Tag - Homotopy theory

Henrik Holm: The Q-shaped derived category of a ring

24th January, 2023

The derived category, D(A), of the category Mod(A) of modules over a ring A is an important example of a triangulated category in algebra. It can be obtained as the homotopy category of the category Ch(A) of chain complexes of A-modules equipped with its standard model structure. One can view Ch(A) as the category Fun(Q, Mod(A)) of additive functors from a certain small preadditive category Q to Mod(A). The model structure on Ch(A) = Fun(Q, Mod(A)) is not inherited from a model structure on Mod(A) but arises instead from the "self-injectivity" of the special category Q. We will show that the functor category Fun(Q, Mod(A)) has two interesting model structures for many other self-injective small preadditive categories Q. These two model structures have the same weak equivalences, and the associated homotopy category is what we call the Q-shaped derived category of A. We will also show that it is possible to generalize the homology functors on Ch(A) to homology functors on Fun(Q, Mod(A)) for most self-injective small preadditive categories Q.

Laurent Bartholdi: Dimension series and homotopy groups of spheres

28th October, 2022

The lower central series of a group G is defined by γ1=G and γn = [G,γn-1]. The 'dimension series', introduced by Magnus, is defined using the group algebra over the integers:

δn = { g : g-1 belongs to the nth power of the augmentation ideal }.

It has been, for the last 80 years, a fundamental problem of group theory to relate these two series. One always has δn ≥ γn, and a conjecture by Magnus, with false proofs by Cohn, Losey, etc., claims that they coincide; but Rips constructed an example with δ4 / γ4 cyclic of order 2. On the positive side, Sjogren showed that δn / γn is always a torsion group, of exponent bounded by a function of n. Furthermore, it was believed (and falsely proved by Gupta) that only 2-torsion may occur.

In joint work with Roman Mikhailov, we prove however that every torsion abelian group may occur as a quotient δn / γn; this proves that Sjogren's result is essentially optimal.

Even more interestingly, we show that this problem is intimately connected to the homotopy groups πn(Sm) of spheres; more precisely, the quotient δn / γn is related to the difference between homotopy and homology. We may explicitly produce p-torsion elements starting from the order-p element in the homotopy group π2p(S2) due to Serre.

Elizabeth Tatum: On a Spectrum-level Splitting of the BP⟨2⟩-Cooperations Algebra

9th August, 2022

In the 1980s, Mahowald and Kane used Brown-Gitler spectra to construct splittings of bo ⋀ bo and BP⟨1⟩ ⋀ BP⟨1⟩. These splittings helped make it feasible to do computations using the bo- and BP⟨1⟩-based Adams spectral sequences. In this talk, we will discuss an analogous splitting for BP⟨2⟩ ⋀ BP⟨2⟩ at primes larger than 3.

Mark Behrens: tmf-resolutions  

19th July, 2022

I'll talk about the tmf-based Adams spectral sequence, and how it detects most of the v2-periodic elements in the known range of the 2-primary stable stems.  Parts of the material I will discuss are joint with Dominic Culver, Prasit Bhattacharya, JD Quigley, and Mark Mahowald. 

David Barnes: Sheaf models for rational stable equivariant homotopy theory

28th June, 2022

Sheaves sit at an interface of algebra and geometry. Equivariant sheaves offer even more structure, allowing for different group actions at different stalks. We are interested in the case where both the base space and group of equivariance are profinite (that is, compact, Hausdorff and totally disconnected). This combination provides many useful consequences, such as a good notion of equivariant presheaves and an explicit construction of infinite products. 

The 2019 PhD thesis of Sugrue used equivariant sheaves to give an algebraic model for rational G-equivariant stable homotopy theory, where G is profinite. In this talk I will explain the model and related results, such as the equivalence between equivariant sheaves and rational Mackey functors (for profinite G).

Hans-Werner Henn: On the Brown Comenetz dual of the K(2)-local sphere at the prime 2  

21st June, 2022

The Brown Comenetz dual I of the sphere represents the functor which on a spectrum X is given by the Pontryagin dual of the 0-th homotopy group of X. For a prime p and a chromatic level n there is a K(n)-local version In of I. For a type n-complex X, this is given by the Pontryagin dual of the 0-th homotopy group of the K(n)-localization of X. By work of Hopkins and Gross, the homotopy type of the spectra In for a prime p is determined by its Morava module if p is sufficiently large. For small primes, the result of Hopkins and Gross determines In modulo an "error term". For n=1 every odd prime is sufficiently large and the case of the prime 2 has been understood for almost 30 years. For n>2 very little is known if the prime is small. For n=2 every prime bigger than 3 is sufficiently large. The case p=3 has been settled in joint work with Paul Goerss. This talk is a report on work in progress with Paul Goerss on the case p=2. The "error term" is given by an element in the exotic Picard group which in this case is an explicitly known abelian group of order 29. We use chromatic splitting in order to get information on the error term.     

Jesper Grodal: A guided tour to the Picard group of the stable module category

24th May, 2022

The Picard group Tk(G) of the stable module category of a finite group has been an important object of study in modular representation theory, starting with work Dade in the 1970s. Its elements are equivalence classes of so-called endotrivial modules, i.e., modules M such that End(M) is isomorphic to a trivial module direct sum a projective kG-module. 1-dimensional characters, and their shifts, are examples of such modules, but often exotic elements exist as well. My talk will be a guided tour of how to calculate Tk(G), using methods from homotopy theory. The tour will visit joint work with Tobias Barthel and Joshua Hunt, with Jon Carlson, Nadia Mazza and Dan Nakano, and with Achim Krause.

Jordan Williamson: Duality and definability in triangulated categories

17th May, 2022

In the category of modules over a ring, purity may be viewed as a weakening of splitting - a short exact sequence is pure if and only if it is split exact after applying the character dual. The notion of purity in triangulated categories was introduced by Krause, and it has since been seen to be intimately related to many questions of interest in representation theory and homotopy theory. However, in general, it can be hard to check whether a class is closed under purity operations. In this talk, I will explain a framework of duality pairs in triangulated categories which provides an elementary way to check pure closure properties, and illustrate this with a range of examples, often from the tensor-triangular perspective. I will also discuss an application to the study of definable subcategories of triangulated categories.

Neil Strickland: Questions around the Chromatic Splitting Conjecture

19th April, 2022

The chromatic splitting conjecture (CSC) is an important open problem in stable homotopy theory. Although Beaudry has shown that the strongest version fails when n=p=2, one can still hope that the conjecture is valid at large primes, or up to a filtration that is nearly split in some appropriate sense.

The CSC gives a description of Ln-1LK(n)(S), but from that one can deduce similar descriptions of many other spectra, including those of the form LK(n1)LK(n2)...LK(nr)(S) with n1 < ... < nr.  The spectrum Ln(S) can be expressed as the homotopy inverse limit of a diagram of spectra of that form, and one can ask whether that, and various similar phenomena, are consistent with the CSC. We will explain a conjecture about how all this fits together, which involves some interesting algebra and combinatorics.  We will also explain how Morava K-theory Euler characteristics can be used to do some basic consistency checks.