On \(p\)-adic \(\lambda\)-rings and the \(K\)-theory of \(H\)-spaces (Q5961419)

A general structure theorem is obtained for torsion-free bicommutative \(p\)-adic Hopf algebras equipped with Adams operations \(\psi^p\), showing that such Hopf algebras are naturally equivalent to \(p\)-adic \(\psi^p\)-modules. This leads to a theory of free unstable algebras for \(p\)-adic \(K\)-cohomology, quite analogous to the Steenrod-Epstein theory of \(U(M)\) algebras for mod \(p\) cohomology. For a finite 1-connected \(H\)-space \(X\), the theory is applied to express \(K^*(\Omega X;Z_p)\) functorially in terms of \(K^*(X;Z_p)\) and \(H^3 (X;Z_p)\), and to determine the Hopf algebra \(K_*(\Omega X;\mathbb{F}_p)\) together with its Dieudonné module. For a possibly nonfinite 1-connected \(H\)-space \(Y\) and \(p\) odd, the \(K/p\)-acyclicity of \(Y\) is shown to imply the \(K/p\)-acyclicity of \(\Omega Y\) whenever \(H^3 (Y;Z_p)=0\).