The topological nilpotence degree of a Noetherian unstable algebra (Q829620)

When \(G\) is a compact Lie group, or even just a finite group, the mod \(p\) cohomology ring \(H^\ast_G=H^\ast(BG; \mathbb{F}_p)\) can be extremely complicated. Nonetheless, the global structure of the ring is better understood. This has its origin in \textit{D. Quillen}'s works on equivariant cohomology [Ann. Math. (2) 94, 549--572, 573--602 (1971; Zbl 0247.57013)]. Quillen showed that the Krull dimension of \(H^\ast_G\) is the maximal rank of an elementary abelian \(p\)-subgroup of \(G\). The cohomology \(H^\ast_G\) has an action of the Steenrod algebra \(\mathcal{A}\), and is in fact an unstable \(\mathcal{A}\)-module. As it was shown by \textit{H.-W. Henn} et al. [Math. Ann. 301, No. 1, 23--68 (1995; Zbl 0869.55016)], Quillen's theorem can be restated internally in the category of unstable modules over the Steenrod algebra \(\mathcal{A}\). \par The author investigates the topological nilpotence degree, in the sense of Henn-Lannes-Schwartz, of a connected Noetherian unstable algebra \(R\). When \(R\) is the mod \(p\) cohomology ring of a compact Lie group, \textit{N. J. Kuhn} [Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 56, No. 1, 151--175 (2013; Zbl 1275.55011)] showed how this invariant is controlled by centralizers of elementary abelian \(p\)-subgroups. Inspired by this, the author generalizes Kuhn's result to a large class of connected Noetherian unstable algebras and shows how this extends Kuhn's result to more general classes of groups, such as groups of finite virtual cohomological dimension, profinite groups, and Kac-Moody groups. In fact, his results apply much more generally, for \(p\)-local compact groups in the sense of \textit{C. Broto} et al. [Invent. Math. 151, No. 3, 611--664 (2003; Zbl 1042.55008)] and others. At the end, the author formulates and proves a version of \textit{J. F. Carlson}'s depth conjecture [Math. Z. 218, No. 3, 461--468 (1995; Zbl 0837.20062)] in the case of a Noetherian unstable algebra of minimal depth.