On the cokernel of the Thom morphism for compact Lie groups (Q6987748)

In this work, the authors study the surjectivity of the Thom morphism, \(\tau\colon MU\to H\mathbb Z\), from complex cobordism to integral singular cohomology. (A cobordism class \(g\colon M\to X\) is sent by \(\tau\) to the pushforward of the Poincaré dual of the fundamental class of \(M\).) They answer with a complete characterization in the case of compact connected Lie groups with simple Lie algebra. Moreover, in the minimal degree where \(\tau\) fails to be surjective, they provide concrete non-torsion classes which are not in the image of \(\tau\). Their proof uses the action of the Steenrod algebra and the fact that the Thom morphism is an edge map in the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence, \(E_{2}^{p,q}=H^p(X;\mathrm{MU}^q)\Rightarrow\mathrm{MU}^{p+q}(X) \). They also deduce non-trivial elements in the kernel of the induced differential Thom morphism from differential cobordism of Hopkins and Singer to differential cohomology. They do explicit constructions in the case of the special orthogonal groups.