The stable homotopy category is rigid (Q2482875)

The beautiful rigidity theorem asserts that if the homotopy category of a stable model category \(\mathcal C\) and that of spectra are equivalent as triangulated categories, then there exists a Quillen equivalence between \(\mathcal C\) and the model category of spectra. If \(\Phi\) is such an equivalence of triangulated categories, the author chooses a fibrant object \(X\) in \(\mathcal C\) which is isomorphic to \(\Phi({\mathbf S}^0)\) in the homotopy category and proves that the functor \(- \wedge X\) and its right adjoint form a Quillen equivalence. For this it suffices to show that the composite \(F=\Phi^{-1} \circ (- \wedge^L X)\) is an equivalence on the homotopy category of spectra. The first step is a reduction to \(p\)-local spectra. Because the images under \(F\) of the Hopf maps are non-trivial and homotopy groups of spheres are generated under higher order Toda brackets by the Hopf maps and \(\alpha_1\), it is enough to see that the image of the map \(\alpha_1: {\mathbf S}^{2p-3} \rightarrow {\mathbf S}^{0}\) is non-trivial (this argument relies on the author's earlier work [Adv. Math. 164, No.1, 24-40 (2001; Zbl 0992.55019)]). The whole game is thus to find a contradiction if \(F(\alpha_1)\) were trivial, which is done via the theory of coherent actions of Moore spaces set up in the first sections. Let \(M\) be the Moore space \(M(\mathbb Z/p, 2)\) and \(D_i M = M^{\wedge i} \bigwedge_{\Sigma_i} E\Sigma_i^+\) be its \(i\)-th extended power. Roughly speaking a \(k\)-coherent action of \(M\) on \(X\) -- and suspensions -- consists in strictly associative and unital ``multiplications'' \(D_i M \wedge X_{(j)} \rightarrow X_{(i+j)}\) for \(i+j \leq k\), where the homotopical flexibility comes from the fact that \(X_{(j)}\) is only required to be homotopy equivalent to \(\Sigma^{2j-2} X\). The Moore space acts on itself in a \((p-1)\)-coherent way, but not in a \(p\)-coherent way due to the non-triviality of \(\alpha_1\). This also yields a \((p-1)\)-coherent action of \(M\) on \(M \wedge Y\) for any spectrum~\(Y\). Now, if \(F(\alpha_1)\) were trivial, the spectrum \(M \wedge F({\mathbf S}^{-2})\) would inherit a \(p\)-coherent action. This is the starting point of a clever iterative construction of spectra with certain prescribed non-trivial Steenrod operations which end up contradicting an Adem relation. What makes the construction possible is the compatibility with the triangulated structure, and in particular with the multiplication by~\(p\) on a sphere (the homotopy cofiber of which is a Moore space). It is quite amazing that this little forces in the end all the higher structure to agree.