Global structure of the mod two symmetric algebra, H^(BO; F₂) over the Steenrod Algebra

DOI10.2140/AGT.2003.3.1119MaRDI QIDQ1880608zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors David Pengelley, Frank Williams

Publication date 30 September 2004

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0312220, https://eudml.org/doc/124299, http://www.emis.de/journals/UW/agt/AGTVol3/agt-3-40.abs.html

zbMATH Keywords

\(BO\)Dickson algebrareal projective spaceSteenrod algebrasymmetric algebraunstable algebra

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Actions of groups on commutative rings; invariant theory (13A50) Actions of groups and semigroups; invariant theory (associative rings and algebras) (16W22) Graded rings and modules (associative rings and algebras) (16W50) Homology of classifying spaces and characteristic classes in algebraic topology (55R40) Homology and homotopy of (Bmathrm{O}) and (Bmathrm{U}); Bott periodicity (55R45) Primary cohomology operations in algebraic topology (55S05) Steenrod algebra (55S10)

Abstract: The algebra S of symmetric invariants over the field with two elements is an unstable algebra over the Steenrod algebra A, and is isomorphic to the mod two cohomology of BO, the classifying space for vector bundles. We provide a minimal presentation for S in the category of unstable A-algebras, i.e., minimal generators and minimal relations. From this we produce minimal presentations for various unstable A-algebras associated with the cohomology of related spaces, such as the BO(2^m-1) that classify finite dimensional vector bundles, and the connected covers of BO. The presentations then show that certain of these unstable A-algebras coalesce to produce the Dickson algebras of general linear group invariants, and we speculate about possible related topological realizability. Our methods also produce a related simple minimal A-module presentation of the cohomology of infinite dimensional real projective space, with filtered quotients the unstable modules F(2^p-1)/A bar{A}_{p-2}, as described in an independent appendix.

Review text

The authors determine a mimimal presentation of the mod~\(2\) cohomology of the classifying space \(BO\) within the category of unstable algebras over the mod~\(2\) Steenrod algebra \({\mathcal A}\). More specifically they show that \(H^*(BO)\) is isomorphic to the free unstable \({\mathcal A}\)-algebra generated by the Stiefel-Whitney classes \(\{ w_{2^k}; k\geq 0\}\) modulo the ideal generated by a two-parameter family of relations \(\{\theta_{i,j}; i,j \geq 0\}\), where \(\theta_{i,j}\) expresses the sum \(Sq^{2^j} w_{2^i} + Sq^{2^{i-1}} Sq^{2^j} w_{2^{i-1}}\) as a sum of decomposables. The authors then use this result to find corresponding minimal unstable \({\mathcal A}\)-algebra presentations also for \(H^*(BO(m)), m\geq 1\) and for the subalgebras \(B^*(n) \subset H^*(BO\langle \phi(n) \rangle), n\geq 1\), where \(B^*(n)\) by definition is the image of the map in mod~\(2\) cohomology induced by the canonical map from the \(n\)-th distinct connected cover \(BO\langle \phi(n) \rangle\) of \(BO\) down to \(BO\). As an application of the latter they show that the pushout of the homomorphisms \(H^*(BO) \to H^*(BO(2^{n+1}-1))\) and \(H^*(BO) \to B^*(n)\) can be identified with the \(n\)-th Dickson algebra \(W_{n+1}\), thereby using a characterization of the Dickson algebra \(W_{n+1}\) given in [\textit{D.~Pengelley, F.~Peterson} and \textit{F.~Williams}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 129, 263--275 (2000; Zbl 0970.55010)]. In addition they use their results to provide a mimimal unstable \({\mathcal A}\)-module presentation for \(H^*({\mathbb R}P^\infty)\) as well as for some of its subquotients. The corresponding proofs are based on calculations involving the Kudo-Araki-May algebra, which already has been investigated in detail by the authors in [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 352, 1453--1492, (2000; Zbl 0946.55012)].

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