Homological stability of topological moduli spaces (Q2331020)

The phenomenon of homological stability goes back to Quillen (see the notes for August 8 in \url{/http://www.claymath.org/library/Quillen/Working\_papers/quillen\%201971/1971-11.pdf}): originally it referred the fact that the homology \(H_{i}\) of the sequence of groups \(\operatorname{GL}_{1}(A)\hookrightarrow\operatorname{GL}_{2}(A)\hookrightarrow\cdots\hookrightarrow\operatorname{GL}_{n}(A)\hookrightarrow\cdots\) \ stabilizes in each degree \(i\geq 0\), beginning at a stage \(n\) which depends on \(i\). \textit{G. Segal} later showed in [Invent. Math. 21, 213--221 (1973; Zbl 0267.55020)] that this also occurs in topological contexts, and many further cases have since been discovered. \textit{O. Randal-Williams} and \textit{N. Wahl} axiomatized Quillen's method for proving stability, by constructing simplicial complexes with increasing connectivities on which the groups act, in [Adv. Math. 318, 534--626 (2017; Zbl 1393.18006)]. Their approach is to think of a family of groups \(\{G_{n}\}_{n=1}^{\infty}\) as a braided monoidal groupoid (with objects \(\mathbf{N}\) and \(\mathrm{Aut}(n)=G_{n}\)). The present paper does the same for the more general case of a sequence of spaces \(\mathcal{M}_{1}\hookrightarrow\mathcal{M}_{2}\hookrightarrow\cdots\hookrightarrow\mathcal{M}_{n}\hookrightarrow\cdots\), such as those studied by \textit{S. Galatius} and \textit{O. Randal-Williams} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 31, No. 1, 215--264 (2018; Zbl 1395.57044)]. The idea is to think of \(\mathcal{M}=\coprod_{m}\mathcal{M}_{n}\) as a graded \(E_{1}\)-module over an \(E_{2}\)-algebra \(\mathcal{A}\). The author assigns to \(\mathcal{M}\) a semi-simplical resolution \(R_{\bullet}(\mathcal{M})\), and shows that if this is graded-connected in an appropriate sense, then the original sequence of spaces \(\{\mathcal{M}_{n}\}_{n=1}^{\infty}\) \ satisfies homological stability with suitable parameters for any local coefficient system \(L\) on \(\mathcal{M}\). The author provides two main applications: (a) The unordered configuration spaces \(C_{n}^{\pi}(W)\) of \(n\) points in a manifold \(W\) with labels in the fiber of a fibration \(\pi:E\to W\); likewise for the corresponding ordered configuration spaces \(C_{n}^{\pi,\operatorname{ord}}(W)\), and the embedding spaces of discs. (b) The moduli space of compact \(d\)-dimensional smooth manifolds with a fixed boundary has homological stability under connected sum with \(S^{p}\times S^{q}\).