Summary

The Mahowald invariant is a construction which assigns to each element in the stable homotopy groups of spheres a nontrivial coset in the stable homotopy groups of spheres. It has connections to unstable, chromatic, equivariant, and motivic homotopy theory, as well as geometric topology. The computation of Mahowald invariants is incredibly rich, involving the study of stunted projective spectra, techniques from equivariant stable homotopy theory, etc. The goal of this seminar is to study the Mahowald invariant and its connections to the EHP sequence, chromatic homotopy theory, and geometric topology.

Participant expectations

Participants will take turns giving presentations. The seminar organizers will make sure that presenters have written source material upon which to base their presentations. Participants are expected to attend regularly.

Participants are encouraged to skim the source material being presented each week. They are also encouraged to participate in the private shared online workspace.

As a general rule, students are expected to obtain 1-2 independent study credits from their home universities for their participation in the seminar. This requirement is waived on an individual basis for students whose home universities do not have formal independent study opportunities.

Organizers

The seminar is organized by Dan Isaksen (Wayne State University), J.D. Quigley (MPIM Bonn/University of Oregon), and Sarah Petersen (MPIM Bonn/University of Colorado). Contact any of the three for more information.

Application

Please submit the application form to apply. Applications received by August 28 will receive full consideration.

Schedule

The seminar meets regularly at 11 am Eastern time on Tuesdays, starting September 6 and ending December 13.