The stable homotopy category has a unique model at the prime 2 (Q5957496)

The main results are these: Theorem 1. Let \(\mathfrak C\) be a stable model category. If the homotopy category of \(\mathfrak C\) and the 2-local homotopy category of spectra are equivalent as triangulated categories, then there exists a Quillen equivalence between \(\mathfrak C\) and the 2-local model category of spectra. The author proves a somewhat refined result: Theorem 2. Let \(\mathfrak C\) be a stable model category whose homotopy category is compactly generated. Suppose that the full subcategory of compact objects in the homotopy category of \(\mathfrak C\) and the homotopy category of finite 2-local spectra are equivalent as triangulated categories. Then there exists a Quillen equivalence between \(\mathfrak C\) and the 2-local model category of spectra, such that the left adjoint has \(\mathfrak C\) as its target. Here a stable model category is one, which is complete and cocomplete and with loop and suspension functors inverse to each other on the homotopy level. The main result gives a partial answer to the uniqueness hypothesis for a model structure in the sense of Margolis. There are ``exotic'' model structures in some other cases, but it is not known if a similar result holds for an odd prime \(p\). The basic tool for proving the main theorems above is the following result: Theorem 3. Let \(F\) be an exact endofunctor of the homotopy category of finite 2-local spectra. If \(F\) takes the 2-local sphere spectrum up to an isomorphism to itself, then \(F\) is a self-equivalence. The proof of this assertion, presented by the author, cannot be immediately extended to odd primes.