The Methods of Algebraic Topology from the Viewpoint of Cobordism Theory
THE METHODS OF ALGEBRAIC TOPOLOGY FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF COBORDISM THEORY S. P. NOVIKOV Abstract. The goal of this work is the construction of the analogue to the Adams spectral sequence in cobordism theory, calculation of the ring of co- homology operations in this theory, and also a number of applications: to the problem of computing homotopy groups and the classical Adams spectral sequence, fixed points of transformations of period p, and others. Introduction In algebraic topology during the last few years the role of the so-called extraor- dinary homology and cohomology theories has started to become apparent; these theories satisfy all the Eilenberg–Steenrod axioms, except the axiom on the homol- ogy of a point. The merit of introducing such theories into topology and their first brilliant applications are due to Atiyah, Hirzebruch, Conner and Floyd, although in algebraic geometry the germs of such notions have appeared earlier (the Chow ring, the Grothendieck K-functor, etc.). Duality laws of Poincar´etype, Thom isomor- phisms, the construction of several important analogues of cohomology operations and characteristic classes, and also relations between different theories were quickly discovered and understood (cf. [2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12]). These ideas and notions gave rise to a series of brilliant results ([2]–[13]). In time there became manifest two important types of such theories: (1) theories of “K type” and (2) theories of “cobordism type” and their dual homology (“bordism”) theories. The present work is connected mainly with the theory of unitary cobordism. It is a detailed account and further development of the author’s work [19].
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