Divided power structures and chain complexes

We interpret divided power structures on the homotopy groups of simplicial commutative rings as having a counterpart in divided power structures on chain complexes coming from a non-standard symmetric monoidal structure

Commutative ring spectra

In this survey paper on commutative ring spectra we present some basic features of commutative ring spectra and discuss model category structures. As a first interesting class of examples of such ring spectra we focus on (commutative) algebra spectra over commutative Eilenberg-MacLane ring spectra. We present two constructions that yield commutative ring spectra: Thom spectra associated to infinite loop maps and Segal's construction starting with bipermutative categories. We define topological Hochschild homology, some of its variants, and topological Andre-Quillen homology. Obstruction theory for commutative structures on ring spectra is described in two versions. The notion of etale extensions in the spectral world is tricky and we explain why. We define Picard groups and Brauer groups of commutative ring spectra and present examples.Comment: This is intended as a book chapter. Comments welcome

An interpretation of E_n-homology as functor homology

We prove that E_n-homology of non-unital commutative algebras can be described as functor homology when one considers functors from a certain category of planar trees with n levels. For different n these homology theories are connected by natural maps, ranging from Hochschild homology and its higher order versions to Gamma homology.Comment: More details for the proof of 3.8 and 3.10, part 4 changed: the proof of the main theorem uses homology of small categories which is explained in 4.2 and 4.3. To appear in Mathematische Zeitschrif

On the cooperation algebra of the connective Adams summand

The aim of this paper is to gain explicit information about the multiplicative structure of l_*l, where l is the connective Adams summand. Our approach differs from Kane's or Lellmann's because our main technical tool is the MU-based Kuenneth spectral sequence. We prove that the algebra structure on l_*l is inherited from the multiplication on a Koszul resolution of l_*BP.Comment: Small change

On the homology and homotopy of commutative shuffle algebras

For commutative algebras there are three important homology theories, Harrison homology, Andre-Quillen homology and Gamma-homology. In general these differ, unless one works with respect to a ground field of characteristic zero. We show that the analogues of these homology theories agree in the category of pointed commutative monoids in symmetric sequences and that Hochschild homology always possesses a Hodge decomposition in this setting. In addition we prove that the category of pointed differential graded commutative monoids in symmetric sequences has a model structure and that it is Quillen equivalent to the model category of pointed simplicial commutative monoids in symmetric sequences.Comment: Added result about divided power structure

Realizability of algebraic Galois extensions by strictly commutative ring spectra

We discuss some of the basic ideas of Galois theory for commutative S-algebras originally formulated by John Rognes. We restrict attention to the case of finite Galois groups and to global Galois extensions. We describe parts of the general framework developed by Rognes. Central roles are played by the notion of strong duality and a trace mapping constructed by Greenlees and May in the context of generalized Tate cohomology. We give some examples where algebraic data on coefficient rings ensures strong topological consequences. We consider the issue of passage from algebraic Galois extensions to topological ones applying obstruction theories of Robinson and Goerss-Hopkins to produce topological models for algebraic Galois extensions and the necessary morphisms of commutative S-algebras. Examples such as the complex K-theory spectrum as a KO-algebra indicate that more exotic phenomena occur in the topological setting. We show how in certain cases topological abelian Galois extensions are classified by the same Harrison groups as algebraic ones and this leads to computable Harrison groups for such spectra. We end by proving an analogue of Hilbert's theorem 90 for the units associated with a Galois extension.Comment: 28 pages, final version, to appear in Transactions of the American Mathematical Societ

The collapse of the periodicity sequence in the stable range

The stabilization of Hochschild homology of commutative algebras is Gamma homology. We describe a cyclic variant of Gamma homology and prove that the associated analogue of Connes' periodicity sequence becomes almost trivial, because the cyclic version coincides with the ordinary version from homological degree two on. We offer an alternative explanation for this by proving that the B-operator followed by the stabilization map is trivial from degree one on.Comment: 10 page

Some properties of Lubin-Tate cohomology for classifying spaces of finite groups

We consider brave new cochain extensions $F(BG_+,R)\to F(EG_+,R)$, where $R$ is either a Lubin-Tate spectrum $E_n$ or the related 2-periodic Morava K-theory $K_n$, and $G$ is a finite group. When $R$ is an Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum, in some good cases such an extension is a $G$-Galois extension in the sense of John Rognes, but not always faithful. We prove that for $E_n$ and $K_n$ these extensions are always faithful in the $K_n$ local category. However, for a cyclic $p$-group $C_{p^r}$, the cochain extension $F({BC_{p^r}}_+,E_n) \to F({EC_{p^r}}_+,E_n)$ is not a Galois extensions because it ramifies. As a consequence, it follows that the $E_n$-theory Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence for $G$ and $BG$ does not always converge to its expected target.Comment: Minor changes, section on Frobenius algebra structure removed. Final version: to appear in Central European Journal of Mathematics under title `Galois theory and Lubin-Tate cochains on classifying spaces

A spectral sequence for the homology of a finite algebraic delooping

In the world of chain complexes E_n-algebras are the analogues of based n-fold loop spaces in the category of topological spaces. Fresse showed that operadic E_n-homology of an E_n-algebra computes the homology of an n-fold algebraic delooping. The aim of this paper is to construct two spectral sequences for calculating these homology groups and to treat some concrete classes of examples such as Hochschild cochains, graded polynomial algebras and chains on iterated loop spaces. In characteristic zero we gain an identification of the summands in Pirashvili's Hodge decomposition of higher order Hochschild homology in terms of derived functors of indecomposables of Gerstenhaber algebras and as the homology of exterior and symmetric powers of derived K\"ahler differentials.Comment: New version fixes a minor error in Proposition 2.

On higher topological Hochschild homology of rings of integers

We determine higher topological Hochschild homology of rings of integers in number fields with coefficients in suitable residue fields. We use the iterative description of higher THH for this and Postnikov arguments that allow us to reduce the necessary computations to calculations in homological algebra, starting from the results of B\"okstedt and Lindenstrauss-Madsen on (ordinary) topological Hochschild homology