Michael A. Hill - Böcker

This comprehensive text focuses on the homotopical technology in use at the forefront of modern algebraic topology. Following on from a standard introductory algebraic topology sequence, it will provide students with a comprehensive background in spectra and structured ring spectra. Each chapter is an extended tutorial by a leader in the field, offering the first really accessible treatment of the modern construction of the stable category in terms of both model categories of point-set diagram spectra and infinity-categories. It is one of the only textbook sources for operadic algebras, structured ring spectra, and Bousfield localization, which are now basic techniques in the field, and the book provides a rare expository treatment of spectral algebraic geometry. Together the contributors - Emily Riehl, Daniel Dugger, Clark Barwick, Michael A. Mandell, Birgit Richter, Tyler Lawson, and Charles Rezk - offer a complete, authoritative source to learn the foundations of this vibrant area.

The long-standing Kervaire invariant problem in homotopy theory arose from geometric and differential topology in the 1960s and was quickly recognised as one of the most important problems in the field. In 2009 the authors of this book announced a solution to the problem, which was published to wide acclaim in a landmark Annals of Mathematics paper. The proof is long and involved, using many sophisticated tools of modern (equivariant) stable homotopy theory that are unfamiliar to non-experts. This book presents the proof together with a full development of all the background material to make it accessible to a graduate student with an elementary algebraic topology knowledge. There are explicit examples of constructions used in solving the problem. Also featuring a motivating history of the problem and numerous conceptual and expository improvements on the proof, this is the definitive account of the resolution of the Kervaire invariant problem.

The theory of topological modular forms is an intricate blend of classical algebraic modular forms and stable homotopy groups of spheres. The construction of this theory combines an algebro-geometric perspective on elliptic curves over finite fields with techniques from algebraic topology, particularly stable homotopy theory. It has applications to and connections with manifold topology, number theory, and string theory. This book provides a careful, accessible introduction to topological modular forms. After a brief history and an extended overview of the subject, the book proper commences with an exposition of classical aspects of elliptic cohomology, including background material on elliptic curves and modular forms, a description of the moduli stack of elliptic curves, an explanation of the exact functor theorem for constructing cohomology theories, and an exploration of sheaves in stable homotopy theory. There follows a treatment of more specialized topics, including localization of spectra, the deformation theory of formal groups, and Goerss--Hopkins obstruction theory for multiplicative structures on spectra. The book then proceeds to more advanced material, including discussions of the string orientation, the sheaf of spectra on the moduli stack of elliptic curves, the homotopy of topological modular forms, and an extensive account of the construction of the spectrum of topological modular forms. The book concludes with the three original, pioneering and enormously influential manuscripts on the subject, by Hopkins, Miller, and Mahowald.

The articles in this volume grew out of a 2019 workshop, held at Johns Hopkins University, that was inspired by a belief that when mathematicians take time to reflect on the social forces involved in the production of mathematics, actionable insights result. Topics range from mechanisms that lead to an inclusion-exclusion dichotomy within mathematics to common pitfalls and better alternatives to how mathematicians approach teaching, mentoring and communicating mathematical ideas.This collection will be of interest to students, faculty and administrators wishing to gain a snapshot of the current state of professional norms within mathematics and possible steps toward improvements.