigma \subset \mathcal{F}$ yields the monad $(\mathrm{Fun}(\Sigma, \mathcal{T}_G), \mathbb{E})$, where $\mathcal{T}_G$ is the category of non-degenerately based $G$-spaces. For $X$ an $\mathcal{F}$-$G$-space, the associated monadic bar construction gives $B^\Sigma X$, a functor from based $G$-CW-complexes to $\mathcal{T}_G$. The associated orthogonal $G$-spectrum $\mathbb{S}^\Sigma _X$ is given by \[ (\mathbb{S}^\Sigma _X) (V) := (B^\Sigma _X ) (S^V). \] Using $\Sigma$ rather than the discrete subcategory $\mathbb{N}$ means that this functor is lax symmetric monoidal with respect to $X$. \par A key ingredient is the invariance theorem, which allows comparison with previous constructions. This uses the notion of a proper $\mathcal{F}$-$G$-space that provides a suitable cofibrancy condition leading to the following homotopical invariance property: a level equivalence $ X \rightarrow X'$ between proper $\mathcal{F}$-$G$-spaces induces a $G$-equivalence \[ (\mathbb{P}^{\mathcal{W}_G}_{\mathcal{F}} X) (A) \rightarrow (\mathbb{P}^{\mathcal{W}_G}_{\mathcal{F}} X') (A) \] for any based $G$-CW-complex $A$, where $\mathbb{P}^{\mathcal{W}_G}_{\mathcal{F}} $ denotes prolongation from $\mathcal{F}$ to based $G$-CW-complexes, $\mathcal{W}_G$. \par The invariance theorem is used to show that the construction $X \mapsto \mathbb{S}^\Sigma _X$ has the correct homotopical behaviour, by comparing a variant $\mathbb{S}^{\Sigma_G} _X$ (that is shown to be equivalent) with the corresponding construction $\mathbb{S}^{\mathbb{N}_G} _X$ associated to the discrete category $\mathbb{N}$, using the fact that the relevant bar constructions are proper. \par The authors illustrate the importance of the symmetric monoidal property by considering suspension $G$-spectra and multiplicative properties of Eilenberg-Mac Lane $G$-spectra.