Equivariant formal group laws and complex oriented cohomology theories (Q5947969)

This article develops the idea of an \(A\)-equivariant formal group law and its applications in topology. For most of the article \(A\) is an abelian compact Lie group. In non-equivariant topology formal group laws occur associated to complex oriented cohomology theories, i.e., theories for which \(E^*({\mathbb C}P^\infty) \simeq E_* [[x]]\). A central result is Quillen's proof that the formal group law associated to complex cobordism, \(MU^*(\quad)\), is universal. An \(A\)-equivariant formal group law is a complete topological Hopf algebra \(R\) over \(k\) together with a homomorphism \(\theta: R \to k^{A^*}\) (where \(A^*\) is the dual of \(A\)) inducing the topology on \(R\) and an orientation \(y(\varepsilon) \in R\) satisfying certain conditions. In contrast to the non-equivariant case \(R\) need not be a power series ring. This definition was originally formulated in \textit{M. M. Cole, J. P. C. Greenlees} and \textit{I. Kriz} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 81, 355-386 (2000; Zbl 1030.55004)]. A complex oriented equivariant cohomology theory is a multiplicative \(RO(A)\) graded equivariant cohomology theory \(E^*_A(\cdot)\) on \(A\)-spaces with the stability property \(E^{|V|+n}_A (S^V \wedge X) \simeq E^n_A(X)\) and possessing an orientation \(x(\varepsilon) \in E^*_A( {\mathbb C}P({\mathcal U}), {\mathbb C} P(\varepsilon))\) i.e., an element whose restriction for each \(1\)-dimensional representation \(\alpha \in A^*\) generates \(E^*_A({\mathbb C}P(\varepsilon \oplus \alpha), {\mathbb C}P(\varepsilon))\). \(\mathcal U\) here is a complete \(A\)-universe. The equivariant formal group law associated to such a theory is given by \(R = E^*_A({\mathbb C}P({\mathcal U}))\) with coproduct induced by tensor product, \(\theta\) induced by \(A^* \to {\mathbb C}P({\mathcal U})\) and \(y(\varepsilon) = x(\varepsilon)\). The author provides a survey of examples of such theories and their properties including bordism theories and \(K\)-theories and proves an analog of Quillen's theorem in the restricted case of \(A\) finite. The paper concludes with a discussion of the modifications necessary to extend these ideas to the case of non-abelian \(A\).