The motivic cofiber of \(\tau\) (Q1796612)

Working in motivic stable homotopy theory over \(\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb{C})\), the author builds upon work of D. Isaksen (as per references) to study the cofibre \(C\tau\) of the motivic stable homotopy class \(\tau\), that exists after \(2\)-completion. The class \(\tau\) realizes the Tate twist in mod \(2\) motivic cohomology, \(H \mathbb{F}_2\). It is sent to the identity by Betti realization (induced by taking the complex points of smooth schemes), hence the motivic theory exhibits interesting phenomena \textit{a priori} not visible in classical stable homotopy theory. Isaksen identified the bigraded homotopy groups of \(C\tau\) with the cohomology of the Hopf algebroid of cooperations for \(2\)-primary Brown-Peterson homology. The author applies this to give vanishing zones; further calculations are carried out using the additive splitting of the smash product \(C\tau \wedge C\tau \simeq C\tau \vee \Sigma^{1, -1} C\tau\) and the identification of the Spanier-Whitehead dual of \(C\tau\) as \(\Sigma^{-1,1} C\tau\) (using the standard bigrading conventions for motivic spheres). The author proves that \(C\tau \) has a unique \(E_\infty\)-structure (where \(E_\infty\) is the usual operad given the constant motivic structure) by applying \textit{A. Robinson}'s obstruction theory [Invent. Math. 152, No. 2, 331--348 (2003; Zbl 1027.55010)] in the motivic setting. The motivic bigrading is exploited to show that the relevant obstructions vanish. Likewise he considers the \(A_\infty\)-structure on \(\mathrm{End}(C\tau)\). These results allow the study of the model category of \(C\tau\)-modules. Such spectra vanish under Betti realization but are nevertheless of interest, whilst accessible to calculation, as shown by the examples. The author identifies the operations and co-operations for the spectrum \(C\tau \wedge H \mathbb{F}_2\). He also considers the \(C\tau\)-module Moore spectrum \(C\tau/2\), showing that this has an \(E_\infty\)-structure, and contrasting this with the cases of the motivic Moore spectrum \(S^{0,0}/2\) and the classical \(S^0/2\). The paper concludes with the analysis of the connective Hermitian \(K\)-theory spectrum \(kq\), showing that \( \pi_{*,*} (C\tau \wedge kq) \cong \mathbb{Z}_2 [\eta, v_1^2]/ 2\eta. \)