Formal completion of the Jacobians of plane curves and higher real \(K\)-theories (Q1964152)

For a fixed prime, \(p\), let \(S_n\) be the \(n\)-th Morava stabilizer group, \(G_n\) a maximal finite subgroup of \(S_n\) and \({\mathbb E}_n\) the Johnson-Wilson spectrum. The higher real \(K\)-theory spectrum \({\mathbb E}O_n\) of Hopkins and Miller is defined to be the homotopy fixed point spectrum of an action of \(G_n\) on \({\mathbb E}_n\). Because of this and other applications it is important to have a useable description of the action of \(G_n\) on \(E_n = \pi_0({\mathbb E}_n)\). The paper under review provides this in the case \(n = p -1\). For \(p=3\) (a case considered earlier by the first author and \textit{P. Symonds} [Contemp. Math. 220, 103-115 (1998; Zbl 0910.55003)]) in which case \({\mathbb E} O_2\) is essentially elliptic cohomology this description can be obtained from a study of the Legendre family of cubic curves. To extend this to larger primes the authors consider the generalized Legendre family of liftings to characteristic 0 of the curve \(y^{p-1} = x^p -x\) with \(p\) marked points, studying a summand of the formal completion of the Jacobian. The action of \(G_{p-1}\) can be expressed in terms of permutations of the marked points and this leads to the required description.