BP: close encounters of the \(E_\infty\) kind (Q2255556)

For an \(S\)-module \(X\) we write \(\mathbb{P}X=\bigvee_r X^{(r)}/\Sigma_r\). Then if \(E\) is a commutative \(S\)-algebra then any map \(f : X \to E\) has a unique extension to a morphism of commutative \(S\)-algebras \(\tilde{f} : \mathbb{P}X \to E\). In particular, when \(X=S^{n-1}\) it allows us to make the definition of attaching a cell to \(E\). Put \(E/\!/f=\mathbb{P}D^n\wedge_{\mathbb{P}S^{n-1}}E\) and call it the commutative \(S\)-algebra obtained from \(E\) by attaching an \(E_\infty\) cell of dimension \(n\), wherein \(\mathbb{P}D^n\) has the \({\mathbb{P}S^{n-1}}\)-algebra structure induced by the inclusion \(S^{n-1} \hookrightarrow D^n\). Let \(p\) be a prime and \(S\) denote the \(p\)-local sphere. In this paper the author constructs a sequence of commutative \(S\)-algebras \[ S=R_0 \to R_1 \to \cdots \to R_{n-1} \to R_n \to \cdots \] with \(R_n=R_{n-1}/\!/u_n\), \(u_n \in \pi_{2(p^n-1)-1}R_{n-1}\) and obtains the algebra \(R\) by killing the torsion part of the homotopy of the colimit \(R_\infty\) of this sequence. Then it is shown that this \(R\) satisfies the following properties: 1) \(\pi_*R\) is torsion free; 2) \(BP\) and \(R\) are weakly rationally equivalent as ring spectra; 3) If \(BP\) admits an \(E_\infty\) ring structure then \(R\) and \(BP\) are weakly equivalent as \(E_\infty\) ring spectra. The construction of such a sequence is accomplished by making use of power operations on the homotopy groups and it enables us to define homotopy classes which are killed by attaching \(E_\infty\) cells.