Rigidity and exotic models for the \(K\)-local stable homotopy category (Q2464838)

A very basic fact in model-category theory states that Quillen equivalent model categories have equivalent homotopy categories. It is an interesting and subtle problem to investigate a converse of this result. To this end, suppose we have two stable model categories whose homotopy categories are equivalent as triangulated categories. Then, are the given stable model categories Quillen equivalent? In other words, can we recover the (stable) model structure from the (triangulated) structure of its homotopy category? Recall that one often looses information when passing from a model category to its homotopy category. Therefore, any affirmative instance of the above question is interesting and quite surprising. Such affirmative results are referred to as rigidity theorems and are quite rare. \textit{S. Schwede} [Ann. Math. (2) 166, No. 3, 837--863 (2007; Zbl 1151.55007)] proved a rigidity theorem for the stable homotopy category \(\text{Ho}(\mathcal{S})\) of spectra which gives a non-trivial affirmative instance of the above question [see also \textit{S. Schwede}, Adv. Math. 164, No. 1, 24--40 (2001; Zbl 0992.55019) and \textit{S. Schwede} and \textit{B. Shipley}, Math. Z. 239, No. 4, 803--828 (2002; Zbl 1009.55012) for some earlier work leading to this result]. In this paper, the author proves a rigidity theorem for the \(K\)-local stable homotopy category at the prime \(2\) which is analogous to Schwede's result. (Here \(K\) denotes the spectrum that represents complex \(K\)-theory.) To explain in more detail, let \(\mathcal C\) be a stable model category and let \(L_1{\mathcal{S}}\) denote the \(K\)-local category of spectra at the prime \(2\). The main result of the paper states that if \(\text{Ho}(L_1\mathcal{S})\) and \(\text{Ho}(\mathcal C)\) are equivalent as triangulated categories, then the underlying model categories \(L_1 \mathcal{S}\) and \(\mathcal C\) are Quillen equivalent. It is interesting to note that the author's result cannot be extended to odd primes. As pointed out in the paper, a counter-example (exotic model) is given by Jens Franke. The second main result in the paper gives a necessary and sufficient condition for a given stable model for the \(K\)-local stable homotopy category at odd primes to be exotic. Finally, it is worth pointing out that there is also a rigidity theorem in the context of derived categories of rings due to \textit{D. Dugger} and \textit{B. Shipley} [Duke Math. J. 124, No. 3, 587--617 (2004; Zbl 1056.19002)]. This states that if \(A\) and \(B\) are two rings whose derived categories \(D(A)\) and \(D(B)\) are equivalent as triangulated categories, then the underlying projective model structures on the respective categories of chain complexes \(\text{Ch}(A)\) and \(\text{Ch}(B)\) are Quillen equivalent. It follows that the rings \(A\) and \(B\) will then have identical algebraic \(K\)-theories.