The Universal Steenrod Algebra at Odd Primes (Q3158231)

The (mod \(p\)) universal Steenrod algebra is the algebra \(Q_{p}\) of cohomology operations in the category \({\mathcal C}(p, \infty)\) of \(H_{\infty}\)-ring spectra. It has generators \(P^{i}\) of dimension \(2i(p-1)\) and \(\beta P^{i}\) of dimension \(2i(p-1) + 1\) which satisfy a set of relations based on the Adem relations. This paper gives an invariant theory based construction for \(Q_{p}\), from which it is possible to compute its diagonal cohomology. One starts with the ring \(\Phi_{n}\) which is the cohomology \(H^{*}(({\mathbb Z}/p)^{n})\) localized at the Euler class. The subgroup \(B_{n}\) of upper triangular matrices acts on \(\Phi_{n}\), and one defines \(\Delta_{n} = \Phi_{n}^{B_{n}}\). In addition one can define \(\Gamma_{n} = \Phi_{n}^{GL_{n}}\) where \(GL_{n}\) is the general linear group. If \(\Delta\) is defined as \(\bigoplus_{n\geq 0} \Delta_{n}\) with a suitable product, the authors show that the quotient \(Q = \Delta / (\Gamma_{2})\) is isomorphic to \(Q_{p}\). They further show that the diagonal cohomology \(D^{*}(Q_{p})\) derived from the complex \(H^{**}(Q_{p}) = Ext_{Q_{p}}({\mathbb F}_{p},{\mathbb F}_{p})\) is isomorphic to a completion of \(Q_{p}\). The proofs depend on detailed computations.