KSp-characteristic classes determine Spin$^h$ cobordism
Algebraic Topology
2026-02-25 v2
Abstract
A classic result of Anderson, Brown, and Peterson states that the cobordism spectrum MSpin (respectively, MSpin) splits as a sum of Eilenberg--Mac Lane spectra and connective covers of real K-theory (respectively, complex K-theory) at 2. We develop a theory of symplectic K-theory classes and use these to build an explicit splitting for MSpin in terms of Eilenberg--Mac Lane spectra and spectra related to symplectic K-theory. This allows us to determine the Spin cobordism groups systematically. We also prove that two Spin-manifolds are cobordant if and only if their underlying unoriented manifolds are cobordant and their KSp-characteristic numbers agree.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2312.08209,
title = {KSp-characteristic classes determine Spin$^h$ cobordism},
author = {Jonathan Buchanan and Stephen McKean},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.08209},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
73 pages, 5 figures. Final version, but comments still welcome!