Incomplete Tambara functors (Q1743502)

Given a finite group \(G\) and a genuine \(G\)-spectrum \(R\), the \(H\)-equivariant homotopy groups for different subgroups \(H \subset G\) are connected by restrictions and transfers, a structure encoded in the notion of a \textit{Mackey functor}. If \(R\) is a genuinely commutative ring spectrum (examples include equivariant bordism and equivariant \(K\)-theory), there are additionally multiplicative norms \[ \pi_0^KR \to \pi_0^HR \] for subgroup inclusions \(K\subset H\), a structure encoded in the notion of a \textit{Tambara functor}. The article under review is part of a series of papers by the authors starting with [\textit{A. J. Blumberg} and \textit{M. A. Hill}, Adv. Math. 285, 658--708 (2015; Zbl 1329.55012)], devoted to understanding ring spectra that are less than genuinely commutative. There is indeed a whole hierarchy interpolating between a naive notion of an \(E_\infty\)-ring spectrum in \(G\)-spectra and genuinely commutative ring spectra. This hierarchy arises from different \(G\)-operads whose underlying operads are \(E_\infty\)-operads. These are called \(N_{\infty}\)-operads, giving rise to the notion of \(N_\infty\)-ring spectra. Examples of these appear, for example, as Bousfield localizations of genuinely commutative ring spectra. In the homotopy groups of these \(N_\infty\)-ring spectra one does no longer expect norms for all subgroup inclusions \(K\subset H\), but only for certain ones. The authors develop for each \(N_\infty\)-operad a corresponding notion of an \textit{incomplete Tambara functor}. Bearing in mind the rather complicated structure a Tambara functor encodes, the authors abstain from a direct definition of an incomplete Tambara functor, but rather develop suitable categorical foundations. These are also helpful to show that incomplete Tambara functors form a bicomplete category. The authors develop several concepts in the world of incomplete Tambara functors, in particular a theory of localization. At the end, they also show that for a subgroup inclusion \(H\subset G\), the restriction functor from incomplete Tambara functors for \(G\) to those for \(H\) (for corresponding \(N_\infty\)-operads in the background) has a right and a left adjoint, the latter being analogous to the norm construction in equivariant homotopy theory.