Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectra as equivariant Thom spectra (Q2224538)

An important result by \textit{M. Mahowald} [Topology 16, 249--256 (1977; Zbl 0357.55020)] states that the Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum \(H\mathbb F_2\) is the Thom spectrum of a certain double loop map \(\Omega^2 S^3 \to BO\). In the paper under review, the authors establish various equivariant refinements of this result. One main theorem states that for \(G = C_{2^n}\) the cyclic group of order \(2^n\) and for \(\lambda\) the standard representation of \(G\) on \(\mathbb C\), there is a \(G\)-action on the quaternionic projective space \(\mathbb HP^{\infty}\) and an \(\Omega^{\lambda+1}\)-map \(\Omega^{\lambda+1} \mathbb HP^{\infty} \to BO_G\) whose Thom spectrum is \(H\underline{\mathbb F}{}_2\), the Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum on the constant \(G\)-Mackey functor \(\underline{\mathbb F}{}_2\). This result does not only refine Mahowald's theorem, but also the observation (which the authors attribute to Hopkins) that \(\Omega^2 S^3 \to BO\) admits a triple delooping. The \(G = C_2\)-case of this main theorem generalizes a result by \textit{M. Behrens} and \textit{D. Wilson} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 146, No. 11, 5003--5012 (2018; Zbl 1409.55010)]. Hopkins also gave a description of the Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum \(H\mathbb F_p\) for an odd prime \(p\) as the Thom spectrum of a map \(\Omega^{2}S^3 \to B\mathrm{GL}_1(S^0_{(p)})\) to the classifying space of the units of the \(p\)-local sphere spectrum. As another main theorem of the paper under review, the authors give an equivariant refinement of this result by exhibiting \(H\underline{\mathbb F}{}_p\) as the Thom spectrum of a suitable map \(\Omega^{\lambda} S^{\lambda +1} \to B\mathrm{GL}_1(S^0_{(p)})\). There is a \(p\)-local integral variant of the latter result. The authors also explain why the additional delooping in the case \(p=2\) cannot exist in the odd primary case: they show that in contrast to the situation at the prime \(2\), for an odd prime \(p\) there is no triple loop map to \(B\mathrm{GL}_1(S^0_{(p)})\) with Thom spectrum \(H\mathbb F_p\).