J. Peter May

James E. McClure

Mark Steinberger

Robert R. Bruner

H Ring Spectra and Their Applications

John C. Baez

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications TOWARDS HIGHER CATEGORIES contains expository and research papers based on a highly successful IMA Summer Program on n-Categories: Foundations and Applications. We are grateful to all the participants for making this occasion a very productive and stimulating one. We would like to thank John C. Baez (Department of Mathematics, University of California Riverside) and J. Peter May (Department of Ma- ematics, University of Chicago) for their superb role as summer program organizers and editors of this volume. We take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation for its support of the IMA. Series Editors Fadil Santosa, Director of the IMA Markus Keel, Deputy Director of the IMA v PREFACE DEDICATED TO MAX KELLY, JUNE 5 1930 TO JANUARY 26 2007. This is not a proceedings of the 2004 conference “n-Categories: Fo- dations and Applications” that we organized and ran at the IMA during the two weeks June 7–18, 2004! We thank all the participants for helping make that a vibrant and inspiring occasion. We also thank the IMA sta? for a magni?cent job. There has been a great deal of work in higher c- egory theory since then, but we still feel that it is not yet time to o?er a volume devoted to the main topic of the conference.

Towards Higher Categories

M. Cole

L. G. Lewis

Robert John Piacenza

G. Comezana

S. Costenoble

Anthony D. Elmendorf

J. P. C. Greenlees

This volume introduces equivariant homotopy, homology, and cohomology theory, along with various related topics in modern algebraic topology. It explains the main ideas behind some of the most striking recent advances in the subject. The book begins with a development of the equivariant algebraic topology of spaces culminating in a discussion of the Sullivan conjecture that emphasizes its relationship with classical Smith theory. It then introduces equivariant stable homotopy theory, the equivariant stable homotopy category, and the most important examples of equivariant cohomology theories. The basic machinery that is needed to make serious use of equivariant stable homotopy theory is presented next, along with discussions of the Segal conjecture and generalized Tate cohomology.Finally, the book gives an introduction to 'brave new algebra', the study of point-set level algebraic structures on spectra and its equivariant applications. Emphasis is placed on equivariant complex cobordism, and related results on that topic are presented in detail. It introduces many of the fundamental ideas and concepts of modern algebraic topology. It presents comprehensive material not found in any other book on the subject. It provides a coherent overview of many areas of current interest in algebraic topology. It surveys a great deal of material, explaining main ideas without getting bogged down in details.

Dedicated to the Memory of Robert J. Piacenza

Equivariant Homotopy and Cohomology Theory

Classifying Spaces and Fibrations

Johann Sigurdsson

This book develops rigorous foundations for parametrized homotopy theory, which is the algebraic topology of spaces and spectra that are continuously parametrized by the points of a base space. It also begins the systematic study of parametrized homology and cohomology theories. The parametrized world provides the natural home for many classical notions and results, such as orientation theory, the Thom isomorphism, Atiyah and Poincare duality, transfer maps, the Adams and Wirthmuller isomorphisms, and the Serre and Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequences. But in addition to providing a clearer conceptual outlook on these classical notions, it also provides powerful methods to study new phenomena, such as twisted $K$-theory, and to make new constructions, such as iterated Thom spectra. Duality theory in the parametrized setting is particularly illuminating and comes in two flavors. One allows the construction and analysis of transfer maps, and a quite different one relates parametrized homology to parametrized cohomology. The latter is based formally on a new theory of duality in symmetric bicategories that is of considerable independent interest. The text brings together many recent developments in homotopy theory. It provides a highly structured theory of parametrized spectra, and it extends parametrized homotopy theory to the equivariant setting. The theory of topological model categories is given a more thorough treatment than is available in the literature. This is used, together with an interesting blend of classical methods, to resolve basic foundational problems that have no nonparametrized counterparts.

Parametrized Homotopy Theory

L. Gaunce Jr. Lewis

This book is a foundational piece of work in stable homotopy theory and in the theory of transformation groups. It may be roughly divided into two parts. The first part deals with foundations of (equivariant) stable homotopy theory. A workable category of CW-spectra is developed. The foundations are such that an action of a compact Lie group is considered throughout, and spectra allow desuspension by arbitrary representations. But even if the reader forgets about group actions, he will find many details of the theory worked out for the first time. More subtle constructions like smash products, function spectra, change of group isomorphisms, fixed point and orbit spectra are treated. While it is impossible to survey properly the material which is covered in the book, it does boast these general features: (i) a thorough and reliable presentation of the foundations of the theory; (ii) a large number of basic results, principal applications, and fundamental techniques presented for the first time in a coherent theory, unifying numerous treatments of special cases in the literature.

Equivariant Stable Homotopy Theory

The purpose of this book is to give background for those who would like to delve into some higher category theory. It is not a primer on higher category theory itself. It begins with a paper by John Baez and Michael Shulman which explores informally, by analogy and direct connection, how cohomology and other tools of algebraic topology are seen through the eyes of n-category theory. The idea is to give some of the motivations behind this subject. There are then two survey articles, by Julie Bergner and Simona Paoli, about (infinity,1) categories and about the algebraic modelling of homotopy n-types. These are areas that are particularly well understood, and where a fully integrated theory exists. The main focus of the book is on the richness to be found in the theory of bicategories, which gives the essential starting point towards the understanding of higher categorical structures. An article by Stephen Lack gives a thorough, but informal, guide to this theory. A paper by Larry Breen on the theory of gerbes shows how such categorical structures appear in differential geometry. This book is dedicated to Max Kelly, the founder of the Australian school of category theory, and an historical paper by Ross Street describes its development.

J. Peter May

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