Lambda-Rings - Donald Yau

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LAMBDA-RINGS
Donald Yau
The Ohio State University at Newark, USA
World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TA I P E I • CHENNAI
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LAMBDA-RINGS
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ISBN-13 978-981-4299-09-1
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January 20, 2010
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January 20, 2010 11:31 World Scientific Book - 9.75in x 6.5in Yau
Preface
Some History
A λ-ring is a commutative ring R with unit together with operations

λi : R → R (i ≥ 0)
that behave like exterior power operations. It was originally introduced by Berthelot
[Berthelot (1971)] and Grothendieck [Grothendieck (1971)] in the context of K-
theory to study the Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch Theorem. In the setting of K-
theory, the λ-operation λi is induced by the ith exterior power on vector bundles.
Among the mathematical fields in which λ-rings play a role are:
• K-theory (topological K-theory, algebraic K-theory, Grothendieck-

Riemann-Roch theory, and Hochschild and cyclic homology of commutative
algebras).
• Representation theory (representation rings of connected compact Lie
groups, classification of connected compact Lie groups through their clas-
sifying spaces, and Burnside rings of finite groups).
• Witt vectors type constructions (formal group laws, algebraic geometry,
number theory, generalized cohomology theories, combinatorics of necklace
rings, and the cyclotomic identity),
• Binomial rings and integer-valued polynomials.
• Convex polytopes (polytope groups and toric varieties).
• Class field theory (finite étale Q-algebras, cyclotomic fields, and
(un)ramified primes).
Here we mention a few relevant results to illustrate the power of λ-rings.
(1) One such example is the very simple proof by Adams and Atiyah [Adams and
Atiyah (1966)] of Adams’s theorem [Adams (1960)] about the non-existence of
elements of Hopf invariant one in the homotopy group π2n−1 (S n ) when n 6=
1, 2, 4, or 8. The original proof by Adams [Adams (1960)] was fairly long and
used secondary operations in ordinary cohomology. Using K-theory and Adams
vii
viii Lambda-Rings
operations, which exist on any λ-ring, Adams and Atiyah were able to prove
this theorem in under two pages.
(2) Another use of λ-rings in homotopy theory is the classification of the Mislin
genus of the classifying space of a Lie group. Given a 1-connected compact Lie
group G, it is known that the Mislin genus of its classifying space BG is uncount-
able [Møller (1992); Rector (1971)]. In other words, there exist uncountably
many spaces X of distinct homotopy types such that the p-localizations X(p)
and BG(p) are homotopy equivalent at each prime p and also the rationaliza-
tions X(0) and BG(0) are homotopy equivalent. In [Notbohm (1993)] Notbohm
showed that the Mislin genus of BG is classified by K-theory λ-rings. So any
two distinct homotopy types in the Mislin genus of BG can be distinguished by
their K-theory λ-rings.
(3) In representation theory, the complex representation ring R(G) of a group G
is a λ-ring, in which λi is induced by the ith exterior power on representations
of G. When G is a connected compact Lie group, a major result of Osse [Osse

(1997)] states that G is uniquely determined by the λ-ring R(G), up to a certain

product of Sp(k) or SO(2k + 1). Osse then used this result to show that G is
uniquely determined by its classifying space BG. Moreover, it is possible to
describe the λ-ring R(G) completely [Guillot (2007)].
(4) The ring W(A) of big Witt vectors of a ring A plays an important role in
the theory of formal groups [Hazewinkel (1978)]. The ring of big Witt vectors
is actually a λ-ring. In fact, the ring W(A) is canonically isomorphic to the
universal λ-ring Λ(A) via the Artin-Hasse Exponential isomorphism. Further-
more, when A is a binomial ring, Λ(A) is isomorphic to the necklace ring N r(A)
of Metropolis and Rota [Metropolis and Rota (1983)]. The construction of the
necklace ring is motivated by certain combinatorial identities about the number
of primitive necklaces.
Besides the original papers by Berthelot [Berthelot (1971)] and Grothendieck

