Secondary Steenrod operations in cohomology of infinite-dimensional projective spaces (Q881021)

The author gives a construction of \(\mathbb Z/2\)-secondary operations by using the action of \(E_\infty\)-operads, and studies the action of the operations on the cohomology of infinite dimensional projective spaces. Here, an \(E_\infty\)-operad is an operad \(\{E(j)\}\) in the category of chain complexes such that each \(E(j)\) is \(\Sigma_j\)-free and acyclic, where \(\Sigma_j\) is the \(j\)-th permutation group. In particular, the complex \(E(2)\) can be thought of as a \(\Sigma_2\)-free complex spanned by elements \(e_n\) of dimension \(n\). The author first reviews the construction of the Steenrod operation \(Sq^i\) from the action of an \(E_\infty\)-operad. Let \(C^*(X)\) be the cochain complex of a topological space \(X\), and \(\{E(j)\}\) an \(E_\infty\)-operad. Put \(E(j;C^*(X))=E(j)\otimes_{\Sigma_j}C^*(X)^{\otimes j}\). If \(\mu(j)\colon E(j;C^*(X)) \to C^*(X)\) is an action of \(E\) on \(C^*(X)\), then passing to homology, we obtain the map \[ \mu_*(j)\colon E_*(j;H^*(X)) \to H^*(X). \] Then, for any cocyle \(x_n \in C^n(X)\), the element \(e_i\otimes x_n \otimes x_n\) represents a homology class in \(E_*(2;H^*(X))\), and the value of \(\mu_*(2)\) on this class is \(Sq^{n-i}(x_n)\). Next, the author defines a secondary operation \[ \mu_*^1:E_*(2;E_*(2;H^*(X))) \to H^*(X) \] from maps \(\gamma:E(2;E(2;C^*(X))) \to E(4;C^*(X))\), \(\mu(4): E(4;C^*(X)) \to C^*(X)\), \(E(2;\mu(2)):E(2;E(2;C^*(X))) \to E(2;C^*(X))\) and \(\mu(2): E(2;C^*(X)) \to C^*(X)\) with \(\mu(4)\gamma=\mu(2)E(2;\mu(2))\), where \(\gamma\) is defined by using the structure of the operad \(\{E(j)\}\). For any cocycle \(x_n \in C^n(X)\), the element \(e_i \otimes e_j^{\otimes 2}\otimes (x_n)^{\otimes 4} \in E(2;C^*(X))\) represents a homology class in \(E_*(2;E_*(2;H^*(X)))\), and the value of \(\mu_*^1\) on this class is denoted by \(\langle Sq^{2n-j-i}, Sq^{n-j}, x_n\rangle \in H^{4n-2j-i-1}(X)\). Let \(u_n \in H^n(\mathbb{RP}^\infty)\) be the non zero element. Then the author shows that \[ \langle Sq^{2n-j-i}, Sq^{n-j}, u_n\rangle = \binom{n}{j+2^r} \binom{j+2^r}{2^{r+1}} \binom{n-j-2^r}{k}\binom{j-2^r}{i+1-2k} u_{4n-2j-i-1}. \] It is also shown that if \(u_{2n} \in H^{2n}(\mathbb{CP}^\infty)\) is the nonzero element, then \[ \langle Sq^{4n-2j-2i+1}, Sq^{2n-2j}, u_{2n}\rangle =\binom{n}{j+2^r}\binom{j+2^r}{2^{r+1}}\binom{n-j-2^r}{k}\binom{j-2^r}{i-2k} u_{8n-4j-2i}. \]