Cobordism studies
manifolds, where a manifold is regarded as "trivial" if it is the boundary of another compact manifold. The cobordism classes of manifolds form a ring that is usually the coefficient ring of some generalized cohomology theory. There are many such theories, corresponding roughly to the different structures that one can put on a manifold. The functors of cobordism theories are often represented by
Thom spaces of certain groups. ===
Stable homotopy and
cohomotopy===
Spectrum: S (
sphere spectrum).
Coefficient ring: The coefficient groups π
n(
S) are the
stable homotopy groups of spheres, which are notoriously hard to compute or understand for
n > 0. (For
n *(MO) is the ring of cobordism classes of unoriented manifolds, and is a polynomial ring over the field with 2 elements on generators of degree
i for every
i not of the form 2
n−1. That is: \mathbb{Z}_2 [ x_2 , x_4 , x_5 , x_6 , x_8 \cdots] where x_{2n} can be represented by the classes of \mathbb{RP}^{2n} while for odd indices one can use appropriate
Dold manifolds. Unoriented bordism is 2-torsion, since
2M is the boundary of M \times I. MO is a rather weak cobordism theory, as the spectrum MO is isomorphic to H(π*(MO)) ("homology with coefficients in π*(MO)") – MO is a product of
Eilenberg–MacLane spectra. In other words, the corresponding homology and cohomology theories are no more powerful than homology and cohomology with coefficients in
Z/2
Z. This was the first cobordism theory to be described completely.
Complex cobordism Spectrum: MU (Thom spectrum of
unitary group)
Coefficient ring: π*(
MU) is the polynomial ring on generators of degree 2, 4, 6, 8, ... and is naturally isomorphic to
Lazard's universal ring, and is the cobordism ring of stably
almost complex manifolds.
Oriented cobordism Spectrum: MSO (Thom spectrum of
special orthogonal group)
Coefficient ring: The oriented cobordism class of a manifold is completely determined by its characteristic numbers: its
Stiefel–Whitney numbers and
Pontryagin numbers, but the overall coefficient ring, denoted \Omega_* = \Omega(*) = MSO(*) is quite complicated. Rationally, and at 2 (corresponding to Pontryagin and Stiefel–Whitney classes, respectively), MSO is a product of
Eilenberg–MacLane spectra – MSO_{\mathbf Q} = H(\pi_*(MSO_{\mathbf Q})) and MSO[2] = H(\pi_*(MSO[2])) – but at odd primes it is not, and the structure is complicated to describe. The ring has been completely described integrally, due to work of
John Milnor, Boris Averbuch,
Vladimir Rokhlin, and
C. T. C. Wall.
Special unitary cobordism Spectrum: MSU (Thom spectrum of
special unitary group)
Coefficient ring: Spin cobordism (and variants) Spectrum: MSpin (Thom spectrum of
spin group)
Coefficient ring: See .
Symplectic cobordism Spectrum: MSp (Thom spectrum of
symplectic group)
Coefficient ring: Clifford algebra cobordism PL cobordism and topological cobordism Spectrum: MPL, MSPL, MTop, MSTop
Coefficient ring: The definition is similar to cobordism, except that one uses
piecewise linear or topological instead of
smooth manifolds, either oriented or unoriented. The coefficient rings are complicated.
Brown–Peterson cohomology Spectrum: BP
Coefficient ring: π*(BP) is a polynomial algebra over
Z(
p) on generators
vn of dimension 2(
pn − 1) for
n ≥ 1. Brown–Peterson cohomology BP is a summand of MU
p, which is complex cobordism MU localized at a prime
p. In fact MU(
p) is a sum of suspensions of BP.
Morava K-theory Spectrum: K(
n) (They also depend on a prime
p.)
Coefficient ring: Fp[
vn,
vn−1], where
vn has degree 2(
pn -1). These theories have period 2(
pn − 1). They are named after
Jack Morava.
Johnson–Wilson theory Spectrum E(
n)
Coefficient ring Z(2)[
v1, ...,
vn, 1/
vn] where
vi has degree 2(2
i−1)
String cobordism Spectrum: Coefficient ring: ==Theories related to
elliptic curves==