Geometric approach towards stable homotopy groups of spheres. The Hopf invariant
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Publication:6207329
arXiv0710.5779MaRDI QIDQ6207329FDOQ6207329
Authors: Petr Akhmet'ev 
Publication date: 30 October 2007
Abstract: We develop a geometric approach to stable homotopy groups of spheres in the spirit of the work of Pontrjagin and Rokhlin. A new proof of the Hopf Invariant One Theorem by J.F.Adams is obtained in all dimensions except 15 and 31. To prove that the stable Hopf invariant H: Pi_n o Z/2 vanishes for n>31, we apply methods of geometric topology. The Pontrjagin-Thom construction along with Hirsch's compression lemma identify every alpha in Pi_n with the framed bordism class of a framed immersion of a closed n-manifold into R^{n+k}, for any given k>0. Its self-intersection M projects to an immersion f: M o R^n which is framed by k copies of a line bundle kappa. It is well-known that H(alpha) = <w_1(kappa)^{n-k}, [M]>. The self-intersection N of f is framed by k copies of a plane bundle with structure group D_4. We observe that H(alpha) = <w_1(i^*kappa)^{n-2k}, [�ar N]>, where i immerses the double cover �ar N of N into M. The hardest part of the proof is to show that, after modifying f in its skew-framed bordism class, the classifying map g: N o K(D_4,1) factors through K(Z/4,1), provided that n=2^l-1, l>5 and n-2k=15. This is achieved by analyzing immersions in the regular homotopy class of f that approximate the composition of the classifying map M o RP^{n-k}, the projection of RP^{n-k} onto the join of copies of S^1/(Z/4) (the standard sphere), and an embedding of this join in R^n. The last step is proved with the quaternions.
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