Class groups and general linear group cohomology for a ring of algebraic integers (Q2365049)

Let \(F\) be an algebraic number field, \(p\) an odd prime, \(R\) the ring of \((p)\)-integers of \(F\). Dwyer and S. A. Mitchell (1993) have given a conjectural description of the \(\text{mod }p\) cohomology of \(GLR\), which can be stated as follows: Assume for simplicity that \(F\) contains the \(p\)th roots of unity. Let \({\mathfrak P}\) denote the algebra of Steenrod \(p\)th power operations. Then as \({\mathfrak P}\)-Hopf algebras: \[ H^*(GLR; \mathbb{Z}/p)\simeq (H^*BU)^s\otimes (H^*U)^{r_2+ s}\otimes J^*_{a_1}\otimes\cdots\otimes J^*_{a_m}, \] where \(r_2\) is the number of complex places of \(F\), \(s\) the number of places dividing \(p\), \(U\) the infinite unitary group, \(\mathbb{Z}/p^{a_1}\times\cdots\times \mathbb{Z}/p^{a_m}\) the \(p\)-primary part of \(\text{Pic }R\), and \(J^*_a\) the \(\text{mod }p\) cohomology of the homotopy-fibre of the \(p^a\)th power map \(SU\to SU\). An algebra \(J^*_a\) is a tensor product of a certain polynomial algebra \(P^*_a\) and a companion exterior algebra \(E^*_a\). This conjecture would follow immediately from one formulation of the Lichtenbaum-Quillen conjectures, asserting that there is a homotopy equivalence \((BGLR^+) \widehat{}\cong Y_R\), where \(Y_R\) is a certain space which is equivalent to the étale \(K\)-theory space of Dwyer and Friedlander, and whose cohomology has been computed by Dwyer and Mitchell (1993) to have exactly the desired form. Without assuming the Lichtenbaum-Quillen conjectures, it would be interesting to prove the injectivity of the induced map \(H^*Y_R\to H^*BGLR\). The present paper is a first step in that direction, focussing on the polynomial part of \(H^*Y_R\). The author shows that there is a retraction of \({\mathfrak P}\)-Hopf algebras \(H^*GLR\to P^*:= (H^*BU)^s\otimes P^*_{a_1}\otimes\cdots\otimes P^*_{a_m}\), which induces an isomorphism \(H^*GLR/(\text{nil elements})\simeq P^*\) (an element of \(H^*GL\) is nil if its restriction to every \(GL_n\) is nilpotent).