[Grothendieck (1971)], there are three classic references for λ-rings. The first one
and the most readable account of λ-rings is the paper [Atiyah and Tall (1969)] by
Atiyah and Tall, which applies λ-rings to study group representations and equivari-
ant K-theory. The second one is Knutson’s lecture notes [Knutson (1973)], which
applies λ-rings to study representations of the symmetric groups. The third one
is the book [Fulton and Lang (1985)] by Fulton and Lang, which is about the
Grothendieck-Riemann-Roch theory in algebraic geometry. There is also a survey
article [Patras (2003)] by Patras that outlines some of the applications of λ-rings
and contains a long list of references related to λ-rings.
Preface ix
Purposes of This Book
In addition to being powerful tools in several fields of mathematics, λ-rings are

interesting algebraic objects in their own right. One main theme of this book is
that λ-rings can and should be studied purely algebraically. There are interesting
purely algebraic results about λ-rings, and there are related open questions yet to
be answered.
For example, it turns out that many rings of interest, such as power series rings
and most of their quotients, admit a lot of λ-ring structures. In fact, the following
quotient power series ring
Z[[x1 , . . . , xn ]]
R=
hxe11 , . . . , xenn i
admits uncountably many isomorphism classes of filtered λ-ring structures, where
n ≥ 1 and 2 ≤ ei ≤ ∞. (A filtered λ-ring is a λ-ring together with a compati-

ble filtration.) This statement includes the biggest cases of the power series rings
Z[[x1 , . . . , xn ]] in n variables (when each ei = ∞) and the smallest case of the dual
number ring Z[x]/hx2 i.
The main purpose of this book is to give an elementary introduction to λ-rings.
With the exceptions of a few examples, Corollaries, and Chapter 8, the whole book
is purely algebraic. The materials are aimed at beginning graduate students. In
fact, one year of undergraduate abstract algebra is sufficient to understand most of
this book. With this purpose in mind, this book is written with a lot more details
than the sources cited above. The author also hopes that this book will serve as a
general reference for researchers who use λ-rings and closely related objects in their
work, be that homotopy theory, algebraic geometry, representation theory, or other
fields.
There are eight chapters in this book. The first seven chapters contain the
core materials. The last chapter contains a list of open problems related to λ-
rings. Chapters 1 and 2 and part of Chapter 3 are mostly based on [Atiyah and
Tall (1969); Knutson (1973)], but we organize the materials differently to improve
readability. Chapter 4 on Witt vectors mostly follows Chapter III in [Hazewinkel
(1978)]. Chapter 5 on binomial rings is based on [Elliott (2006); Wilkerson (1982)].
Chapters 6 and 7 follow the author’s papers [Yau (2004a, 2006)].
Several examples and Corollaries deal with topological K-theory and representa-
tion rings. For introductory materials on K-theory, the reader may consult [Atiyah
(1989); Kono and Tamaki (2002); May (1999)]. For basic materials on representa-
tions, the reader may consult [Fulton and Harris (1991); James and Liebeck (2001)].
The Chapters
Below we give a brief description of each chapter in this book.

x Lambda-Rings
Chapter 1 gives the definition of λ-rings and constructs the free λ-ring on one
generator. Then we prove the Verification Principle, which states that a natural
operation on λ-rings is uniquely determined by its action on sums of one-dimensional
elements. The last section of this chapter contains the Splitting Principle, which is
the algebraic counterpart of a result of the same name in K-theory. It states that,
up to an extension of λ-rings, an element in a λ-ring of dimension n can be written
as a sum of n one-dimensional elements.
In Chapter 2 we provide a more conceptual description of λ-rings. The comonad
Λ is constructed, and λ-rings are exactly the Λ-coalgebras. Given a ring R, the λ-
ring Λ(R) is called the universal λ-ring of R.
In Chapter 3 we begin with the construction of the Adams operations ψ n on
a λ-ring. Unlike the λ-operations, which are neither additive nor multiplicative,
the Adams operations ψ n (n ≥ 1) are ring endomorphisms that also commute with
all the λ-operations. Moreover, Adams operations act particularly nicely on the
quotients of the γ-filtration, which exists on any augmented λ-ring. We prove an

important result due to Wilkerson. It states that for a Z-torsion free ring R, giving
a λ-ring structure on R is equivalent to specifying ring endomorphisms ψ n (n ≥ 1)
on R that behave like the Adams operations. So a Z-torsion free λ-ring is uniquely
determined by its Adams operations. As applications we show that, under some
mild assumptions, localizations and completions of λ-rings are again λ-rings.
In Chapter 4 we describe another incarnation of the universal λ-ring. Namely,
Λ(R) is isomorphic to the ring W(R) of big Witt vectors on R. Witt vectors are
important objects in the theory of formal groups and combinatorics, among others.
The big Witt vector construction forms a comonad W, which is isomorphic to the
comonad Λ via the Artin-Hasse Exponential isomorphism.
In Chapter 5 we discuss binomial ring, which is equivalent to a λ-ring in which
all the Adams operations are equal to the identity map. Another characterization
of a binomial ring, due to Elliott [Elliott (2006)], is that it is Z-torsion-free and is
the homomorphic image of a ring of integer-valued polynomials. Knutson’s Theo-
rem states that a binomial ring with a certain kind of generating subset must be
isomorphic to the ring of integers Z. When R is binomial, there is an isomorphism
between the universal λ-ring Λ(R) and N r(R), where N r(R) is the Metropolis-Rota
[Metropolis and Rota (1983)] necklace ring of R.
Chapter 6 is devoted to the purely algebraic question of how many λ-ring struc-
tures a ring can possess. We introduce the notion of a filtered λ-ring, which is
a λ-ring that comes equipped with a decreasing filtration of λ-ideals. For exam-
ple, any augmented λ-ring is a filtered λ-ring when equipped with the γ-filtration.
Consider the quotient power series or polynomial ring
A[[x1 , . . . , xn ]] A[x1 , . . . , xn ]
R= or ,
hxe11 , . . . , xenn i hxe11 , . . . , xenn i
in which A is any subring of Q, n ≥ 1, and at least one ej < ∞ (where x∞i = 0
by definition). We show that any such filtered ring R admits uncountably many
Preface xi
isomorphism classes of filtered λ-ring structures. In the two smallest cases, R =

