Simultaneous Kummer congruences and E_ -orientations of KO and tmf

Congruences; primitive roots; residue systems (11A07) Stable homotopy theory, spectra (55P42) Spectra with additional structure ((E_infty), (A_infty), ring spectra, etc.) (55P43) String topology (55P50)

Abstract: Building on results of M. Ando, M.J. Hopkins and C. Rezk, we show the existence of uncountably many

m a t h b b E_{i} n f t y

-String orientations of real K-theory KO and of topological modular forms tmf, generalizing the

h a t A

- (resp. the Witten) genus. Furthermore, the obstruction to lifting an

m a t h b b E_{i} n f t y

-String orientations from KO to tmf is identified with a classical Iwasawa-theoretic condition. The common key to all these results is a precise understanding of the classical Kummer congruences, imposed for all primes simultaneously. This result is of independent arithmetic interest.

Review text

The spectrum of topological modular forms \(\mathrm{tmf}\) admits an \(E_{\infty}\) orientation \(\mathrm{MString} \to \mathrm{tmf}\) inducing the Witten genus on homotopy groups. This result appears in unpublished work by Ando-Hopkins-Rezk and was first announced by \textit{M. J. Hopkins} [in: Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians, ICM 2002, Beijing, China, August 20--28, 2002. Vol. I: Plenary lectures and ceremonies. Beijing: Higher Education Press; Singapore: World Scientific/distributor. 291--317 (2002; Zbl 1031.55007)]. Analogously but simpler, the Atiyah-Bott-Shapiro orientation of the real \(K\)-theory spectrum \(KO\) admits a refinement to an \(E_{\infty}\) map \(\mathrm{MSpin} \to KO\) [\textit{M. Joachim}, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 315, 87--114 (2004; Zbl 1070.19007)]. The paper under review provides an explicit description of sets of homotopy classes of \(E_{\infty}\) orientations of this kind. Ando-Hopkins-Rezk already identified these \(E_{\infty}\) orientations with solutions to an arithmetic problem. Building on this, the authors of the present paper for example establish bijections between the sets of homotopy classes of \(E_{\infty}\) maps from \(\mathrm{MSpin}\) or \(\mathrm{MString}\) to \(KO\) and the set \(\mathbb Z^{\mathbb N_0}\). They also describe the image of a certain characteristic map from the set of homotopy classes of \(E_{\infty}\) maps from \(\mathrm{MString}\) to \(\mathrm{tmf}\) and study the relation between \(E_{\infty}\)-String orientations of \(\mathrm{tmf}\) and \(KO\). The key ingredient is an analysis of integer sequences satisfying certain generalized Kummer congruences.

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