Chromatic characteristic classes in ordinary group cohomology

Chern classes coalgebraic algebra generalized group characters group cohomology Hopf rings Hurewicz map Morava \(E\)-theory spectrum of cohomology rings

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Cohomology of groups (20J06) Generalized (extraordinary) homology and cohomology theories in algebraic topology (55N20) Infinite loop spaces (55P47) Homology of classifying spaces and characteristic classes in algebraic topology (55R40)

Abstract: We study a family of subrings, indexed by the natural numbers, of the mod-p cohomology of a finite group G. These subrings are based on a family of v_n-periodic complex oriented cohomology theories and are constructed as rings of generalised characteristic classes. We identify the varieties associated to these subrings in terms of colimits over categories of elementary abelian subgroups of G, naturally interpolating between the work of Quillen on var(H^*(BG)), the variety of the whole cohomology ring, and that of Green and Leary on the variety of the Chern subring, var(Ch(G)). Our subrings give rise to a "chromatic" (co)filtration, which has both topological and algebraic definitions, of var(H^*(BG)) whose final quotient is the variety var(Ch(G)).

Review text

Let \(p\) be a prime, let \(k\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic equal to \(p\), and let \({\mathbb F}_p\) be the prime field. Let \(\text{var}(R)\) for an \({\mathbb F}_p\)-algebra \(R\) denote the variety of algebra homomorphisms from \(R\) to \(k\), topologized with the Zariski topology. Moreover let \(H\) denote cohomology with coefficients in \({\mathbb F}_p\). In [Ann. Math. (2) 94, 549-572, 573-602 (1971; Zbl 0247.57013)], \textit{D. Quillen} showed the celebrated result that \(var(H(BG))\) for a finite group \(G\) is homeomorphic to the colimit\break \(\text{colim}_{A} \text{var}(H(BV))\) where \(A(1)\) is the category whose objects are the elementary abelian \(p\)-subgroups \(V\subset G\) and whose set of morphisms is generated by inclusions and conjugations. \textit{D. Green} and \textit{I. Leary} [Comment. Math. Helv. 73, 406-426 (1998; Zbl 0916.20038)] obtained a similar statement for the Chern ring \(\text{Ch}(G)\) which is the subring of \(H(BG)\) generated by the mod-\(p\) Chern classes of irreducible representations of \(G\). They showed that \(\text{var(Ch}(G))\) can be identified with the colimit \(\text{colim}_{A(1)} \text{var}(H(BV))\) where \(A(1)\) is the category whose objects are the elementary abelian \(p\)-subgroups and whose morphisms are the homomorphisms \(f:V \to W\) which preserve the characters of \(G\) in the sense that \(f^*\text{Res}_V(\chi)= \text{Res}_W(\chi)\) for all characters \(\chi\) of \(G\). In the paper under review the authors put the two statements into a broader context. Given any representable generalized cohomology theory \(E\) with coefficients concentrated in even degrees they define the \(E\)-Chern ring \(\text{Ch}_E(G) \subset H(BG)\): by definition it is the subring generated by the pullbacks of the mod-\(p\)-cohomology classes of the infinite loop spaces \(E_{2r}\) representing the functors \(E^{2r}\) for integers \(r\). They then show that for any Landweber exact cohomology theory \(E\) as above there is a category \(A_E\) consisting of homomorphisms between elementary abelian \(p\)-subgroups of \(G\) so that \(\text{var(Ch}_E(G)) \cong \text{colim}_{A_E} \text{var}(H(BV))\). In case \(E=K\) is complex \(K\)-theory one gets \(\text{Ch}_K(G) = \text{Ch}(G)\) and \(A_K=A(1)\); in case \(E=H\) one gets \(\text{Ch}_H(G) = H(BG)\) and \(A_H=A\). The authors then relate this result to the concept of chromatic filtration in stable homotopy theory. More precisely, they consider the cases where \(E= \widehat{E(n)}\) is one of the completed Johnson-Wilson cohomology theories and thereby obtain a natural filtration \(\text{Ch}_{\widehat{E(1)}}(G) \subset \text{Ch}_{\widehat{E(2)}}(G) \subset \text{Ch}_{\widehat{E(3)}}(G) \subset \dots \subset H(BG)\). The corresponding categories \(A(n):=A_{\widehat{E(n)}}\) are described explicitly, and the authors give an interpretation of the categories \(A(n)\) in terms of the generalized character theory due to \textit{M. J. Hopkins, N. J. Kuhn} and \textit{D. C. Ravenel} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 13, 553-594 (2000; Zbl 1007.55004)]. The categories \(A(n)\) in fact already appeared in [\textit{D. Green} and \textit{I. Leary}, loc. cit.] where Green and Leary proved that \(\text{colim}_{A(n)} \text{var}(H(BV)) \cong \text{var}(R_n)\) for some subring \(R_n \subset H(BG)\). The present paper essentially arose from trying to explicitly identify the ring \(R_n\).

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