This paper contains a complete computation of the homotopy ring of the spectrum of topological modular forms constructed by Hopkins and Miller. The computation is done away from 6, and at the (interesting) primes 2 and 3 separately, and in each of the latter two cases, a sequence of algebraic Bockstein spectral sequences is used to compute the E 2 term of the elliptic Adams-Novikov spectral sequence from the elliptic curve Hopf algebroid. In a further step, all the differentials in the latter spectral sequence are determined. The result of this computation is originally due to Hopkins and Mahowald (unpublished).

In this paper, we exhibit an infinite loop space structure on the nerve of certain spin bordism 2-categories and compare it with the classifying space of suitably stabilized spin mapping class groups. We show that the stable spin mapping class group has the homology of an infinite loop space. In order to do this, we adapt Harer's homology stabilization results for spin mapping class groups to a setting compatible with the methods Tillmann used to prove that the classifying space of (non-spin) mapping class groups has the homology of an infinite loop space. We also study a variant of the spin mapping class groups, due to Masbaum, and show that its homology also stabilizes as the genus tends to infinity.

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Abstract. We construct a connected finite loop space of rank 66 and dimension 1254 whose rational cohomology is not isomorphic as a graded vector space to the rational cohomology of any compact Lie group, hence providing a counterexample to a classical conjecture. Aided by machine calculation we verify that our counterexample is minimal, i.e., that any finite loop space of rank less than 66 is in fact rationally equivalent to a compact Lie group, extending the classical known bound of 5.

We show that the functor of $p$-typical co-Witt vectors on commutative algebras over a perfect field $k$ of characteristic $p$ is defined on, and in fact only depends on, a weaker structure than that of a $k$-algebra. We call this structure a $p$-polar $k$-algebra. By extension, the functors of points for any $p$-adic affine commutative group scheme and for any formal group are defined on, and only depend on, $p$-polar structures. In terms of abelian Hopf algebras, we show that a cofree cocommutative Hopf algebra can be defined on any $p$-polar $k$-algebra $P$, and it agrees with the cofree commutative Hopf algebra on a commutative $k$-algebra $A$ if $P$ is the $p$-polar algebra underlying $A$; a dual result holds for free commutative Hopf algebras on finite $k$-coalgebras.