Z[x]/hx2 i or Z[x]/hx3 i, we provide a complete classification of all the filtered λ-ring
structures on R.
In Chapter 7 we continue the study of the algebraic question of Chapter 6. It is
shown that the function
A 7→ {filtered λ-ring structures on A[[x]]}
for subrings A ⊆ Q is corepresentable and that the corepresenting object is a
binomial ring. In the rest of Chapter 7, we extend the universal λ-ring functor Λ
to the category of filtered rings. Filtered λ-rings are exactly the coalgebras of the
resulting comonad.
In Chapter 8 we put together a list of open problems that are related to λ-rings.
Some of these problems are about the purely algebraic properties of λ-rings. The
other problems have to do with applications of λ-rings to other fields.
Donald Yau

Contents
Preface vii
1. λ-Rings 1
1.1 Symmetric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 λ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Free λ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4 The Verification Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5 The Splitting Principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1.6 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2. Universal λ-Rings 23
2.1 The Universal λ-Ring Λ(R) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2 Categories and Functors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3 Comonads and Coalgebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4 λ-Rings as Λ-Coalgebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3. Adams Operations 43
3.1 Adams Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2 γ-Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.3 γ-Filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.4 ψ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.5 ψ-Rings as Ψ-Coalgebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.6 Wilkerson’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
3.7 Localization and Completion of λ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.8 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4. Witt Vectors 81
4.1 Big Witt Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.2 Artin-Hasse Exponential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
xiii
xiv Lambda-Rings
4.3 Characterization of the Functor Λ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

4.4 W as a Comonad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5. Binomial Rings 109

5.1 Binomial Rings as λ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.2 Integer-Valued Polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.3 A Basis for Integer-Valued Polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.4 Binomial Rings as Integer-Valued Polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.5 Knutson’s Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.6 Necklace Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6. Filtered λ-Rings, I 135

6.1 Filtered λ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

6.2 Power Series Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

6.3 Classification of λ Z[x]/hx2 i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.4 Classification of λ Z[x]/hx3 i . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
7. Filtered λ-Rings, II 159

7.1 Power Series Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
7.2 Filtered λ-Rings as Coalgebras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
7.3 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
8. Open Problems 169

8.1 Power Series and Polynomial Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
8.2 Universal Ring Γ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
8.3 Representation Ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.4 Topological K-Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.5 Mislin Genus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Hints to Selected Exercises 175

List of Notations 179
Bibliography 183
Index 187

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Lambda-Rings Downloaded from www.worldscientific.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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A λ-ring is a commutative ring R with unit together with operations

• K-theory (topological K-theory, algebraic K-theory, Grothendieck-

Here we mention a few relevant results to illustrate the power of λ-rings.

of G. When G is a connected compact Lie group, a major result of Osse [Osse

(1997)] states that G is uniquely determined by the λ-ring R(G), up to a certain

Besides the original papers by Berthelot [Berthelot (1971)] and Grothendieck

Purposes of This Book

In addition to being powerful tools in several fields of mathematics, λ-rings are

n ≥ 1 and 2 ≤ ei ≤ ∞. (A filtered λ-ring is a λ-ring together with a compati-

Below we give a brief description of each chapter in this book.

quotients of the γ-filtration, which exists on any augmented λ-ring. We prove an

isomorphism classes of filtered λ-ring structures. In the two smallest cases, R =

This page intentionally left blank

1.1 Symmetric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

4.3 Characterization of the Functor Λ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

5. Binomial Rings 109

6. Filtered λ-Rings, I 135

6.1 Filtered λ-Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

6.2 Power Series Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

7. Filtered λ-Rings, II 159

8. Open Problems 169

Hints to Selected Exercises 175

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