Infinite loop spaces and nilpotent K-theory (Q518825)

Let \(G\) be a locally compact group, \(F_n\) a free group on \(n\) letters, \(\Gamma^1_n := F_n \supseteq \Gamma^2_n\supseteq \dots \) the central derived series, \(B_n(q,G) = \mathrm{Hom}(F_n/\Gamma_n^q,G)\) the space of ordered \(n\)-tuples generating a subgroup in \(G\) with nilpotency less than \(q\). For any \(q \geq 2\) the family \(\{B_n(q,G) \}_{n \geq 0}\) forms a simplicial space \(B(q, G)\) with faces and degeneracy maps induced by those in the bar construction, which is a classifying space for \(G\)-bundles of transitional nilpotency class less than \(q\) and \(B(2,G) \subseteq B(3,G) \subseteq \dots \subseteq BG\). The main result of the paper under review is Theorem 1.1, stating that for the classical groups, either the special unitary group \(\mathrm{SU}\), the unitary group \(\mathrm{U}\), the special orthogonal group \(\mathrm{SO}\), the orthogonal group \(\mathrm{O}\), or the symplectic group \(\mathrm{Sp}\), the spaces \(B(q, \mathrm{SU}), B(1,\mathrm{U}), B(q,\mathrm{SO}), B(q,\mathrm{O}), B(q, \mathrm{Sp})\) ``provide a filtration by nonunital \(E_\infty\)-ring spaces of the classical infinite loop spaces \(B\mathrm{SU}\), \(B\mathrm{U}\), \(B\mathrm{SO}\), \(B\mathrm{O}\) and \(B\mathrm{Sp}\), respectively.'' As a corollary the authors deduce that the \(q\)-nilpotent K-theory \(K_{q-\text{nil}}(X)\), which is defined from the classes of bundles with nilpotency of transition functions less than \(q\) has classifying space \( K_{q-\text{nil}}(X)= [X, \mathbb Z \times B(q, \mathrm{U}(\infty)]\) and that \( K_{q-\text{nil}}(X)\) is the zero term (Theorem 5.5) of a generalized multiplicative cohomology theory, and in particular \(K_{\mathrm{com}}(X) := K_{2-\text{nil}}(X) \to K_{3-\text{nil}}(X)\to \dots \to K(X).\)