On the notion of order in the stable module category [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Martin Langer

Martin Langer

Sujets

• Mathematics

Informations

• Publié par: rheinische_friedrich-wilhelms-universitat_bonn
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 11
• Langue: English

Extrait

On the notion of order in the stable module category
Dissertation
zur
Erlangung des Doktorgrades (Dr. rer. nat.)
der
Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakult at
der
Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit at Bonn
vorgelegt von
Martin Langer
aus
Marburg
Bonn, 2009Angefertigt mit Genehmigung der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultat der
Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universiatt Bonn
1. Referent: Prof. Dr. Stefan Schwede
2. Referent: Prof. Dr. Catharina Stroppel
Tag der Promotion: 03.11.2009
Diese Dissertation ist auf dem Hochschulschriftenserver der ULB Bonn
http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/diss_online elektronisch publiziert.
Erscheinungsjahr: 2009Contents
On the notion of order in the stable module category
Martin Langer
Abstract
The notion of order in triangulated categories, as introduced by Schwede, is in-
vestigated in the case of the stable category of kG-modules, where k is a eld of
characteristicp andG is a nite group. For Tate cohomology classes of even degree,
we obtain bounds on the-order which are amazingly similar to corresponding results
on the p-order in the stable homotopy category.
On our way we introduce a power operationP on Tate cohomology which serves1
as an obstruction for the -order to be larger than its minimal possible value. Fur-
thermore, it enables us to compute certain higher Massey products explicitly.
Contents
1 Prerequisites 6
1.1 The stable module category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 The graded center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 The notion of order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 Tensor powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5 Symmetric and exterior powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.6 and powers in the stable category . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 The lower bound 16
3 The power operation 21
3.1 Negative Ext-groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2 A map of cochain complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3 De nitions and basic properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4 The Cartan formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.5 Comparison with Steenrod operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.6 The power operation for G =Z=pZZ=pZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.7 Further examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4 An obstruction for higher order 55
4.1 A commutative square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2 Completion of the proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

This research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within the graduate program
‘Homotopy and Cohomology’ (No. GRK 1150)
1Contents
5 Toda brackets 62
5.1 Toda brackets and Massey products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.2 Toda brackets and order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.3 Toda brackets and coherent modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.4 Example for equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6 A counterexample 81
2Introduction
Introduction
Let G be a nite group and k be a eld of prime characteristic p> 0, and let us denote
by mod-kG the category of nitely generated, right kG-modules. In this category, the
classes of injective and projective modules coincide, and this allows us to form its stable
categorymod-kG, whose objects are the same as in mod-kG, and the morphisms are given
by morphisms in mod-kG modulo the subgroup of those morphisms factoring through a
projective module. On mod-kG we have the translation functor which can be de ned
as follows: Choose an inclusion i : k ,! P of the trivial kG-module k into a projective
module P . For every object X de ne X to be the cokernel of the (injective) map
i
id : X ! P
X. This functor serves as a translation functor of a triangulatedX
structure on mod-kG (where the exact triangles are ‘up to projectives’ those coming from
short exact sequences in mod-kG).
Let
denote the inverse of the shift functor . Then we have
n n ndHom ( X;Y ) =mod-kG( X;Y ) Ext (X;Y );=kG kG
dwhere Ext denotes Tate Ext-groups. Suppose we are given a non-zero Tate cohomology
n n n^ dclass []2H (G) = Ext (k;k) represented by an unstable (surjective) map :
k!k.
Denote by L the kernel of the map ; then we get an exact triangle
n 1!L !
k!k!
L =:k= !:::
Onk= , we still have a multiplication by, and the following theorem will be the starting
point of our discussion.
Theorem (Carlson, [2]). If p is odd and n is even, then multiplication by on k=
vanishes; i.e.,

