The motivic Mahowald invariant (Q2279062)

The classical Mahowald invariant produces non-zero classes in the stable homotopy groups of spheres from classes in lower stems. This construction begins with Lin's theorem [\textit{W. H. Lin} et al., Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 87, 459--469 (1980; Zbl 0462.55007)] that, after 2-completion, there is an equivalence of spectra \(S^0\simeq\varprojlim\Sigma\mathbb{RP}^{\infty}_{-n}\). Given a class \(\alpha\in\pi_t(S^0)_{(2)}\) in the 2-primary stable stems, Lin's theorem implies that there is some minimal \(N>0\) such that \[S^t\xrightarrow{\alpha}S^0\to\Sigma\mathbb{RP}^{\infty}_{-N}\] is essential. Noting that \(S^{-N+1}\) is the fiber of the collapse map \(\Sigma\mathbb{RP}^{\infty}_{-N}\to\Sigma\mathbb{RP}^{\infty}_{-(N-1)}\) yields a non-trivial map \((S^t\to S^{-N+1})\in\pi_{t+N-1}(S^0)\), which is called the Mahowald invariant of \(\alpha\). In this paper, the author first defines an analog of the Mahowald invariant in the stable motivic homotopy category over \(\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb{C})\) in Section 2. A suitable replacement for Lin's theorem is given in Thomas Gregersen's PhD thesis, where Gregersen constructs a motivic analog of \(\mathbb{RP}^{\infty}_{-\infty}\) and proves the motivic analog of Lin's theorem. The remainder of the paper is devoted to the motivic Mahowald invariants of \(2^i\) and \(\eta^i\) for all \(i\geq 1\). In Section 2, the author defines the motivic \(C_2\)-Tate construction, which provides approximations of motivic Mahowald invariants. In Section 3, these approximations are paired with a comparison of Atiyah-Hirzebruch and motivic Adams spectral sequences to compute upper bounds on the dimension of the motivic Mahowald invariant of \(2^i\) and \(\eta^i\). Using an analog of a result of Toda, the author gives lower bounds on the dimension of these motivic Mahowald invariants in Propositions 5.11 and 5.16. The main result of this paper is that these motivic Mahowald invariants result in periodic classes. For example, building on the work of \textit{B. Gheorghe} [Doc. Math. 23, 1077--1127 (2018; Zbl 1407.55007)] and \textit{B. Gheorghe}, \textit{G. Wang} and \textit{Z. Xu} [``The special fiber of the motivic deformation of the stable homotopy category is algebraic'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1809.09290}], the motivic Mahowald invariant of \(\eta^i\) is computed in terms of a motivic ring spectrum wko that detects \(w_1\)-periodicity. These computations culminate in the following periodicity theorems. Theorem 5.12: The motivic Mahowald invariant of the \(v_0\)-periodic class \(2^i\) is the first \(\tau\)-torsion free \(v_1\)-periodic class in Adams filtration \(i\). This is the motivic analog of a result of Mahowald-Ravenel [\textit{M. E. Mahowald} and \textit{D. C. Ravenel}, Topology 32, No. 4, 865--898 (1993; Zbl 0796.55008)]. Theorem 5.17: The motivic Mahowald invariant of the \(w_0\)-periodic class \(\eta^i\) is the first \(w_1\)-periodic class in Adams filtration \(i\). This is an instance of exotic periodicity not manifest in the classical setting. Subsequent work of the author addresses Mahowald invariants in the real motivic and \(C_2\)-equivariant case, and later in the motivic case over general base fields.