A Lambda Complex for the Adams-Novikov Spectral Sequence for Spheres (Q4032181)

The computation of homotopy groups of spheres has been one of the most central and intractable problems in algebraic topology. After the Serre spectral sequence, Toda brackets and the EHP sequence in the 1950s and 1960s, the Adams spectral sequence became one of the most useful tools for computing the stable homotopy of spheres to which it converges. Its \(E_ 2\)-term is given by the homology of the lambda algebra of Bousfield, Curtis, Kan, Quillen, Rector and Schlesinger, which has been one of the methods used to compute \(\text{Ext}_ A(Z_ p,Z_ p)\) over the Steenrod algebra (by Barratt, Mahowald, Tangora and others). Furthermore, the homology of certain quotients of the lambda algebra gives the \(E_ 2\)-term of the unstable Adams spectral sequence, converging to the unstable homotopy groups of spheres. Another spectral sequence converging to the stable homotopy groups of spheres is the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence, based on the Brown- Peterson spectrum BP. The lambda complex of the title is an analogue of the classical lambda algebra for the Adams-Novikov spectral sequence. Although similar to the lambda algebra, it also is different in several ways: (a) It is not an algebra; (b) the groups are torsion \(p\)-groups, not \(\text{mod }p\) vector spaces or free \(Z_{(p)}\)-modules; (c) the relations contain summands that are products of longer length. Despite the complex technicalities of the resulting theory, the exposition seems very careful. The author hopes to carry out computations based on this lambda complex in a future paper.