idn
k
k= ! k=
is stably zero.
Ifp = 2 then this does not need to be true. For instance, one can takeG =Z=2Z=2,
2^then there is some non-zero []2 H (G) such that multiplication by does not vanish
on k= . But why is the prime 2 special here?
In topology, we have a similar phenomenon. Suppose we are given a triangulated
categoryC, some objectX2C and a natural numberm. OnX, we have the ‘multiplication
by m’, i.e., m Id : X! X; denote by X=m some choice of cone of this map. On thisX
cone, we also have a multiplication by m. IfC is the stable homotopy category, andp is a
prime, then the mod-p Moore spectrum S=p (where S denotes the sphere spectrum) has
a multiplication by p, which is zero if p is odd, but non-zero if p = 2.
Motivated by his proof of the Rigidity Theorem [24], Schwede introduced the notion
of m-order (see [25]), which measures ‘how strongly zero multiplication by m on some
object is’. The m-order m-ord(X) of an object X2C is an element off0; 1; 2;:::;1g,
de ned inductively by the following condition: m-ord(X)k if and only if for all objects
^K inC and all morphisms f :K!X there is an extension f :K=m!X such that for
3Introduction
^some (and hence any) cone C of f, m-ord(C )k 1. Here, extension means that the^ ^f f
following diagram commutes:
m::: :::K=mK K
z
zf
z ^f
z
Y
For instance, m-ord(X) 1 if and only if multiplication by m vanishes on X, which is
what you would expect from a reasonable de nition of order. It can be compared with,
say, multiplicities of zeroes of real polynomials.
In topology, we have the following results:
Theorem (Schwede, [24] and [25]). Let p be a prime number and C be a topological
triangulated category, i.e., the full subcategory of the homotopy category of a stable Quillen
model category.
(t1) For any object X ofC, the object X=p has p-order at least p 2.
(t2) In the stable homotopy categorySHC, the mod-p Moore spectrum S=p has p-order
exactly p 2.
2p 3(t3) We can also go one step further. If the morphism ^X : X!X is divisible1
2p 3by p, then X=p has p-order at least p 1. Here : S!S is a generator of1
the p-torsion in the stable homotopy groups of spheres in the (2p 3)-stem.
To a certain extent, statement (t2) explains the phenomenon described above: multi-
plication by p on S=p vanishes if and only if the p-order of S=p is at least 1, and this is
the case exactly if p 3.
Let us turn back to the caseC = mod-kG and see what we get from the notion of
order. It is certainly not very interesting to consider multiplication by m in our algebraic
situation, so we extend the de nition of order to elements in the graded center of C. In
degreen, the graded center of the triangulated categoryC consists of all natural transfor-
nmations from the identity functor to the functor which commute with the functor
n up to the sign ( 1) . The notion of order as de ned above can be modi ed to work
for arbitrary elements in the graded center, so we obtain a number -ord(X) for every
n^object X inC. Now suppose we are given a cohomology class in H (G), represented by
nsome unstable map :
k!k, which in turn induces an element in the graded center,
also denoted by :

n
X X

id
n
k
X k
X
This should be thought of as multiplication by the class []. With all this language at
hand, Carlson’s theorem above reads -ord(k= ) 1 for all primes p 3. This will be
generalized by the following theorem whose proof is the main objective of this thesis.
4
/////////|/|//
’
’Introduction
Main Theorem. Suppose that k is a eld of prime characteristic p and G is a nite
group.
n^(a1) Let 2 H (G) be a Tate cohomology class of even degree n. For any object X in
mod-kG, the -order of X= is at least p 2.
(a2) For every prime p and every eld k of characteristic p, there exists a group G and
^a cohomology class 2H (G) of even degree such that the -order of k= is exactly
p 2.
(a3) Suppose thatn> 0. Recall that the Steenrod reduced powers act on group cohomology
H (G;k). The rst non-trivial Steenrod operation gives an obstruction for the -
order of X= to be at least p 1. More precisely, if P
X is divisible by then1
-ord(X= )p 1.
Here, P is the rst non-trivial Steenrod power operation, that is,1
(
n 1Sq = Sq if p = 2,1
P =1 n 1
2P if p is odd.
The plan of this thesis is as follows. As a rst step, we recall severa